79 of 80 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good intro to buying homes, but. . ., January 17, 2003
This review is from: Buy, Rent and Sell: How to Profit by Investing in Residential Real Estate (Paperback)
Overall, I thought that this book was very helpful and contained good information for someone considering investing in real estate. The author appears to have had success with landlording and knows his real estate market well.
One (understandable) problem with the book is that Mr. Irwin is writing based on his personal experience in what sounds like the southwest in a booming real estate market. One point that he makes several times is to pay for water bills, so the tenants won't be tempted to save money by not watering the yard, thus causing serious landscaping damage. This is really not applicable in the north or where there is significant rainfall.
An underlying belief of Irwin's is that it is difficult to find properties whose income can cover all their expenses, and that the real money comes in selling for a profit. Accordingly, much of the book concentrates on flipping properties and other real estate maneuvers that are usually only successful/necessary in tight markets. In general the book advocates a high risk philosophy of investing, advising the reader to use the bank's money make money as much as possible. I thought the inherent risks of this way of doing things were not fully explained in the book.
Additionally, he advises to stay away from old houses which he classifies as older than 25 years. I laughed as I read that, as virtually all of the houses in the town I bought my house in are between 60-120 years old. 25 year old houses are considered spring chickens where I'm from!
The last weakness of the book is that it seems to overestimate ease of determining the "true" value of a house. It takes a LOT of looking at houses and checking final sale prices to say with much certainty what a property is worth.
This review may sound relatively harsh, but for the amount of time it took me to read this book I found it helpful. I would wholeheartedly recommend the book for a beginner in a rental market similar to the author's market. However, for someone in a region similar to mine (the depressed real estate market of Troy, NY) you may want to check for some other similar books. And for all I would advise to stay away from the higher priced "Make your fortune in real estate" packages advertised on TV and such. Real estate information is most efficiently conveyed in paperback books like this one - in straightforward text without motivational speaking or overly unrealistic portrayals of the real estate world.
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42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Easy to read, straight forward advice., October 31, 2001
This review is from: Buy, Rent and Sell: How to Profit by Investing in Residential Real Estate (Paperback)
I found this book to be very helpful, concise and well written. It didn't include a lot of "pie in the sky" rhetoric and I felt that the author was honest and experienced. He concentrates on the stuff a new or just beginning investor would need to know and mostly explains working with single family homes with a little bit about multi family dwellings.
Chapters are broken down into topics and Irwin adds little "tips" and lists through out the book.
I happen to have a big three ring notebook on real estate investing that my mother bought off a tv commerical sitting on the shelf while I was reading this, so I skimmed through it. It seemed to me if you left out the hype, the cheerleading, and the dozens of "how to do it with very creative means" I found in the high dollar package basically stated the same advice and observations that Irwin includes in this book at a much lower price and a much easier read.
The only downside, and thus the 4 instead of 5 star, is that it is written just a little too much on the light side, but of course Irwin suggests some of his other books to make up the lack. Good marketing. I'll probably buy some of his other books myself...
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31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Text, June 9, 2001
This review is from: Buy, Rent and Sell: How to Profit by Investing in Residential Real Estate (Paperback)
Irwin has written another classic text to join his 30 some real estate investment books. It's a must read book for serious investors. This book focuses on "flipping" certain properties for quick profit as well as buying for the long haul. Irwin focuses on residential properties and spends considerable time emphasizing making money on rentals rather than on "flippers" (immediate sells). His "Irwin's 12 Rules for Successful Landlording" is particularly insightful because it comes from his personal experience in rental real estate. Surprises to me include: 1) Don't buy houses with more than two or three bedrooms for investment. 2) Buy small lots without pools to keep maintenance costs down. 3) Landlords should pay for the water bill to keep the yard green. Another great book! It's one for the library.
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