The Challenge

Rating:
Summary: Exciting book on real estate investment
Review: A truly exciting, rewarding and essential reading for anyone interested in real estate investments! Great book!

Rating:
Summary: Very Motivational - Time for an update Mr. Allen???
Review: I was compted a copy of this book back in 1991 and it motivated me to try real estate to generate cash flow. At that time 1991-1992 I had been newly divorced and was in a cash flow crunch. I saw a lot of myself in the three people chosen for the challenge.

I went to our local library and borrowed copies of Nothing Down and Creating Wealth. By following Robert Allens advice, I was able to buy a nice home for Nothing Down and flip it in 3 weeks for a nice $5,000 profit.

To repeat; I did it with nothing down and only minimal sweat equity and I was as green as green can be in real estate.

The Challenge provided the motivation and some telephone techniques. Creating Wealth & Nothing Down gave me more ammunition. Nothing Down in particular gave me the strategies to put the deal together.

I wish Mr. Allen would re-release this book with perhaps new stories. I thought it was amazing that three people from the unemployment line could do this BUT I was even more amazed that I could do it myself.

Thank you Robert Allen for a great, no make that three great books: The Challenge, Creating Wealth and Nothing Down. And glad to see that Nothing Down has been re-released with a new millenium edition.



Rating:
Summary: Dated but True Story of a Real Estate Challenge
Review: Robert G. Allen's third book written in 1987 chronicles the challenge of taking 3 people of out a St. Louis unemployment line and teaching them about real estate. 'The Challenge' is for the 3 students to have $5,000 cash in 90 days. This is a true story that will have many parallels to the fiction story written by Allen 15 years later in 'The One Minute Millionaire.' This book is inspirational and motivational rather than an instruction book on real estate. This book by itself would not provide a person with enough information to go forward and this book doe not even share all the instructions that are given to the 3 unemployed students.

The book is easy to read and understand, and the inside dust jacket claims that it reads like a novel. This may be true, but if you are looking for a recipe or a cook book, you will be disappointed. 'The Challenge' is more of the story of how 3 people without cooking knowledge could become short order cooks. But if you wanted a book telling you HOW to be a real estate chef, this book is not for you. On the plus side these are real people with real stories, sometimes sad, sometimes happy and they started with literally nothing and succeeded with the teaching of Robert Allen and the mentoring and coaching of others assembled for this project. At the end of the book one of the students is said to have controlled 'over several million in real estate.' I would have liked to see more follow on, and even an update to the present. Apparently 'The Challenge' itself took place in the summer of 1984 and for me I would like to see where Steve and Mary Boneberger, Karen and Philip Moore, and Nora Jean Boles are today with respect to their real estate investments. The real story is about them and it's a compelling story at that, but it is not a real estate instructional book. I enjoyed reading their story, but I would have liked to see what instruction they were given, more details of the deals they did and a more detailed follow up on their successes after 'The Challenge' and for that and the age of the book I would rate it as 2.5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Dated but True Story of a Real Estate Challenge
Review: Robert G. Allen�s third book written in 1987 chronicles the challenge of taking 3 people of out a St. Louis unemployment line and teaching them about real estate. �The Challenge� is for the 3 students to have $5,000 cash in 90 days. This is a true story that will have many parallels to the fiction story written by Allen 15 years later in �The One Minute Millionaire.� This book is inspirational and motivational rather than an instruction book on real estate. This book by itself would not provide a person with enough information to go forward and this book doe not even share all the instructions that are given to the 3 unemployed students.

The book is easy to read and understand, and the inside dust jacket claims that it reads like a novel. This may be true, but if you are looking for a recipe or a cook book, you will be disappointed. �The Challenge� is more of the story of how 3 people without cooking knowledge could become short order cooks. But if you wanted a book telling you HOW to be a real estate chef, this book is not for you. On the plus side these are real people with real stories, sometimes sad, sometimes happy and they started with literally nothing and succeeded with the teaching of Robert Allen and the mentoring and coaching of others assembled for this project. At the end of the book one of the students is said to have controlled �over several million in real estate.� I would have liked to see more follow on, and even an update to the present. Apparently �The Challenge� itself took place in the summer of 1984 and for me I would like to see where Steve and Mary Boneberger, Karen and Philip Moore, and Nora Jean Boles are today with respect to their real estate investments. The real story is about them and it�s a compelling story at that, but it is not a real estate instructional book. I enjoyed reading their story, but I would have liked to see what instruction they were given, more details of the deals they did and a more detailed follow up on their successes after �The Challenge� and for that and the age of the book I would rate it as 2.5 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Well Written, But Falls Short of Intended Purpose
Review: These days Robert G. Allen can be seen in adveertisements in which he is essentially continuing the challenge in this book: that he can make anyone a successful real estate investor. Seems to me that it's getting to be an old story, but this is where he first put his reputation where his mouth is.

To Allen's credit, he did not back down from this challenge. Three "students" are chosen to be taught by Allen and to apply his preinciples so that within 90 days they will each own property and have $5000 in the bank. Only one succeeds in this endeavor, but the others certainly didn't fail for lack of effort.

The book actualyl does read like anovel, and you will find yourself rooting for these people as they attempt to succeed as real estate investors. I doubt any other real estate gurus would take the risk Allen takes here and, well he achieved mixed results, you come away with a sense that his principels and ideas do work, they just might need more time to come to fruition.

I'm still dubious of buying real estate with no money down, but it does seem to work for some people. and this book will never bore you.