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Are you considering investing in real estate? Yeah, it’s a big step, but it’s totally doable. And real estate investing is a brilliant way to build a sweet little nest egg (or a McDuck-size fortune)!
But you don’t want to go in blind. You need to do a little research first. Ok, you need to do a lot of research first. There’s a lot you probably don’t know about real estate investing yet.
Even worse, there’s probably quite a bit that you don’t know you don’t know. Like, have you considered your capitalization rates? Did you know that you needed to?
But again, it’s doable! Anyone can learn to invest in real estate. And it’s well-worth learning. After all, you can make money in 4 separate ways from a residential rental property!
So today we’re looking at the best books to teach you real estate investing. Grab your copies today and start building your real estate empire!
1. The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller
1. The Millionaire Real Estate Investor is hands-down my personal favorite book on real estate investing. Simple enough for total newbies to pick up, but advanced enough to help you build a long-term plan to serve you for decades to come.
This book will walk you through the specifics of building wealth through real estate. How to find and evaluate properties, how to analyze the terms of your contracts, and how to choose the lenders, appraisers, inspectors, real estate agents, and even property managers to assist you every step of the way.
It’s packed with actionable advice to help you get started on the right path asap.
But what I love most about this book is that it discusses systems you can implement to basically guarantee success. It’s one of those follow-the-recipe-and-your-results-will-rock things 🙂
One caveat: to get so specific on the details of buying investment properties, it doesn’t detail the general basics of real estate investment. So this book will serve you best if you’ve already bought a house of your own and have been through a basic real estate transaction first.
“This book is not just a bargain, it’s a steal. It’s filled with practical, workable advice for anyone wanting to build wealth.”―Mike Summey, co-author of the bestselling The Weekend Millionaire’s Secrets to Investing in Real Estate
So if you’ve bought a house before and you’re ready to make the leap to real estate investor, The Millionaire Real Estate Investor is the book for you!
2. The ABC’s of Real Estate Investing: The Secrets of Finding Hidden Profits Most Investors Miss by Ken McElroy
The ABCs of Real Estate Investing is awesome for anyone totally new to real estate investing because it presents several concepts for making money through real estate.
Most books focus on buying rental properties and using the income and growth from your starter properties to buy bigger and better properties. Like trading in your houses for hotels in Monopoly!
But this book branches out into other ideas. So it gets you thinking a little differently about real estate investing from the beginning. Like, it talks about ways you can start big with minimal risk, instead of starting small.
And it talks about using your dream assets for cash flow. Like, say you want to buy a lake house so you have a place for the whole family to get together for long weekends or holidays. Most of us assume that’s something only rich people can do, right?
But McElroy shows you ways to use your weekend lake house so it actually makes you money instead of costing your money. Maybe you buy a property on a few acres, subdivide the land, and sell the individual vacant lots to cover the cost of the property. Or maybe you rent out the house as a high-end vacation rental while you’re not using it.
Seriously, even if you totally ignore the rest of this list, pick up The ABCs of Real Estate Investing.
3. The Book on Rental Property Investing: How to Create Wealth and Passive Income Through Smart Buy & Hold Real Estate Investing by Brandon Turner
The Book on Rental Property Investing specifically details the ins-and-outs of earning passive income from long-term rentals.
This is the book I recommend for brand new investors because it’s a little more basic than the others on this list. It helps you build a solid foundation in real estate investing concepts specifically for rental properties.
Buying properties and holding them long-term (as opposed to flipping them or selling them at the first hint of a seller’s market) is a simple and effective way to invest in real estate. It’s a foundation you should absolutely build before moving into more creative investing.
There are just a couple things you should know before buying The Book on Rental Property Investing: 1) if you’ve already done a deal or two, this book won’t be able to take you to the next level. And 2) the author promotes his podcast quite a bit. The podcast is great, and worth checking out as well, but it’s a little distracting to have so many promos throughout.
4. The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down: Real Life Strategies for Investing in Real Estate Using Other People’s Money by Brandon Turner
What’s your biggest hurdle to real estate investing? Money, right!
What if you could invest in real estate without saving a 20% down payment?
The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down will show you how to leverage lenders’ money to build your real estate fortune.
This book is all about creative deal-making. And it gives tons of examples of creative deals real investors negotiate.
Unlike most of the books on this list, The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down doesn’t walk you through real estate investing step-by-step. Instead, it helps you think differently about investing. It offers ideas and examples out of the ordinary so you can become a more creative investor.
You would think a book with a title like this would be for newbies with no money. And there’s an example or two in this book for those people, but it’s also got a lot of advice for investors who don’t have the money for a large down payment because their money is tied up in other investments.
Whichever group you fall into, The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down is well-worth a read!
5. What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow…and 36 Other Key Financial Measures by Frank Gallinelli
What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow is the best book I’ve found for investment calculations.
If you’re a numbers nerd (slowly raising my hand), this will give you calculations to fall asleep pondering.
And if you hate calculations and financials, this book will teach you to understand them, if not appreciate them. Let’s face it: math is a big part of investing. So you need to know what your numbers mean and how to calculate them. This book will teach you all that!
It covers all the financial vitals including:
- Discounted Cash Flow
- Net Present Value
- Capitalization Rate
- Cash-on-Cash Return
- Net Operating Income
- Internal Rate of Return
- Profitability Index
- Return on Equity
What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow is a brilliant resource for any real estate investor. You’ll find yourself referencing it again and again for years to come!
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Do you have a recommendation for a real estate investing book that didn’t make our list? We’d love to hear it! Let us know in the comments.
