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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Goldmine for the investor, June 4, 2006
This review is from: How to Finance Any Real Estate, Any Time, Any Place: Strategies That Work (SquareOne Finance Guides) (Paperback)
Misko's book is not long, but it is not light bedside reading. There are 47 separate strategies for financing real estate of all types, which are presented very (too) succinctly through a short paragraph on the idea, another paragraph or two outlining the actual strategy, and finishing with a scenario or case history of the strategy applied. Each strategy gets 2 short pages of treatment. There is also a glossary of real estate terms which is useful if not exactly complete, a list of potentially useful websites for the investor, a section on IRS trustees and custodians, and the complete Section 1031 (Starker Exchanges) of the IRS code!
Misko's point can be summarized easily: with enough imagination and luck in finding the opposite party to a transaction, almost any deal can go through as a win-win proposition. No one could argue with that.
If there is a problem with the book - and I think that for most people there would be - it is that many of these strategies are quite involved or complicated or at least very novel to less experienced investors, and really need a bit more in-depth explaining. The strategies are given little more than back-of-the-envelope exposition, and would all benefit from explantions targeted to a less sophisticated audience. Additionally, the examples should come with diagrams showing the flow of the deal, and the movement, source and uses, of all monies involved, as well as financial structures used. The strategies would be much clearer, and much more likely to be used by the reader.
On the whole, though, for the investor who is already involved in real estate, this book provides a wealth of ideas, any one of which could help close the next deal. Further, Misko gets the reader thinking in non-linear ways about becoming a problem-solver, which is perhaps the greatest benefit of reading his book.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Better be an Experienced Investor to Buy This Book, December 15, 2005
This review is from: How to Finance Any Real Estate, Any Time, Any Place: Strategies That Work (SquareOne Finance Guides) (Paperback)
This book does have many creative financing ideas in it. However, many of the scenarios assume that you already own several pieces of real estate, raw land, commercial properties,stocks, etc. to do your creative financing with. The title of this book appeals to new investors, or people looking to get started, with little cash or equity to work with. Out of 47 examples in this book, only a handful would work for this group. Most of the "real-life examples" that the author gives are referenced from the mid 80's and early 90's. Lenders programs and guidelines and real estate investment have changed dramtically in the last decade and these examples are outdated at best.....for example banks getting rid of properties after the Savings and Loan scandal at very favorable terms.
A large portion of the author's examples focus on commercial properties, raw land, and large apartment buildings. That is fine but the new investor would be hard pressed to jump into this arena, especially with the author's examples. That is where the author does give his best advice in the book, and that is to assemble a highly competent team of advisors (accountant, real estate attorney, escrow agent, broker, etc.) to help you with all transactions.
The other critique that I have is that these financing scenarios will work, even for the experienced investor, with less than 10% of sellers. The scenarios follow in the footsteps of Robert Allen's No Money Down scenarios where you may have to go through a hundred sellers before you find one that will accept your terms. There are sellers out there that will and when they do it may be very lucrative for you, but again these strategies are definitely not for the new or average investor.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not very good, by my standards., January 18, 2005
This review is from: How to Finance Any Real Estate, Any Time, Any Place: Strategies That Work (SquareOne Finance Guides) (Paperback)
I was very disappointed in the quality of this book. The title was very appealing. But I find the book poor. About the only use I can see for it would be to pick it up when you have a difficult real estate financing situation and thumb through it, hoping to find some idea that will either solve your problem or stimulate you to think of an answer. A more efficient approach would be to simply have a list of the techniques on a few sheets of paper, then you wouldn't have to thumb through this book.
There seems no rhyme nor reason to the organization. It is simply a set of two- to four- page chapters each with one technique. Then there are a few one- or two-page discussions of some of the ideas, such as options. There a description of the approach, then a brief, presumably real, case history of the use of the technique. Many are from the author's own experience and those of his clients. There is no discernable order to the short chapters. There is no organizing principle.
The writing is clear and simple, easy to understand. There are few typographical errors.
From some of the descriptions, the technique described does not seem to me to be the best one available for the situation.
The biggest shortcoming, it seems to me is the lack of discussion of what factors one would consider in choosing a particular approach. When it might work, when it would not work. Why you use it. What particular problem or class of problems does each technique overcome? None of that. No discussion of the relationship of the different techniques. No discussion of the issues involved. There is simply no analysis. No way to quickly look for a solution to any particular problem. You just have to thrumb through a lot of different ideas and see if they might be relevant to the issue you are facing.
The brief case histories lend some feel of authencity to the book. However, they are more like outlines, with few details, so it is easy to believe that they might not all be real. There is little humanity or personality to the people involved. And there is no discussion of what early possible approaches were rejected and why. Why was the particular plan put into effect?
I have rated it as high as I have because it does have a compedium of different techniques that might be useful. It would be far more useable if it had some guidelines as to when to use each solution and when it might not be appropriate to use one.
Given my experience of the volume, I am puzzled why so many people would uniformly give it the highest possible rating. I am surprised nobody is more subdued in their assessment. I wonder if they were all submitted by friends of the author.
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