Buy It, Rent It, Profit!: Make Money as a Landlord in ANY Real Estate Market Paperback – April 14, 2009

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!

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.

I have read six books so far on the subject of buying/renting. This book has clearly been the best so far. Most of the books I have read have been lots of hype and talk about you can make money on realestate. This book contains some of the same talk. Certainly there is an attempt to generate excitement in the beginning about how you can indeed make money buying/fixing/renting. And the book contains much of the same math talk about how to calculate basic values.The other books I have read are pretty much two things: 1) pep-talk (you can do it!!!) and 2) basic math (four family unit @400/unit=1600-900 in expenses = 500 profit per month. See how easy it is to make money!!!).This book talks about other stuff. Yes it does have the same math, but in addition has other interesting ways of looking at the value of properties. I found most interesting those times when the author talked about stuff other than money. One example is when he describes a student of his program who bought a mulit-unit complex and was about to loose his shirt because no one was renting. The student thought he had done everything right. In the end it turns out that the problem was not with the unit itself, but with the neighborhood. The student's great deal was for a complex with all single bed efficiencies, in an area mostly composed of four member families. No wonder the guy could not rent. The author thus intoduces the idea that other factors besides the property and rents are in fact more important. After following this guy I appreciate that he has actual wisdom in the business and that learning from him I will be able to avoid many mistakes.Yep, this guy makes me feel like I can do it. I just bought my first two family. I have a positive cash flow, am gaining equity, building some business relationships, and doing a service for my community at the same time by taking two families out of their dumps and putting them in a decent home.One thing I believe the book is missing is basic talk about how to go through the purchasing process. For example, I spent way too much money buying this property. There are different types of loans that can be shopped for depending upon situations. I put down 25% on a 15 year mortgage. This was a requirement of the lender I went with (a local lender who was keeping the loan inhouse and who knew the property well). I likely could have found a different lender that would have taken 20% or 10% if I was ready to take the time for it. There are even 3.5% loans for the right situation so if you have some freedom in your lifestyle, you can take advantages of this. Additionally there is a thing called SELLER'S ASSIST, where in many loans the seller can provide up to 6% of the home value toward closing costs. I paid most of these myself. As you can see, if I had actual experience I could have likely invested substantially less up front in acquiring the property at the expense of a larger loan. For example I could have upped my purchase price by 6% and then asked the seller to provide 6% assist, thus effectively wrapping most of my closing costs into the loan. This means less money needed to close which is a big deal for many people. OH well... at least I am able to learn from what I do. It is not like I lost money, rather I tied up money in my property that I could have left fee for use somewhere else.Again this is the best book I have read so far. And though the author does mention his program a couple of times, this book is not an advertisement for the program. Still, I may attend one of his offerings just the same.Hail Flavius!

This book provides a practical realistic guide to what renting property is about and what you need to know to be successful. It tells you about the calculations you need to make about profitability, researching the property thoroughly before buying, the required forms, and ongoing maintenance and service needed. If you follow the guidance in this book I don't think you'll end up with too many surprises and likely be successful. Also many tips on being professional and a good landlord.