Investing in Real Estate, Fourth Edition

Rating:
Summary: Start right info
Review: This is the best book that I have found that reads like its directed to people who want to understand investing. Good sensible explanations. Helped me see the practical details of investing. I liked the chapters on appraisal and foreclosures best. Very good for beginners who want get started the right foot without the hype. Easy and clear to read.

Rating:
Summary: Nothing better
Review: Plain & simple....this is one of the best real estate investing books I have ever read. I recommend it to anyone interested in residential real estate investing.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent guide and reference
Review: This book gives a solid treatment of all investment topics from appraisal to zoning. I bought this along with the WEEKEND MILLIONAIRE. Although Millionaire covers negotiation in more detail, Investing In Real Estate really gave me a more thorough understanding of how to evaluate, finance, improve, and manage a property. I'm sure I'll continue to come back to this book again and again. It has more meat than I could digest in one reading. Excellent guide and reference book.

Rating:
Summary: Good book for a novice investor
Review: I'm not going to knock this book as a get rich quick scam or as offerring advice noting more positive than negative but it only offerred basic advice. Tools and knowledge that someone with the average IQ of a chimpanzee can accumulate on their own by simple research is made readily available in this book. It is limited as far as "finance" is concerned but has a ton of crazy ways to buy a home that 99% of real estate professionals would die laughing over. Maybe I'm advanced in my RE knowledge so again if your a beginning investor with no direction it's worth it, otherwise save your money for a better book. I feel cheated, it doesn't offer any advice concerning seller financing, interest only financing and several other methods that really work for people who I know who have made small fortunes with. It's really fluff and, broad and no detail. Maybe he wrote the book with an audience in mind that reads on an 8th grade level and won't understand the simple algebra associated with real estate finance. I'm just going to shell out the extra cash and get an RE Finance textbook.

Rating:
Summary: Experience shines through
Review: After tiring of the "get rich quick" books so common to this genre,my uncle (and long time investor) gave me a copy of this book. Instead of "pie in the sky" tools and techniques, refreshingly, the authors explain the pros and and cons of various popular strategies. This book also includes very real world discussions of appraisal, leases, high leverage, and market strategy that I guarantee you won't find in any other r.e. book (at least none that I've seen.) Sensible, clear, and relatively well-written (though I did find some typos that shouldn't have slipped by unnoticed), I would gladly have paid twice the price of this book for the knowledge shared by these two investors who obviously have "been there, done that."

Rating:
Summary: Exceptional!!!
Review: I am a real estate newbie. I have purchased a handful of books trying to make sure I learn on paper before jumping in. While some of the other books have good info, this one is easily the best one I've encountered. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to everyone that wants a comprehensive look at the real world of real estate. Amazingly, it is also very easy to read. Even the parts featuring math examples -- which I normally don't enjoy -- are easy to read and digest. Well done! And I can't believe the price ... what a bargain!

Rating:
Summary: Intelligent and experienced
Review: I was amazed by how much I learned from this book--even though I thought I already knew quite a bit. The insights on appraisal, leases, taxes, strategic management, financing, and creating value, etc. gave me a much different and I am sure- a more profitable way to think. In my market, profits no longer come easy, but this book has opened my eyes to opportunities that I have been overlooking. ONE MORE POINT: If you're tempted to believe the the malicious remarks below--first check out what these authors really say. Those negative reviews misquote the authors and clearly pervert their intent. USE AMAZON'S KEY TERM SEARCH function to read for yourself. Try these: financial discipline, Robert Allen, lease option, lease option sandwich, thoroughly clean, credit card, empathy, name the terms. You will find as I did that the substance of the critical remarks bear no accurate relationship to what this book actually says.

Rating:
Summary: Great Reference Book
Review: This book is a great reference book for real estate investors. Not a great book for novices as some of the terms are not explained well but I think this book covers almost everything there is to know about real estate investing. Gives some good motivation to invest in real estate in beginning and the end of the book but some chapters you have to drag through uninteresting stuff. But I guess this book is a bit like a school textbook where you have to cover all the topics in the syllabus.All in all book is a keeper.

Rating:
Summary: Investor's Handbook
Review: The authors should have titled this book, the Investor's Handbook. Name any topic--seller financing, foreclosures, property management, saving on property and income taxes, creating value with fix-up and renovation.....I could go on...but you get the point. I found this book to be a greatly informative intro to real estate investing book. The authors give many personal examples, but always caution to tailor a strategy to the market conditions in the local market--unlike many books that try to convince you of the one true way.

Rating:
Summary: Best by far
Review: I liked this book because it gives more in depth advice about investing in real estate than any other book that I have seen (and I've read most all of them). The authors clearly point out the the pros and cons of all of the tried and true investment techniques as well as give some creative ideas I have not seen elsewhere. Well deserves its status as the longest-running, bestselling guide to investing. Optimistic with a good dose of realism.