Required Reading for Real Estate Investors

Jim "the Bowtie Guy" Rogers is one of the world’s most famous commodity investors.

He co-founded the Quantum Fund and made billions with fellow investing legend George Soros … he developed a commodity index that’s now named after him … and along the way he managed to pocket a cool $300 million in net worth—not bad for a kid who used to sell peanuts at little league games in Demopolis, Alabama, where he grew up.

And his secret for amassing such a large fortune? It’s much simpler and easier than anything you might have guessed; he does his homework.

"I learned early on in my career that if you read the annual reports, you’ve done more than 90% of the people on Wall Street," Rogers explained in a recent interview. "do a spreadsheet, [and] you’ve done more than 98% of the people on Wall Street."

It’s that simple … do the homework. And the same is true for Real Estate …

While so many investors are cloying to throw money into properties hand over fist, few of them are actually willing to spend the time they should on educating themselves and researching the situation before jumping in head first. They watch a few episodes of "Flip that House" and count that as their research.

The simple fact, though, is that by failing to take precautions, many Real Estate investors are setting themselves up to spend twice as much time (or more) on their investments than they would have if they’d just done the homework.

So today, we’re going to take a look at the homework you should be doing before you dive into Real Estate investing …

Required Read #1: Graham’s "Intelligent Investor"

The old tricks are the best tricks, and this is especially true when it comes to Real Estate investing.intelligent

Benjamin Graham’s Intelligent Investor has for decades been the value investor’s bible—earning acclaim and recommendation from such extremely successful investors as Warren Buffett and the aforementioned Jim Rogers.

Now there’s nothing in here that’s specifically about Real Estate investing, but that just means the knowledge you’ll gain here can be applied to all your other investing. Put simply; everyone who ever invests in anything should read this book first.

Best of all, even Warren Buffett says you’ve only got to read two chapters of the book (#8 & #20). These two chapters will cover pretty much everything you need to know about risk aversion, margins of safety, and how to see the market.

Required Read #2: Eldred’s "Beginner’s Guide to Real Estate Investing"

Now that you’ve covered the basics of investing in general, you should be primed for Eldred’s introduction to Real Estate investing in this fantastic primer.

There are plenty of "Dummies’ guides" and introductory books out there, But Eldred’s version is generally regarded to be the very best. In it, he dispels some of the most common myths about Real Estate investing and shows you how the savvy Real Estate investors keep the cash flowing Rain or Shine; no matter what the market’s up to.

The book also transcends many of the other introductory offerings by taking it to the next level and sharing some of the most effective strategies used by professionals to maximize profits on Real Estate transactions. This one’s definitely worth a look …

Required Read #3: Keller’s "Millionaire Real Estate Investor"

So you’ve got the basics covered. You feel comfortable in your skin as an investor, and you might already be in the business of Real Estate … how do you take things up a notch from there?

By combining the insights and experience of over 100 actual millionaire Real Estate investors, Keller’s tell-all provides a surprisingly "no-nonsense" picture about the often-misunderstood market for Real Estate.

What’s the mindset of a millionaire investor? What do these guys do differently? What are their strategies and business models … and how do you build a winning team to help you get there?

The Millionaire Real Estate Investor offers all that and more. For those out to visualize their goals; for the people who want to spend some time in the shoes of a successful Real Estate investor, this is a perfect starting point …

Required Read #4: Lindahl’s "Multi-Family Millions"

As legend has it, Dave Lindahl was a broke landscaper when he took a cash advance on his credit card to buy his first three-unit apartment building. Twelve months later he owned eleven multi-family buildings and had an impressive $10,000 per month in extra income.

While we obviously can’t guarantee that level of success for any real estate investor, we will say that it isn’t really possible if you’re just out there flipping houses.

Multi-Family Millions still focuses plenty of energy on the flip—more specifically repositioning and rehabbing once-blighted apartment buildings for big bucks—but unlike house-flipping, it’s important to remember that this kind of investing actually flows cash.

So when prices sag and house-flippers are stuck footing the bill on their speculative properties, multi-family investors see the cash flowing the other way … in their direction.

This is definitely more of a niche pursuit for Real Estate investors, but it’s one that we think all Real Estate investors should consider—primarily for that cash-flow potential mentioned above.

Knowledge is Power

It’s funny how some of us can sit there and force the kids to do their homework so they can pass some pop quiz … but then we take on hundreds of thousands in liability without doing as much research as little Timmy did for that pop quiz.

"Knowledge is power," we tell them. And for the most part, we couldn’t be more correct about it.

By building your own base of knowledge on Real Estate investing … by doing your homework and following some of the proven systems established by the successful investors who came before you, you’re stacking the odds in your favor. You’re making the kind of investment that most of your busy competitors will overlook without a second thought.

And that’s money in the bank.

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