You can succeed in real estate investing by yourself, using your own cash and credit. However, the most successful real estate investors understand that real estate investing is best played as a team sport.

It's the difference between playing golf and playing soccer. Golf is a solo sport. With golf, you go out there by yourself, and whack the ball around. You have your own handicap. You have your own scores. It's all about you.

Soccer (football in much of the world) is a team sport. If you are in a bad position to score a goal, you pass off the ball to a teammate in a better position. If your teammate makes the shot, the whole team wins.

When you invest in real estate as a solo investor, you are limited by your own resources, time, knowledge, and efforts. You can buy and sell real estate this way, but solo investing is doing it the hard way.

Solo investing follows the model of the "self-made" man. He (not she) climbs up the pinnacle of success, stands at the top, and says, "I'm now king of the world." It's a competitive model of "the top dog wins."

The most successful real estate investors understand the limits in such a model. Whether consciously or not, they adopt Napoleon Hill's "Mastermind" concept. They understand that while you can succeed to a limited extent on your own, for greater success and increased profits, you need to surround yourself with likeminded partners. They seek out and associate with people who have resources, knowledge, insights, and relationships they don't have.

How does partnership with likeminded people apply to real estate investing? Let's say you want to buy a property, but you don't have the money. With a solo investor mindset you say: "I can't afford this," and that is the end of that. With a team investor mindset you say: "I can't afford to buy this property, but I know people who do have the money to buy it." At that point, you take the deal to somebody else.

Real estate investors talk about "bird dogs." A bird dog is somebody who finds a property and passes the information to someone who can buy it. The bird dog makes money by finding properties, not by buying them.

You can also make money as the deal maker. You can be the person who puts together the seller and the person with the money and arranges the deal.

You can also be the investor who puts up the money. A bird dog or deal maker can bring a deal to you, and you can be the one to buy if you have money to invest.

The point is that there are many different roles you can play, just as you can play different positions on a soccer team. You can play in the offensive line. You can play defense. You can play as the goal keeper. When you are playing a team game, you can pass the ball around until someone can make the shot and score the goal.

When you understand that you're part of a network of investors, and that somebody has the money and can make it work, then it's not all up to you. You're not clawing your way up to the top of the mountain.

As soon as you decide to stop investing in real estate as a solo game and turn it into a team sport, you will discover an investor world filled with people who have specialized knowledge, resources, skills, and money. The more you invest in real estate as a team player, the more you will increase your own portfolio of properties and the more you will increase your profits.