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When the real estate market cycle starts heading down it's a pretty ugly time. The only news is bad news, people are losing their homes, losing their jobs, there is pain and hardship all round. When the market hits bottom though, activity picks up and investors start flipping houses like mad once they realized values aren't going to drop any more.

However, single family houses are not where the opportunity is. There is nothing wrong with buying single family homes, but they primarily cash generators, not wealth builders.

If you want to take advantage of the real opportunity during this recession you will focus on investing in apartment buildings. That is where true wealth will be achieved for those willing to pursue it.

Compared to single family homes, multi-family or apartment buildings are far superior from in terms of cashflow, but also far lower risk. A quick summary:

1) Cashflow, the main reason we invest in real estate to begin with. Investing in apartments gives you more cashflow simply because there are more families under the one roof generating more rents for you every month.

2) Less risk. Most people think the, bigger mortgage, more debt, bigger risk. It's actually the opposite because of this fact; when you buy apartment buildings your risk of vacancies, and your exposure to monthly expenses are spread over multiple tenants, not one single tenant as you have renting single family.

3) Because of this misconception about risk there is far less competition from other investors when you buy apartment buildings. The big numbers generally make people fearful, and once stricken with fear most investors are unable to think things through to understand the favorable risk/reward ratio a good apartment investment offers. As a result they stick with the familiarity of SFH's.

4) Mult-family investments benefit from economies of scale, which results in lower expenses per unit and higher overall cashflow. The more units in a complex the greater the economies of scale (up to a point), so in larger apartment investments the per unit expenses are lower leaving more income available for you.

5) As a result of the stronger cashflow freed up by economies of scale, the multi-family investor is able to hire a competent, professional property management company to collect rents and manage all other aspects of dealing with tenants and running the property. This allows you to be free of the property and be a true investor.

6) There is a greater reward for the perceived risk of investing in apartment buildings. Because they are at a higher price point than SFH's, more dollars in value are generated in multi-family investments through appreciation. In a market appreciating at 10% per year a $150,000 SFH will go up in value $15,000, whereas a $2,000,000 apartment building in that same market will go up in value $200,000 during the same period of time.

Once you understand the benefits of apartment investing it should be easy for you to conclude, the only viable money making purpose of the single family home is quick-turn to generate cash.

In addition to this, when you observe who the big fish investors are in your market you see they all have sizeable apartment portfolios that form the foundation of their wealth. As Lance Edwards says, "You don't need to graduate from single family to multi-family, you can start building wealth straight away."

If you are looking to lay the foundations of wealth for you and your family, investing in apartment buildings is the most reliable, secure, and profitable long term strategy, and there is no time like right now to get started.

Ben Innes-Ker is a real estate investing warrior and author of the SMART Guide To Apartment Investing. He is constantly refining his systems to make buying apartment buildings more profitable with less effort. He shares how to create a huge passive income buying large apartment buildings with none of your own money with his subscribers. To receive your Free SMART Guide To Apartment Investing, go to www.ApartmentHouseProfitMachine.com