Rating: 
Summary: Not all that it is cracked up to be.
Review: This book is comparable to the Dummy's books. It really doesn't offer any real estate advice that any other book couldn't have given. It was relitively boring.
Rating: 
Summary: Value investing has nothing to do with real-estate
Review: I need to respond to the reader from Topeka, KS below who is afraid to put his name next to his review.Real-estate investing is complex, but not impossible to understand. Frequently, it has little to do with property appreciation, and everything to do with leverage. There are individuals in Chicago who know nothing about real estate who are buying property for no money down and "flipping" this property 8-10 months later for a 30% profit. They are the lucky souls who will eventually get burned when the market cools or even crashes in some areas. If Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac start tightening the screws... "Value Investing" is a term most commonly associated with individuals such as Benjamin Graham and John Burr Williams, and it applies to securities analysis. People who don't know what they are talking about tend to throw this term around in regards to real estate. Do the math. The less you put down, the more you risk if the property loses value and you have to sell. The less you put down, the less equity you have in the property. Less equity to borrow against in an emergency. The more you leverage, the greater your debt load. Rent the place out? Great until someone stops paying his rent and you have to go through an eviction proceeding which can cost you tens of thousands of dollars. A gas station opens up across the street? -your property loses 20% of its value overnight. The risks are real. The real-estate boom has turned everyone into an "expert", just like the dot com bubble turned every investor into Peter Lynch. I can't wait until reality hits. Flexibility -this is the correct spelling, and no, real-estate is not a flexible investment.
Rating:
Summary: Oh my God...
Review: This book is not worth the air it displaces. De Roos clearly has never done a single one of the deals he describes, if he had he would have been writing from a cozy corner cell in prison. Someone clever enough to fleece the public with trash like this definitely wouldn't be caught dead trying to pull off the high-risk and illegal schemes he suggests. And why would a beginner (who clearly is the target audience for this book) want to invest in real estate in *other countries* and *multiply* expenses and the complexity of the deals? Don't waste your perfectly good money on this dime-store charlatan. Instead, begin your real-estate investment career by becoming intimately familiar with the law of real property, tax, and contracts. If you can't master basic concepts of US statutory and case law you certainly cannot master the quantitative and strategic aspects of profitable and legal real estate investment. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Why-To, Not How-To of Real Estate
Review: Great 1st book on real estate. On the 1st line of chapter 1, Dolf says this is NOT a "How-To" book, but more of a why-to book. Very easy to read.
Rating:
Summary: Great guide for the gullible
Review: Why did so many reviewers rate this book so poorly? The book succeeds in exactly what it was intended to do. It has sold a jillion copies to the gullible "investing" wannabes who wish to believe that they can make big bucks in real estate without money, credit, effort, or intelligence. Anyone who really wanted to find out what it takes to realistically buy, own, and manage property would have read Gary Eldred, John Reed, Leigh Robinson, or William Nickerson. So, why complain when Rich Dad hands you cotton candy? Should you have expected anything more?
Rating: 
Summary: NOT BAD BUT NOT REALLY GOOD EITHER
Review: This is my first review of anything so please bear with me. I own 12 dbles, a condo (which I'm selling)--I also have a partner and we have a triplex and a big old house we're converting to a dble. I'm telling you this is establish myself. I expect to have a net worth topping a million within 3 years. I read this book over the weekend. After getting by some of the 'strange' things (like painting the roof--I guess this is big in Europe) I felt that this was a ok book. The biggest thing I took exception to was buying property in several different countries. I prefer that my property be within 100 miles or so. And I don't agree with using a management compay--I've had too many problems with that in the past. But this book was ONLY ok. It left out too many needed facts - like how to find a good partner. My biggest 'gripe' is it was light on the how to invest in other countries. I felt if the author was going to 'push' owing property in mulitple areas then there should have been alot more detail about the laws, etc that would be needed to do so.
Rating:
Summary: Good theme, short on details
Review: The reviewer below, Colin Higgins (March 25, 2002) seems to know as little about real estate investing as he does about spelling. He needs to read Eldred's Value Investing in Real Estate. Because Higgins has fallen into the fatal (but common) trap of equating real estate returns with rates of appreciation. On one point, though, Higgins is right. You should never buy property just because you see prices going up. But that's what "Valuing Investing" adresses: How to select properties that will yield extraordinary returns. And that's why I only give "Real Estate Riches" three stars. The authors simply fail to give readers enough details to evaluate and select their properties. So, read it to get a general picture, but make sure you read more substantive books ( not the get rich quick type) before you take the plunge. Real estate is your most certain way to wealth--when you choose your investments wisely and don't merely run with the herd.
Rating:
Summary: Not enough meat
Review: I think the other reviewer's have said all that needs to be said about this book, there's just not enough meat. Robert's first 3 books were great and it made him very rich as well. It's not surprising that more "Rich Dad" books are being published since they have been very successful. Books like this one was published just to make money, not to educate anyone. All they did was include a bunch of balony information and stuck the "Rich Dad" label on it. Not very reliable.
Rating:
Summary: Max marketing, mini return on investment
Review: Dolf De Roos markets the concept of Real estate well but unfortunately has little more to offer the reader. He shares simple ideas using examples from New Zealand..(one of very few countries not to have capital gains tax on properties)which are interesting but may seem impractical. There are other books by De Roos on Real Estate investing which are more informative and a lot more hands on than this one. The book is still worth a read;just don't expect to retire young or retire rich from the information.
Rating:
Summary: Great if you wonder why anybody would invest in real estate
Review: My family, when I was a kid, never had any money so I had to learn about investment from scratch. I learnt about shares, bonds, businesses...
Being culturally still German (despite 20 years in Australia) I didn't have any interest in owning my own home and even less interest in real estate. What was the point of low percentage returns and lots of management hassles?
This book shows very well why real estate - done rightly - is a great investment with a very, very nice IRR (Internal Rate of Return). It totally changed my outlook and my wife and I have bought quite a few properties since and we have done very nicely.
If you wonder what's the point of real estate, this is THE book.
| 
