real estate

I have to say I was extremely disappointed when I received this book. It is anecdotal and appears to be photocopied and bound at a Kinkos. It is not 'instructional'. Reading it is like listening to your uncle rant about the few real estate deals he once closed.

"Drive around the property before buying it." and templates of lists of questions to ask real estate agents (such as "has the property been inspected?") and other useless and frustrating text left me with a bad taste in my mouth regarding this purchase.

Buyer beware.

I am relatively new to the commercial real estate industry, having purchased my first commercial lot just a few years ago. I was looking to increase my knowledge and learn from others mistakes so I wouldn't have to find out what works and what doesn't the hard way. Overall the book had some good concepts, nothing great. The book looks as if the author just used a generic image from Microsoft Word and printed it out at home. I've prepared better-looking papers in college. If you are interested in the real estate industry try looking somewhere else. I think friends of the author must have written the other reviews.

The inexperienced, as well as the very experienced may not appreciate the full benefit of this book. I feel the review criticizing the book and Amazon is a serious deterrent to others who wish to get started and make money in this field. As a beginner and after speaking with a professional developer and real estate person to whom I loaned the book, I found it extremely interesting and felt it contained many novel ways to make money with little or no risk capital. Those opinions were good enough for me. The book is constructed in an antidotal form to avoid giving the reader direct advice. There is no formula, exact method or given format in real estate investments. It is a creative field and without an optimistic personal outlook, it becomes obvious that any person with a negative and 'sour grapes' attitude would not be able to digest the material. Without this book, I never would have taken those first steps into what has become an interesting and profitable field. I highly recommend it to the expert as well as the layman. Any one suggestion can make thousands and thousands of dollars.