economics

Perpetual Income is an excellent book written by an author who understands that his readers. Each fact filled page shows that Bryan Wittenmyer cares about his presentation. I've enjoyed previous works by this same author and can tell you that this work is a welcome edition to my investment library.

This is a great book. I heard about it on a real estate investing website and the comments on there said it was a great book packed with good info. I couldn't agree more. Good, practical, down to earth, information for the real world. After 20 years of investing in real estate, Mr. Wittenmyer knows his stuff and shares it with his readers. As the saying goes, it is easier and cheaper to learn from someone else's mistakes-if you are thinking about going into the renting/landlording business or are already in-do yourself a favor and buy a copy of this book. It will save you alot of headaches and alot of money.

"Perpetual Income" by Bryan Wittenmyer is an excellent second book written by the Reading, Pa. native. He has done the investing in low end rental houses that he writes about in his book. He shares his experiences, observations, techniques, and secrets in an easy to read 183 page book. His vehicle of choice is low end houses to generate that perpetual income promised in the book's title. But his rich background of nearly 20 years can easily be applied to rental houses in all price ranges, He writes about favoring houses with 3 or 4 bedrooms to attract and keep family tenants. Gas heat is his favorite heat choice, for example, because it is the cheapest. And even when the tenants are paying the utilities, "cheap utilities mean happy tenants, which means less turnover." Conversely electric baseboard heat while being the cheapest to install is the most expensive to operate. Many a tenant has moved from an electrically heated unit because of the high monthly costs. Lack of vacancy is a major contributor to the success of rental houses. Bryan also extols the virtues of exteriors of brick, stone or cement saying "the more the better."

Tenant selection, repairs, revenue collection are other topics discussed in this book. The author writes of the pitfalls as well as the rewards without sugar coating the benefits of real estate. This is not a get rich quick scheme, though there is a chapter on his plan to have a house free and clear in 60 months. There are topics discussed in this book such as water, sewer and property tax traps, that are seldom if ever written about in other real estate investment books. He has obviously learned much about rental houses and shares his experiences with the readers. He discusses in the book buying houses with defective titles, and getting free carpet. I recommend this book as well as the 2 others written by Mr. Wittenmyer. ...I know that he will answer questions about his books through his web site.