The Real Estate Investor's Answer Book

Lots of good information in here. Some information are pretty basic but overall it is a good addition to my collection of real estate investment books. I would definitely recommend to beginners or more seasoned investors as well.

I've invested in several kinds of real estate with reasonable success over the last 15 years, including condos, vacation homes, raw land and an RV park. My smartest deals were the ones I passed on because there was a problem uncovered during my due diligence, the purchase price was too high, or the financing costs would be too expensive. My next smartest deals were the ones where there was either a glut in the market that temporarily depressed prices or I was lucky enough to find a motivated seller who didn't have the cash to develop a property that had good potential. In other words, as the old adage goes, I made my money when I bought. Even then, however, the costs of maintaining and improving the property were much greater than I'd anticipated and I would have lost my shirt if I hadn't gotten the property at the right price. Consistent success in real estate involves having a plan, thinking things through, doing your due diligence having a realistic idea of what your closing costs and financing costs will be on a piece or property, being able to accurately estimate the income potential of a property, having an adequate reserve for unanticipated costs, knowing what your exit strategy is, being able to anticipate and mitigate downside risks, and, most of all, being able to walk away from a property you love because the risk/reward ratio is too great. Most of that you will gain from years of experience, rather than from a book (or from an expensive investment seminar). In particular, most books and seminars ignore or at least downplay the upfront expenses and financing costs involved with purchasing investment property, the amount of due diligence really required, and the time and expenses associated with upgrading, maintaining and selling the property. When property prices are on a dramatic upswing, as during the early 2000's, that stuff might not matter that much. But in today's environment, these costs will quickly make most short-term real estate transactions (i.e., flipping) unprofitable for the average investor. Most books on this subject aren't worth the paper they're printed on. Even worse, most are just nothing more than infomercials trying to get you to sign up for an expensive seminar. Fortunately, this book (as well as the No-Nonsense Real Estate Investor's Kit, by Tom Lucier) is very good and full of honest, straightfoward advice. It's also got some useful forms to copy (which I did just last night, as a matter of fact). And best of all, the author is not trying to sell you on an expensive seminar. I'm in the process of cleaning out my library of years of real estate books. This one, though, I'll keep.

A sourcebook in question/answer format, covering strategies, techniques, calculations and more