Building Wealth One House at a Time

John Schaub has been a house investor, author, and speaker for over thirty years. He presents a senario of buying a house, renting it out for enough to cover its cost and maintenance, paying it off over a ten year or so period, building an investment portfolio of properties that will then provide for a good retirement income. As with a lot of things, the devil is in the details. And most of the book covers things like finding the right house, negeotiating the price, a quick look at accounting, borrowing and everything else connected with the real estate marketplace. The book is dead on. There are an awful lot of people who have made a lot of money this way. There are two or three he doesn't mention. One is buying houses at auction when they have been foreclosed, something you should investigate in your community, particularily if you live in a one commodity area that is subject to boom and bust. Another point is that most of the people I know who have build themselves this kind of business do a lot of their own maintenance. You can pay for things like cleaning and painting, but it's expensive. Investing in rental houses is a business. Like any business it's subject to working hard, making the right decisions, and having just a bit of luck. If the earthquake finds your house ....

This is a fascinating book, with plenty of good advice for investing in rental properties and learning to live off the income produced by your investments. Schaub talks about finding deals, negotiating for better terms, using agents, managing your properties, and protecting your key assets. The paragraphs below briefly discuss three of his key points. Schaub's chapter on learning how to work yourself out of your day job hit home with me. Isn't this a goal we all share? Schaub's plan is easy to understand, but not necessarily easy to follow. In my action plans, I first wanted to be able to pay my electric bill with income that had spun off my investments. After reaching that goal, I wanted to pay my phone bill, car insurance, etc. I kept working to build investment income sufficient to pay my bills. Eventually, I reached a point where my investment income has almost equaled my work income. I'm using the bulk of my work income to make investments. Schaub suggests using your investment income to replace your need to work. I suggest you keep working, and use you work income to make bigger investments. Schaub's entire thesis rests on the concept of buying quality properties that you manage and control, and striving to pay them off within a ten-year period. When you approach retirement, theoretically you will have the income of these properties flowing into your bank account. This is a great idea, and certainly doable; however, maintenance, tax, and insurance expenses will never go away. So don't forget that maintenance alone may eat up to 40% of your gross income. Insurance and taxes will eat another 10-20%. Schaub talks about owning property out of town, and this is important info for all investors. Your main concern is control. I learned my lesson the hard way here. I owned a home free and clear in a different state. However, my property manager seen to it that every month I had a significant maintenance costs, such as $325 for removal of used stove. $459 for removal of tree roots from pipes under house. Month after month I put up with these outrageous costs, that I would have handled for pennies if the home was within a hour's drive of my home. Schaub suggests you Focus on making small deals that you can understand and control. For example, a small investor can earn sufficient returns from several single-family homes in good neighborhoods, without having to negotiate for malls and apartment complexes, or get over your head in partnerships and complex land development deals. You may also want to read "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill and "The 17 Principles of Creating Wealth" by Phillip Collinsworth.

Having invested in single family houses for 30 years and attended many of John Schaub's seminars I didn't find much new in this book. But for someone just getting started it is full of great information. It doesn't just cover how to negotiate and buy real estate. More importantly it explains WHY you should invest in real estate. John Schaub is one of only a small handful of real estate instructors and authors who have actually done, and are still doing, what they teach and write about. Once you finish reading the book you should take John's excellent "Making it Big on Little Deals" class. Enjoy the book.