Customer Reviews

Building Real Estate Riches

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Whether you are just starting out or have years of experience in owning real estate, this book teaches a lot of valuable lessons. The chapter on Value Engineering really opened my eye about cost savings. And I found the check lists vry helpful in trying to anticipate all the potential problems associated with building your own home or investing in rental properties. If your are not in the building business, this is a must read before venturing into home investment.

This book offers a solid overview of how to "build" equity in your house, then sell after a couple of years and move into the next house you've built, and so on until you own your fourth (or so) mortgage free. Even build rental houses and own them for below market prices. This is basically what builders do.

There is some very good advice on choosing a buildable lot and "value engineering" or how to design the home to get the most for your money.

He covers good, basic tenets such as borrowing ideas from plans, model homes, and other houses already built so you can incorporate successful ideas already implemented. His reasoning being you cant come up with a new idea in home design anyway, and you dont want to for resale purposes (you dont want the only house with your different design elements on the block - it will hinder resale.)

This book is an excellent guide for do-it-yourselfers who basically want to start from scratch and build a cost effective house. The author gives plenty of practical cost saving tips throughout the process. I didn't give it 5 stars because I was expecting more insight into the financial structures and more about developing multiple sites as opposed to building your own home and selling it a few years later. This book is easy to read and understand, Chris Condon goes into detail with practical tips and this book is worth a read...at a basic hands on level. Great for speculation builders or for penny pinchers doing their own homes. I have come away with valuable tips after reading the book....its value for money.

I was interested in learning more about building new houses for profit, so I went looking for a book that focused on just that. Enter "Building Real Estate Riches," which is a user's manual for value engineering methods that can save big bucks on a build.

For example, Condon lists certain types of houses that, by their very nature, are more affordable to build than others. Same amount of square-footage, same value on the market as other types of houses -- but through efficient material usage, they cost less. And there are dozens and dozens of other ideas -- from using alternate materials, to changing room sizes, to doing certain aspects of the work yourself, that will result in a bigger profit when it comes time to sell your house. You wouldn't want to incorporate all of his ideas -- and he's the first to tell you that -- but many can be worked in without compromising the value of the house. Condon's extensive experience as a builder is obvious.

Even if you plan on hiring a general contractor to build a home for you, this book shows methods you can use to participate in the build -- and save. The book concentrates on very specific things that can be done to save money while still producing a top-notch, mareketable home. Links to Internet supplements are also provided. You'll need Microsoft Power Point to be able to view them.

Upon completion of "Building Real Estate Riches," I read its companion book, "Some Assembly Required," also by Chris Condon. Both can be read in a couple of days, and as far as I'm concerned, are required reading for any newbie (like myself) who plans on building a home -- whether you plan on selling it after a couple of years or not.