Open up almost any real estate investing book that’s about buying raw land and you’ll be told that you should never purchase land without seeing it in person first. Buying land without doing lots of in-person tests and homework is called foolish.

This is exactly the rule I broke when I first got started in raw land investing for my real estate investing portfolio. And I made a killing.

One day I woke up and said, “Wait a minute.” All these big-time real estate land investment gurus are saying to never buy land without doing this and that, but they are buying land parcels worth millions—or least raw land that’s worth a considerable amount of money.

I wondered if I really needed to spend thousands of dollars to inspect cheap land that I wanted to buy and sell—I have an upcoming book that will detail how I made money doing this.

Could you buy cheap land by doing some basic at-home research and live to tell about it? Certainly, there are some risks—such as buying land with environmental issues.

I decided that it was time to unleash my inner financial rebel and take a gamble. I purchased some cheap land in another state without inspecting it in person first. I was on pins and needles the whole time.

A few months later, I sold my land investment to someone else for nearly double what I paid for it. Despite this rule that I broke, I had succeeded. I went on to purchase more land this way, and I made more outstanding profits.

But, here’s an important note. When I used this method, I purchased cheap land. I’m talking about so cheap that you won’t need to take out a loan. Now, when I do more substantial real estate investments, I don’t break this rule.

So many people out there, perhaps even you, believe that you need a small fortune, perfect credit, and luck to invest and profit in real estate.

When I got my start in raw land investing, I used my business sense to help make the initial moves—supply and demand. I started with a small investment—money I was ready to lose.

My most recent land sale netted me a profit of over 500%.

The point of this article is to illustrate how you need to scale financial advice to your own situation. Sure, Donald Trump might never buy raw land without seeing it, but have you ever heard about him buying cheap land? Are you going to buy real estate near his level? If not, you need to scale down the advice some.

There are many ways to make money in real estate and that’s why no one person is a certifiable all-around guru. It’s impossible to be involved with everything at every financial level.