Customer Reviews

Be a Real Estate Millionaire: Secret Strategies To Lifetime Wealth Today

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

On a sleepless late night I heard Dean on an infomerical promoting his book . He was impressive with his argument that this book specifically caters to the small window of opportunity that has arisen after the real estate and subprime meltdown. I have no doubt that Dean is a success story , a schooldrop out who became a millionaire by using real estates.

However I purchased ( actually pre-ordered) the book with a hope that he will have 'replicate'able real techniques (not hype and fluff) for real estate success.

Alas, a mega disappointment. The book can be broadly divided into three lifeless sections.

1. Motivational stuff
2. Basics of Real estate
3. Some sprinkling of Professional information

MOTIVATIONAL STUFF: This is the most annoying part of the book. If i want a motivational book, I wil buy one, not this book where I want specific ways to play this real estate market. Not convinced, here is a snippet

Chapter 8: Removing your Mental blocks to success (page 98 -113)
Subtitles: The power of choice
Break from the past
The fear of change
The fear of criticism
The importance of personal integrity

Chapter10 :Finding the time to improve yourlife (pg 124 - 135 )
Subtitles:Twenty-four hour time wrap
Where does your time go?
Plan your time
Manage your time
Tips for guarding your time
Tame the telephone
Delegate and replace yourself
Deal with information overload
Use the internet sparingly
Increase your discipline

Page fillers with some 'real life'story.. Can Dean explain how these motivational rhetoric help me make money?

BASICS OF REAL ESTATE:
Although irritating, I can live with this section since it gives some basics that probably anyone with simple reading habit would have known. These are another set of page fillers sprinkled with motivational stories

Chapter6: Getting started
Subtitles: Finding property to buy
Analyzing the property
Negotiating a price
Getting the money to pay the price
Selling the property

Titles are good,but if you are not aware of this basic level of information(provided), and you are motivated to act based
on this book, your chances of making a millionaire is better in a lotto!

PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION:
Chapters 16 - 18. This covers stuff like tax liens, preforeclosure, REO's etc. again it focuses on academic information and not something on which you can act upon( advices users to go to courthouse and no mention about realtytrac).I can accept this sections having some relevance to the title of the book

[...]My review will be deemed 'unhelpful' by several of those who have interests in seeing this book successful.

Spend some time with your kids , watch a movie or take a nap than wasting your valuable time on this book.

I'm a real estate investor and as an investor, you want as much information as you can get. You want to read books so you can be on your game. However, instead of information on how to conduct million dollar deals, financing, and other pertinent items on how to be a "real estate millionaire", I got something entirely different from this book.

PROS:
First, there are fundamental pieces of information in this book that is important. For instance, due diligence, that's a necessity.

CONS:
But the book itself doesn't offer anything specific. What I mean is, this is more of a book on how to have the proper attitude and the proper mindset. It isn't a step by step manual on how to conduct real estate deals you want in the high end market. If you are looking for a how to book, this is the wrong book for you. If you want to "feel" good and "think" rich, then this would tickle your curiosity.

ALTERNATIVES:
There are solid books that are less motivational and more actionable. Here are some starting suggestions:

Profit by Investing in Real Estate Tax Liens: Earn Safe, Secured, and Fixed Returns Every Time

Complete Guide to Real Estate Tax Liens and Foreclosure Deeds: Learn in 7 Days-Investing Without Losing Series (Investing Without Losing)

The Pre-Foreclosure Property Investor's Kit: How to Make Money Buying Distressed Real Estate -- Before the Public Auction

As a couple other reviewers said, this is mostly a motivational book. There's certainly nothing wrong with that. But one is reminded of a famous real estate guru who led us down a similar path and got into quite a bit of legal trouble. Little of what he said was true. Yet he sold a multitude of books. So, buyer beware.

Here are a few things you'll see:

"Instead of looking for properties to buy, fix, and quickly sell (flip) for a profit, I look for foreclosures and distressed properties that I can buy for a major discount, rent to pay expenses, and sell when the market goes back up. For example, a few weeks before I wrote this, I purchased a two-family home in foreclosure for less than $60,000. I immediately refinanced the property for $192,000 and walked away with a check for well over $100,000 after all expenses were paid, and I still owned the property! Now I can rent this property to cover the mortgage and when the home market takes off again (and it will eventually), I'll be able to sell it for a profit or hold it through the next up cycle."

OK, so what's wrong with that? Well, on the surface, nothing. But I have a number of clients in this business who did just this. They're now in bankruptcy. And the current market "does" matter, no matter what the author would have us believe.

There's no harm in reading a book like this. But be very careful in taking advice from this author, or any author. You can lose everything you have in real estate --- especially in today's market.

I saw a TV ad on this book and ordered it along with all the other items that I let them talk me into because it was a "special deal" since I was new.
As a real estate agent, I am looking for new ideas on a regular basis with plans to start flipping homes.
I should have done my homework on Dean Graziousis as when it was all said and done, I found the book to be mostly hype and a whole lot of bragging on Dean Graziosis and what a wonderful person he is. I really cannot tell you much more about the book other than he "walks on water" in his own mind.
I did plan on keeping the book but I attempted to return some of the products and I have never been treated so rudely in my life!! It took 50 to 60 phone calls and the best I ever received was you have called the wrong department and when I finally reached the right one, all I received was being HUNG UP ON!
Now I am a mature adult and run my own business and I have never hung up on a customer, ever! I just cannot imagine a person who claims to care so much about people, being so shielded by hundreds of different call answering companies, most of who have no clue what you are talking about. I was supposed to get a web page with the order, was supposed to be able to cancel the "Foreclosure Alert" program, etc. I was charged repeatedly as there was no way to get through to anyone who knew anything.
All I can say is there are a lot of honest, experienced writers out there but if you want really good advise "stay away from Dean Graziousi's and anything he has to offer, especially his good deals!

DON'T FALL INTO THIS TRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dean is a very good speaker and yes he is a millionaire, because after he sells his book to you someone will call you to ask a few questions and "if you qualify" they will take you by the hand on your first 5-6 deals.
Do you know how to qualify? They ask you how much you are currently making, if you have availability in a credit line, or a credit card, because to start making money you have to invest. I asked how much money he was talking about; he said minimun $10,000 TO $15,000 to get started "conservatively" and if you want to talk to Dean $25,000.00 !!!!!!!!!!! With that money, I can put a down payment on a property and buy it myself, and have equity after the moment I close. He thinks we are STUPID! When I told him we wanted to start with "NO MONEY DOWN" and no investment of our part HE HUNG UP ON ME!!!! and moved on to his next victim!!!!!!!! PATHETIC!!!!!!!

Here i am up at 4 in the mourning watching another stupid infomercial for this stupid book. If you have your heart set on reading this book then check it out at your local library, DO NOT ORDER IT FROM THE INFORMERCIAL. Once they have your credit card number you will get bombarded by an onslaught of hidden charges. the only way to stop the charges is to cancel your credit/debit card and order a new one. Secondly, lets apply a little common sense here, if this dean character was really making millions from buying and selling real estate then he would spend all his time and effort trying to close real estate deals. Instead, he is spending at least $100,000 per half hour advertising his useless book on tv. The truth is dean is making all his money from conning suckers into buying his useless book. The fact of the matter is dean doesn't know a damn thing about real estate and he has never closed a single deal in his life. The book is crammed with useless motivational nonsense. I borrowed the book from my local library to learn about real estate. the book only had one chapter about real estate that covered basic terminology and nothing applicable. The book doesn't reveal any secret investment strategies or "insider" information. It isn't worth the paper it is printed on. Talk about a total waste of trees. Only a total brain dead fool would invest in real estate right now!!! The market is dead!!! don't be a fool and let dean trick you into believing you can make millions in real estate. you can only LOSE millions!!!!

This book is intended to sell his mentor services for those who need to have their hand held. If you're totally new to real estate and no financial or business background you may find it interesting, but there are other better beginner books on real estate flipping. For all others it's a waste of time.

Be a Real Estate Millionaire: Secret Strategies To Lifetime Wealth Today is a good book if what you need is a "pep talk" to get motivated to start investing in real estate. This is not a great book for those with real estate knowledge or experience at the intermediate level or above. And it's definitely not a book for those who are expecting the "secret strategies" that will allow them to become true millionaires in real estate.

Over the past 3-4 months, I have read this book twice. That should be an indication that despite my initial concerns this book does contain some real content. The problem is that it does not deliver on the promise of the title, "Be A Real Estate Millionaire."

Let's define what being a millionaire really means as far as real estate is concerned. Owning an over-leveraged pile of real estate that is valued at a million dollars does not make anybody a millionaire, in my opinion. Having earned a million dollars in cash or having a million dollars in real estate income would. I think one would be hard pressed to say that the rather basic strategies included here would help somebody achieve that. You would need a lot more knowledge and the experience that usually comes painfully.

THE CONTENT

Part one acts as an introduction, and chapters 3 and 4 have some economic forecasting advice to help people identify national and local trends affecting real estate. I wonder if this kind of analysis is too difficult to perform accurately enough to be valuable, especially for novices.

The sections on motivating yourself are actually ok even if they include plenty of obvious boiler-plate information. Not everybody thinks motivational content is valuable but I do. Part two, from chapters 7 through 11, contains most of this, but more is scattered throughout. Dean manages to cover a lot of ground at a high level. If you believe in the "KISS" method, this is a good thing. If you want detailed real estate information, you can probably skip that section. The main problem with this content is that many readers of this book are probably not looking for it, and those that are have probably already gotten a lot of it from Dean's other books. Not having read his other books, I took it for what it was worth.

Part three is where we start to get more raw data. There's still plenty of filler though. Dean constantly points readers to his website for more information. In a few places his solution for problems is to advise us to "google" the information or use otherwise obvious sources that do not seem like they should even deserve mention. There is a lot of information covered here, but it is covered at a very high level. Anybody looking to do serious real estate investing would have to get much more information than this to move forward.

THE CONCERNS

Actually, this book could easily be re-titled, "Try to get lucky in real estate, and possibly lose your shirt." That's because this book covers a number of "perfect storm" scenarios that are simply not common or representative of the risks of investing in real estate. Here, we have countless examples of contractors and handy-men that do fantastic work on-time and under-budget. It doesn't take a genius to realize that those scenarios are not the norm when undertaking even minor repairs. We also have examples of sellers signing over their deeds for a measly $100, or taking a small sum to walk away from properties that contain tens of thousands of dollars in equity. While these things might be possible, they are not probable. Most people are not just going to sell you a property for pennies after they've invested five or six figures in it, even if they stand to lose everything. If any of those people had consulted an attorney those "deals" would have probably never been made.

In fact, several of the examples Dean uses of deals where he has made money are repeated throughout the book. I have no doubt he has had successful deals. But when you read between the lines it seems like many of them could have gone the other way. As the old phrase goes, "It's better to be lucky than good."

For example, in Chapter 17 on pre-foreclosures, REOs and short sales, there is an example of how Dean purchased a lien worth $145K for only a fraction of that amount. He then went on to have the original owners sign over the deed to him for nothing. In his example, his investment worked out very profitably. But what if the original owners told him to take a hike and filed for bankruptcy instead? And what if there were other liens on the property that weren't known till Dean went to sell? Those are serious (and common) obstacles one would have to overcome when doing these kinds of deals. They might not happen all the time, but the fact that these things are not mentioned is a cause for concern.

Which really leads me to my biggest concern about this book. A large portion of the ideas discussed here are only profitable because they involve strategies for obtaining properties for less than the true market value. That's good investing; "buy low and sell high" applies just as much to real estate as it does to any market.

The problem is that several examples included in this book seemed unethical to me. They may not be unethical to all observers, but I would not be comfortable buying somebody dinner to sign over their deed to me. I think this book is a good text for people in pre-foreclosure and foreclosure. At least they will know what they are up against. Dean goes to great lengths to euphemistically characterize those scenarios as "solving somebody's problem for them." Believe me that no matter how you paint it a large portion of the "instant equity" in many of these deals should have belonged to the original owners were it not for the double standards that make lenders more willing to negotiate with strangers than the long-time owners of these properties.

Other times, it's clear that this book covers too much ground at too little detail to be useful. There is a section where Dean discusses the need to seek professional guidance from lawyers, accountants and others. There is almost no information on how to evaluate the skills or competence of these professionals. In one section, Dean suggests that in order to identify a good property management company we should "check out similar properties that seem well run. Ask tenants whether they are satisfied. Call the owners and ask them how satisfied they are with the management company. Then ask for the name of the property manager. (p. 265)" In my opinion anybody who needs a book to tell them to "ask around" to identify such a company should not be involved in real estate at all.

CONCLUSION

While I do think there is more value in this book than many other business books out there, that is not saying too much. This book is a decent primer, but points beginners in many risky directions. There is no risk-management component of this book, and no advice on how to deal with things when they go wrong. The closest thing to a warning we get is on p. 259, "Never, ever let your tenants move into your properties without paying the entire amount of (prorated) rent and security deposit. I did this once and got burned." Stating the obvious is simply not enough to help beginner avoid all the risks of being investors and land-lords in real estate.

Those with an open mind can still get some value out of some of the advice here, but the amount of time it's going to take people to take it is also not covered. It may take you years to fix your credit or do the things you need to do in order to invest in real estate. Do not read this book expecting secrets that will help you get rich quickly in real estate.

I wouldn't give this book to my worst enemy...seriously just a horrible horrible book.

This guy gets 5-stars as a salesman and making himself rich, and 0-stars for this book.

As a real estate major in college and practicing commercial real estate for 12 years, I didn't find one useful calculation, theory, strategy, not even an enlightened quote, just words that filled 300 pages.

I can't even put my anger into words....horrible, Horrible, HORRIBLE.

Go buy a real estate investment textbook (used), or start underwrting deals on your own.

If you want to flip houses, buy the worst house on the best block for the cheapest price possible, make quality improvements using quality labor with finishes that will appeal to the masses, and have a realistic exit price that will sell the house quickly.

Don't cut corners but don't build the Taj Mahal. It's money in vs. money out...boom, you're now a real estate investor.

Call banks and ask about any upcoming foreclosures. Most of you won't do any of this bc you're lazy, and you'll continue to buy this pointless drivel to get rich quick. I was "sold" too and I hate myself for doing so.

Dean,

Give me my $60 back on your stupid "system"

Ay, once again, the "real estate gurus" come to us with another motivational book with little subtsance. I don't need motivation to invest in real estate, I need knowledge and skills and this book is like so many out there. I don't want to feel good about investing in real estate after I read a book. I want to learn thigs I didn't know before and learn things others won't know. That is how you become a great investor.

That said, if you want to feel good about real estate investing, you might want to read this book. If you want to learn several ways to make money from the real estate bubble (including the stock market) and learn how bad the bubble really is, you should check out Cashing in on the Real Estate Bubble I have already made a huge killing in the stock market by reading it.