Customer Reviews

How to buy and manage rental properties

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

As a landlord always trying to learn valuable tips on running my properties I picked this book up intrigued by the
hands off method touted on the cover. It didn't take me long to realize that the few helpful pointers found here
aren't worth the effort of putting up with the authors obnoxious egos. The reader is constantly reminded that it's
their way or the highway. That's fine if it works for them, I prefer to be a little less condescending to my tenants
and perspective tenants. Some of their advice is down right ridiculous. They suggest meeting someone in the
lobby of an office building and letting them believe you have an office there. They don't encourage lying but there's
no harm in letting someone believe what they want, right? I'm sorry, if I handled business like that I would feel like
quite a moron when I was found out.

The interview technique is interesting. After writing repetitively about not wasting their precious time on
perspective tenants they suggest an hour and a half interview! And they have the audacity to make it sound like
the would-be tenant should feel grateful and privileged. I have rented several times in my life and if someone
were to suggest I be grilled for an hour just to live in their property I would leave in disbelief.

They seem to hold some naive opinions on dealing with people. Their reward system sounds great in theory but it has been my experience that if someone isn't concerned with paying there rent on time they won't be worried about paying the fifty dollar late charge. The only way to avoid these situations is to do as the book suggests and screen carefully but that is more common sense than some author's patented method.

There are some helpful tips here but none are revolutionary and could probably be stumbled over elsewhere. I feel a little ... for paying ... bucks for this book, but then I remind myself I didn't pay a thousand dollars to attend one of their seminars, I don't think I could take the screening process.

The book focuses on a specific type of tenant (credit worthy) and a specific type of rental property (single-family), and pretty much dismisses all other avenues of approaching rental property and tenants, which, in turn, dismisses a great deal of landlords. Finding an adequate pool of sellers who are desperate and willing to accept the buyer's terms is hardly an easy or realistic prospect. I'm a successful landlord, and I don't fit the book's ideal. Though the book's specific strategy might not be readily applied (out-dated and too narrow), some of the general information that relates to rental property and tenants is good and can be applied to most situations.

The Milins do a good job describing the ideal tenant for your rental property, however, I think they have cornered the market on all the timid, spineless and straightlaced tenants for their properties. You may have a hard time finding such tenants.

The idea is simple enough: get the quitest, politest and nicest families around, who are too busy working, to pay the rent on TIME - before 5:00:00:00 pm on 1ST of the month. These kind-hearted souls also would love to take care of all the minor repairs on the house, while the Milins are touring the country teaching their dynamic system to others, all for a $50 dollar "discount" on the inflated rent. I guess if you can find just such tenants and put them through a 1.5 hour interview process and grill them through a NINE PAGE lease agreement then you can start to book your teaching tours very soon. A word of caution, some countries may impose entrance restrictions on the grounds of your "crimes against humanity".

Based on the neighborhoods and tenant candidates discussed in the book, the housing prices and rents are severly outdated. The Milins discuss $50,000 to $70,000 single family homes in Arizona and California that are less than 10 years old in safe neighborhoods, near shopping centers and good schools! No such homes exist anymore in these areas - at least not the ones which might attract your ideal tenant.

In inflated housing markets such as California, it is challenging (but not impossible) to make money on single family home rentals. The sellers are not as desperate to sell as the ones described in the book (they are the real heroes in this book, as far as I am concerned!) . Since there are sometimes multiple bids on a property, it is not in the seller's interest to accept your terms when he can get an all cash offer from another buyer.

I would have appreciated more current and realistic options and advice in these types of markets. Unfortunately, the Milins just describe an ideal scenario of desperate seller - meets no cash down buyer - in simple blue-collar neighborhood. And if you have not come across such a place you simply "have not looked long enough", which is just too simple of an explanation.

This book did help me identify what kind of a landlord I would like to stay clear of - on that topic it gets my 5 star rating.

The vast majority of the authors' properties are in Arizona, which I believe is economically depressed for the most part. Since I live in California, a large portion of what they advise is either illegal or impossible to apply. The Milins know this, and a lot of their advice has caveats about California. In particular, a landlord's ability to evict tenants in this state is severely curtailed compared to the Milins' policies. They suggest buying property in a state where the laws favor landlords instead.

While I can believe that some of these techniques may work in the particular market they're in (I wouldn't know since I borrowed this book because I am about to become a landlord), the Milins are clearly elitists whose main sense of pride is in their ability to make a lot of money, and not so much in their personal integrity and general respect for others. Their policies and relationships with tentants, as described, are incredibly manipulative.

One piece of advice is only to have month-to-month rental agreements. Around here rental prices are really expensive, and the rental market fluctuates wildly. So I don't see how tenants would accept no lease agreement around here.

Their typical lease agreement has restrictions like, tenants can't put ANY holes in the walls, i.e. not even small nails to hang pictures, or to hang curtains. That's just outrageous to me. What are they supposed to do about window coverings? Tenants aren't allowed privacy?

The Milins advise that you provide no major appliances whatsoever. Certain appliances one is not expected to provide, like Washer/Dryer, but who is going to provide their own cookstove and refrigerator??? When I was a renter, I never had to provide this and there's no way I'd rent a place if I had to provide my own stove and fridge, because it's really expensive, and I'd just have to get rid of them if I moved.

The advice to spend a lot of time up front interviewing renters and going over, line by line, every bit of a contract, I think is good. Also, to spell out everything you can possibly think of in the lease explicitly, is also good but that's just common sense. Put in the time now and it will save you trouble later. Do a credit/background check. Interview, interview, interview. Be clear. Follow your instincts - if you get a bad feeling about someone, don't rent to them.

Furthermore, their sample letters are wordy and condescending. Any normal adult reading it would see through this BS right away, in my opinion.

The bottom line is, I don't know from experience on the landlord side of things, but having been a tenant for 15 years, but I really doubt you have to be such a jerk to have good tenants. If all you care about is how much money you make, then their method may work, and it may not. I say buy a different book with more and better reviews from actual landlords.

The book would hardly have any value to you unless to plan to buy hundreds and hundreds of cheap houses in communities "nowhere near the universities" and rent them out to "meek" people who "work with their hands" and do not have time for "annoying questions". Then, just "keep them in awe of you", and collect the rent ruthlessly. I am just starting out as a landlord. I wish I had not read this book...

This book will go into the circular file, if you know what I mean. It is difficult for me to understand why there are so many people like this who only see others as dollar signs and 'pets' (as they call renters) they can take advantage of. I will NOT be using their con strategies as a landlord. I hate the idea about leading someone to believe your office is in a building but you not even having one. We unfortunately were duped like this except the guy had a post office box that he led us to believe was his 'office suite.' Whatever. Just don't buy this book, instead look for a book that is morally and ethically teaching you how to provide a good service or product in this world and your business will then flourish!

I think this book should have been titled "How to Take Advanatge of Good People Who Can't Afford to Buy Their Own Home". This book was lacking details except for how to judge and discriminate against tenants.

Don't waste your time with this book. I bought it used, and it wasn't worth the two bucks.

First off, the book is very dated - its copyright 1986, 1988, and it shows. $60K homes in Tucson? 14% interest rates? Assumable FHA/VA loans? Yeah, right. Ancient history.

Second, throughout the book you're taught to "manage" your tenants and the sellers of the properties you buy. Read that as "mislead, intimidate, and take advantage of in any way you can" These people are sleazeballs of the truly mid-80s variety.

I took this book as more of a lesson in "this is not the kind of landlord or human being I want to be" than anything else.

Read the many other reviews for more details. I don't know what kind of grass the positive reviewers are smoking, but it's some strong stuff.

I understand the Milins are now big in the "get rich at government auctions" area now as well as pushing this old book. What a load...

Seems to me the ONLY way these people make money is due to an ultratight market with minimal competition. Buisness dealings aside, these people actually manage to insult me with their mode of dealing with people. The fact that they are "proud" of their system really makes me wonder...either they're entirely clueless as to basic respect for another human being, or it's some strange S&M thing. Seriously, they strictly advocate NOT letting the lease contract "out of their sight". I would NEVER do buisness with ANYONE who wouldn't let me review any potential agreement, and it makes me wonder what the response would be if the tenant wanted a copy of the signed document (which I provide as a matter of routine to my tenants).

So, here I sit wishing Amazon had a content warranty.

This is the worst book on rental units I have ever read. These people while not crooks, are definitely on the shady side. One of the tacticts that they encourage is lying. While I was reading through this book, I couldn't figure out why tenants would want to rent from these people.