Here's what I love about investing in real estate: it can be very profitable.
Here's what I don't love:
- You either need a ton of money that you can afford to tie up for a long time or be willing to take on a good amount of debt.
- Finding, buying, managing, and selling real estate can take up a good bit of time.
- If you don't do it right, you can lose a bundle very quickly.
Given the items above, I'm not a big real estate investor. I have a bit invested in a real estate LLC in addition to owning my own home (my biggest real estate investment), but that's about it. As such, I'm probably not the best person to offer my opinions of The Real Guide to Making Millions Through Real Estate: Start Your Portfolio With as Little as $3000. But they sent me a book, so here goes.
I'd place real estate books into two categories. First is the "you can get rich in no time at all and using other people's money" sort of book that's all hype and speculation but not really realistic for 99.9% of investors. Then there's the "here's a reasonable way to make money in real estate" -- a book that most people can read, understand, and apply. Despite the hype-y title, The Real Guide to Making Millions Through Real Estate: Start Your Portfolio With as Little as $3000 falls into the latter category, something I was extremely grateful for once I started reading the piece.
In short, the book is a beginner's guide to investing in real estate. It covers all the basics -- similar to, through not as elementary, as Real Estate for Dummies. If you know only a bit about real estate yet want to start finding, buying, managing, and selling property, this book lays out what you need to know and do.
That said, it's not a whole lot different than all the other books that deal with the basics of real estate. Sure, they each have some little twist, are written in a different style/voice, or have this or that particular way of doing the same thing, but in the end, they are 90% the same.
Therefore, I'm going to give two ratings for this book. If you're interested in real estate and want to know the basics, I'd give The Real Guide to Making Millions Through Real Estate: Start Your Portfolio With as Little as $3000 6 Stars. But if you're interested in all areas of personal finance and are interested in finding something to teach you something new and grow your knowledge base, I'd give the book 3 Stars.




FMF-
Timely post for me. Was just marveling at a friend whose father bought several thousand acres out where I live in 1990 for a grand each. The land is now worth 40-50K an acre. We have all heard those stories and the pull on the emotional strings to get with it and jump in.
It's good to also see the warnings and cautions about real estate as well.
DigitalRich
Posted by: DigitalRich | January 20, 2007 at 12:15 PM
Sounds like something Casey (iamfacingforeclosure.com) would have read...
Posted by: Catch a Gideon | January 20, 2007 at 07:55 PM