The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing

I really like that the author said that real estate investing is not a get-rich-quick investment vehicle. For me, it puts this book in a good category versus the garbage books that promise the sky. I think that the authors provide very good real estate advice.

The only criticism I have of this book and other real estate books is that they do not warn readers of the dangers of leverage. They only talk about how great leverage is. For example, the author of this book says that a modest 2 percent growth in value translates to a 20 percent return on a property with just a 10 percent down payment. However, it also works the same going down, meaning that a 2 percent decline in prices results in a 20 percent loss. In addition, a 10 percent decline in real estate values results in a 100 percent loss. Many investors thought that real estate values could never go down. Unfortunately, they are paying a huge price now as real estate values have declined significantly. With that being said, I believe that real estate prices are either close to a bottom or already at a bottom, which means that if you invest right now, you are very likely to make a lot of money in the future.

Besides this, I think this is a really good book.

- 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

Excellent book for the first time buyer, a lot of information definitely need to read it twice...

as to whether you will find this book helpful or not.

When I first entered the real estate market, I was a novice investor. I found this book to be very helpful and insightful and gave me a good solid vocabulary enabling me to converse intelligently with the Real Estate agents I was working with. I am now a full time Real Estate Agent specialing in commercial real estate and I continue to recommend this book to my customers with little background in Real Estate investing and purchasing.

If you are a seasoned investor with many purchases in your background and portfolio, then this book may not be for you. While you may or may not be aware of the many calculations and insights this book offers, I believe it is still a worth while addition to an investors library.

If you are new to Real Estate investing I highly recommend this book. It contains many helpful calculations and insights to give you a good solid background of what you need to know to invest in real estate.

The calculations are real world examples used in practice by both Residential and Commercial Real Estate Agents. It offers topics on Creative Financing, Property management as well as an overview of the various types of Investment properties.

Like most Unofficial Guide, this is no nonsense, yet authoritative and useful. I would recommend this book for first time investors in real estate or even for people who may have done some investment in the past but want to become serious in real estate investment.

Book is dividied into 7 major sections - Understanding Real Estate as an investment, Secrets of real estate investing, Mastering the Market, Setting your investment goals, Putting your money on the line, property management essentials, Facing your fears.

I think most initial investors (prime target audience for this book) will find section 1, 2 and 6 useful and something they should read as part of their preparation for starting a real estate investment career. Other sections are well written and will probably be used more as reference as opposed to an end to end reading during the first skimming through the book.

If you want a no nosense book about Real Estate Investing this is the book for you. No fluff, just basic things you need to know in order to be successful. I recommend this book highly.