We wish we had known about this sooner.

Bar none, it’s the easiest and most effective way to collect thousands from investment property. You don’t need a five-figure bank account, have great credit or even work with a real estate agent to become a successful landlord anymore. The best part is you don’t even have to own actual property.

In fact, if you’ve ever bought a stock in your life, it’s pretty easy to become a landlord this way. I’m convinced anyone can earn a significant amount of money with this idea.

Let me explain…

If you’ve followed StreetAuthority over the past few weeks, you’ve probably heard us talk about the “Renter Nation” phenomenon. (You can read analysis from Nathan, our top expert on the subject, here and here.)

Today, I want to talk about how good it is to be on the other side of that phenomenon — collecting thousands in rental income each month by becoming what we call a “virtual landlord.”

This isn’t like being a traditional landlord. The most successful landlords can collect thousands in income over time, but it takes a lot of work… Traditional landlords usually need good credit, a multi-thousand-dollar down payment and ability to get approved for a mortgage just to think about buying an investment property. From there, they need to find responsible renters who pay on time and won’t damage their expensive property. After repairing leaky roofs, fixing broken appliances and mending run-down fences, they then have the “privilege” to collect what’s left over in rent at the end of the month.

That’s where the “Virtual Landlord” income strategy is different. The purpose is to earn a lucrative income stream from investment property but with a lot less hassle. And with a nation that’s churning out millions of new renters every year, we think it could provide a stable and growing income stream over the next decade.

To do this, we’ve identified the top eight landlords in the country to invest in — which we call the Renter Nation stocks. These are companies and real estate investment trusts (REITs) that own and rent out not only houses and apartments, but commercial real estate, college student housing and federal agency properties. At the same time, anyone invested in these stocks is collecting an average yield of 6.4%… a few of these investments even pay yields of 8.6% or higher.

Obviously, some investors will prefer to be traditional landlords. But virtual landlords can get just as good — or sometimes even larger — streams of income just like any traditional landlord, and without all the hard work.

Let’s say you were looking to invest $250,000 in a house as an investment property. If, instead, you took your money and invested in a basket of Renter Nation investments with an average yield of 6.4%, you’d earn $1,333 per month in income. And even if you didn’t have that kind of money to invest, you could still take advantage of this high-yield opportunity with smaller amounts — something that’s harder to do with a physical property.

You can see what I mean in the table below. You could invest anywhere from $10,000 to $1,000,000 or more in a basket of these Renter Nation stocks and potentially collect hundreds or thousands of dollars in income every month.

Without the troubles that come along with owning an investment property, a $250,000 investment in a basket of Renter Nation stocks could potentially give you $16,000 in income every year. While traditional landlords are collecting a record-high $735 a month in rent, as Bloomberg reports, you’d be getting nearly twice as much by investing in Renter Nation stocks. And that’s before you even consider any dividend raises or capital appreciation that these investments could see in the future.

Now, as with any investment, nobody can guarantee that any stock will maintain a generous dividend or see a gain every single year. But given the undeniably upward trend in the number of renters this nation is seeing, we think committing at least a portion of your portfolio could generate thousands of dollars every month.

Bottom line: If there was ever a time to invest in real estate, our research indicates that now is the time. If you wait too long, you could miss out on a ton of potential profits from an opportunity that only comes along once every couple of decades. And right now there are several companies that are just starting an explosive growth period with the real estate boom still in its infancy. Several rent exclusively to college students, while another owns buildings leased to the U.S. government. All eight Renter Nation stocks have huge potential upside.

To learn more about the eight Renter Nation stocks and why we think they’re poised to generate thousands of dollars in income for investors, we encourage you to watch our free presentation. In it, we’ll tell you how you can collect up to 8.6% in “rental income” and benefit from this quiet sea change happening in America. To access the special presentation, click here.