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People who are interested in investing in real estate, more often than not, overlook one option of funding available for such investments - government grants for real estate investing. Both the federal and the state governments provide numerous grants to invest in real estate to citizens.

Why is all this free money available for businesses and non-profits to put into real estate? Well, providing housing is a major function of the government and offering grants to invest in real estate is a way for them to outsource part of the job and spread the workload.

So what are the things which are funded by using grants and can you get a grant for investing in real estate? Various programs are available for acquiring properties, buying land, building housing, rehabbing, converting properties for residential use etc.

On top of the grants to invest in real estate there are also low-cost and forgivable loans available. A forgivable loan is a loan that essentially converts into a grant and need not be paid back. Many of these real estate grants and loans can be accessed for investing as long as they meet the requirements that the government sets down.

Some grants and loans to invest in real estate are available to for-profit investors. Yet others are available only to not-for-profit organizations such as educational institutions. There are ways of manipulations through which the latter category of grants can be availed by "smart investors."

For example, if a grant is aimed at helping seniors through a non-profit, a savvy investor might approach them to partner on a project so that the investor offers the housing expertise and the non-profit can provide specific expertise about the needs of the seniors. They may also bundle in some of their regular non-profit services. This may open the project up to receiving both non-profit and for-profit grants to invest in real estate.