Buy It, Rent It, Profit!: Make Money as a Landlord in Any Real Estate Market

great read

Knowledge-gathering on real-estate investing is quickly becoming a passion of mine. Buy it, Rent It and Profit is one of the best of the books I've read so far. I also enjoyed and recommend The Wall Street Journal. Complete Real-Estate Investing Guidebook . This book is more of a get-started how-to and equally pragmatic where the WSJ guide was more of a 50,000 ft. view of real estate investing but has lots of great outside references. The author, Bryan Chavis, explains why investing in apartments or du/tri/quad- plexes is a smarter investment than single family homes by explaining the concept of economies of scale concisely. I appreciate his tone in this book. It is written for beginners like myself without having a condescending or overly-simplified tone. Like lots of real estate books, Chavis advises looking for value-added properties to buy (read: distressed property) so you can immediately build equity in your purchase. He discusses the importance of an exit strategy and following a checklist before you invest so you know what parameters you are looking for and allows you to invest without getting emotionally attached to a deal. Chavis provides lots of useful, specific information on how to evaluate a neighborhood using his SEOTA(tm) analysis which is the "Strategic Evaluation of a Target Area." The specific steps he takes are sensible and you get a feel for how much experience he has just from his in-depth analysis of how to evaluate a property. He details evaluating building permits, employment, household size, demographics, psychographics, mortgage rates, rental rates, and occupancy rates. I didn't get the feeling he held anything back for a future book or to entice you to visit his site or join his association. It doesn't read like a pitch for something else and that in itself helps this book lead the field. He lays out a clearly defined program to evaluating and managing multi-family housing and gives the reader many helpful resources for finding the information he suggests that you evaluate. This is an extremely practical guide on buy and hold real estate investing. It is not a get-rich quick book and that is precisely what I love about it. What makes it a "stand-out" in the market are the no-nonsense detailed explanations of each concept. He helps beginners understand his concepts easily without glossing over concepts or the reader getting the feeling he is "dumbing it down" for beginners. I loved the concise definitions of common real estate terms. Another reviewer brought up disappointment in the follow up of his "Da Vinci Code of Rental Investing" concept and I agree, this is the only concept he presented that I didn't feel was properly supported. After re-reading this section of the book, I think he is just highlighting the three key evaluations of real estate and trying to put it in a memorable format but it leaves the reader slightly confused. Chavis gives sample leases, talks about FICO scores, loan approval, evictions, maintenance, building your real estate empire, business plans for lenders, and includes an appendix of forms you can copy and use. In short, of all I've read on the topic so far, if I had to choose only ONE real estate book to represent the best all around book for a beginner looking for useful, specific, applicable information, it would be Buy It, Rent It, Profit!

..SOLO CHE IN UN PAESE COME QUESTO DOVE LA PROPRIETA NON E' PIU' TUTELATA, SE NON CAMBIANO LEGGI IN MERITO AD UN AFFITTO GARANTITO DA BANCA O GOVERNO CREDO CHE IL PROGETTO SIA UN PO AZZARDATO

Great book but needs more focus on tenant screening and cash flows.

Like the title says, good information, but starts a little slow with lots of stories that while probably entertaining in a class setting, are unnecessary in a book. That said, this book is chock full of information for the individual considering investing in Rental properties. The author's point of view is more oriented towards someone who is a large investor with many units and/or properties, but the advice is also applicable to someone just getting into the game and will be useful as they continue to grow. Indeed, one of the things I find good about this book is that the author provides insight not only on purchase/mgmt of small properties such as a duplex, 3 fam etc, but also insight on apartment complexes. If you are just interested in the basics and not interested in learning systems of management and investment property selection such as SEOTA as contained in this book,and hiring of professionals as part of your team, "Landlord Intervention: How to Acquire & Manage Rental Property" is a quick read from a mom and pop point of view and cheaper.