Trump University Commercial Real Estate 101: How Small Investors Can Get Started and Make It Big

The majority of real estate investors are simply frightened by commercial real estate. It is not that complicated, and it offers tremendous opportunities. The author says "the wealth opportunity with commercial real estate is enormous for the very reason that most people think they could never own it." It is different than residential real estate, but there is no reason why people cannot understand it. I think this book does a great job describing commercial real estate. Donald Trump is a household name, but few may realize that he relies on teams of people to make him successful. The author argues that investors should also build their teams. He breaks it down into your home team (assistants and marketers), deal team (brokers and attorneys), money team (mortgage brokers and private money partners), and property team (property managers, contractors, property inspectors, and maintenance specialists). I liked the chapter on financing. I believe that financing is extremely important because real estate is usually financed with more debt than equity, and therefore, interest expense is the major expense. If you don't get this one right, you might lose money even if the property is operating properly. Some of the financing options covered in this book are conventional, construction, mezzanine, bridge, and hard money. Another good book that I would recommend by the same author is Emerging Real Estate Markets. - Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

I must say I was slightly biased prior to purchasing this book. I mean, with Trump slapping his 'signature' over this book, I figured the book was definitely worth a read. Many years ago I found his Art of the Deal book, which was a real eye-opener and tremendous confidence and motivational booster for me in my own attempts to purchase real estate. However as I stated in the title the books does a good job of trying to get you to understand the foundation, or principles of 'beginning' and to get you to do what other books of this type set out to do- to TAKE ACTION. All the amount of reading one can do is nothing compared to actually 'cutting your teeth' and experiencing the actual investing, purchasing, running the numbers, meeting with brokers/sellers that one must do. I purchased my first residential single family property at the age of 21. I made 100% profit (at the time close to USD$150K) in less than 6months, because of the Rich Dad Poor Dad books - I only wish I had read a book like this one years ago! In summary, the book is a must-read for those needing initial education in investing in Commerciail Property (which also includes 'commercial' multi-family/multi-unit Residential Property). You won't get a very in depth how-to, but it does provide the basics, the rest is upto you. Take Action!

This book completely got me off of Residential, I read a lot of books on residential, and the more I read, the more I didn't want to have anything to do with them. Great info which touches base on multifamily investing. If you're looking for Retail, Office, Industrial, there's still good information, but half the book is geared more towards Multifamily.

This book is written by David Lindahl with small commentaries by Donald Trump sprinkled through it. The book is loaded with real meat for the avid real estate investor who wants to get started in commercial real estate investing. It's not quite a full-blown step-by-step "how to be a commercial real estate investor" as explained in Commercial Real Estate Investing For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance)) (which is my number 1 favorite commercial real estate starter book -- it's almost a complete business plan), but David Lindahl comes very close to it. My only real complaint is Lindahl's insistence on letting the real estate broker take both sides of the commission, even when the broker hasn't earned it. If I had to find the property (by searching the Multiple Listing Service or other internet websites *and* I do all of the upfront financial analysis), then I want half of the total commission as a seller price concession. If the broker brought it to me as his own private unadvertised pocket listing *and* he has already done the financial analysis for me, then he has earned both sides of the commission. As a new commercial real estate investor, this book is an excellent addition to my library. Keep a yellow highlighter handy when you read it.

This book is a very easy read, in simple well laid out format. Perfect for a person just starting out in the Real Estate investing business. I especially liked all the formulas for determining if a deal is right for the investor to spend more time on.