Bailey shares with the reader his experience both as an attorney and as a human being confronted with the seemingly overwhelming task of buying a home, and does so with passion, enthusiasm and heart. --New York Law Journal
Real estate attorney Adam Leitman Bailey's debut book doles out advice on all stages of buying a house, condo or co-op. Yet the author's ambitions are broader than just a how-to guide to homeownership. --The Real Deal
With his new book, "Finding The Uncommon Deal: A Top New York Lawyer Explains How to Buy a Home for the Lowest Possible Price," Bailey offers a stripped-down, fluff-free set of anecdotes and action steps culled from his own daily work as a real estate attorney, homeowner and real estate investor. --Inman News
Meticulously organized, eminently readable, palatably didactic, endlessly practical, and exhaustive in its scope, "Finding the Uncommon Deal" is no boring lecture. --New York Law Journal
As Virgil led Dante through Hell, Bailey earnestly guides the reader through the home buying ordeal without being unctuous, professional or cute. His respect for the reader is apparent as well. --New York Law Journal
I had been living in a rental apartment on 34th Street in New York for over a year when my landlord mentioned she was interested in selling and asked if I would be interested in buying. I loved my apartment, so I knew this was a great opportunity for me to step into the realm of ownership, while reducing my monthly costs at the same time. I was 32 years old, had never owned property before, and as excited as I was about the prospect, I was terrified about it too. That was when a dear friend of mine mentioned Adam Bailey's name as that of an attorney I should speak to about the deal. Best move I ever made!
Now in hindsight, it was a rather simple deal; although it's fair to say that your average transaction outside New York City could never compare to the complications involved with buying a NYC co-op. This was also a period of time when banks made things extremely easy on the lender--something we may never see again--in my lifetime anyway. But what I got from Adam then, and what I continue to receive a decade later, is a boiled-down, layman's education in how it all works.
Adam is a natural-born teacher, and he genuinely thrives on helping people do what he sincerely and passionately loves doing himself: buying real estate--a passion that I joke with him about as being evident in the speed with which he talks. If you ever have the privilege of hearing him speak, you'll know what I mean when you come away extremely inspired, somewhat exhausted, and very much in love with real estate, whether you planned to be or not. His written word, as you'll find here, has a similar effect--minus the exhaustion.
Flash-forward 10 years, and I am now a real estate investor with properties in upstate New York, New Orleans, Nashville, and yes, I still have that little co-op on 34th Street. I'd like to think that I'm one of the clients Adam refers to as an inspiration for writing this book. In fact, the chapters of
Finding the Uncommon Deal eerily read like answers to the various, and seemingly random, questions I've peppered him with over the years. As it turns out, there was nothing random about my questions after all. It's just that the intricacies of any one real estate purchase can be so extremely vast that the parts don't always seem to connect at first. Furthermore, most buyers never have the same experience as their friends, families, or neighbors, and no one property buying experience is ever the same as the last one.
One thing that I believe this book does exceptionally well is to paint a picture of the real estate purchasing puzzle in a linear fashion so that the pieces always make sense in context, even if you encounter them way out of order as I frequently have. Adam does this by walking you through the steps from the beginning to the middle and all the way through closing a property purchase of any kind.
When I decided to become a professional investor five years ago (a move I felt necessary to offset the inherent instability of a career in entertainment), I began filling my personal library with books that covered the specific areas of real estate I was interested in, and my library as a result is huge, with more than 30 books directly related to buying real estate. While I have found each one invaluable in its own way, what they all add up to as individual resources can be found boiled down in these pages, written in easy to understand terms. The more complicated concepts are illustrated through Adam's real life stories, many of which I can relate to directly myself, and the lessons learned are summarized in easy to reference "Insider Tips" at the end of the chapters.
Is it a one-stop shop for a professional real estate investor? No. It wasn't meant to be. A book of that sort would likely be 10,000 pages long or more. What
Finding the Uncommon Deal is, however, lies right in the title; it's what you must know before buying a home . . . period.
I highly recommend reading this book at any stage of your real estate experience. Go forth with home buying confidence, knowing you have what I believe to be the most comprehensive home buying resource, written by one of the most respected and knowledgeable real estate attorneys, investors, educators, and mentors in the country.
--Evan Farmer
About Evan Farmer
Evan Farmer was host, carpenter, and handyman of The Learning Channel's Emmy-nominated series, While You Were Out, and host and designer for HGTV's Freestyle. Evan first reached stardom performing as part of the MTV hit boy band 2GE1HER. He currently owns and co-owns five investment properties in three states and in 2003 he co-founded Renovolution, a company whose mission is to provide affordable housing to struggling families in New Orleans. You can find more information about Evan at evanfarmer.net.
