Insider Secrets to Financing Your Real Estate Investments: What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Finding and Financing Your Next Deal [Paperback]

Frank Gallinelli (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 22, 2004

Everything real estate investors need to know about finding, financing, and closing real estate investment deals

Navigating the complexities of real estate financing can be a major obstacle for the real estate investment novice. Now this quick-reference guide arms them with a road map for finding, evaluating, and financing golden investment opportunities. From due diligence made easy, to writing winning loan proposals, to successfully negotiating with sellers, to making sense of closing statements, Insider Secrets to Financing Your Real Estate Investments covers all the bases. Using dozens of annotated forms and checklists, Frank Gallinelli tells you what you need to know about:

• Selecting the best real estate investments for individual investor needs
• What lenders are really looking for in real estate investors
• Creating winning loan presentations
• Closing statements and what to expect when the deal is sealed

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

In my earlier book, "What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow...," I showed you how to "run the numbers" -- how to analyze a potential income-property investment and decide if it makes economic sense.

Now with "Insider Secrets..." I guide you through some of the most important nuts-and-bolts issues that you face when you are actually making the deal:

How do you compare potential investment properties? What is "due diligence" and how do you avoid getting burned? Should you finance some, all or none of your purchase? What kinds of loans are available and how do you compare them? How much can you borrow and how do you make a convincing case to the lender? What form of ownership should you use? How do you make sense of a closing statement?

Like my "Cash Flow..." book, Insider Secrets is liberally garnished with Rules of Thumb as well as forms and checklists. I hope you'll find valuable and practical guidance here and use it to help you steer a straight path to investment success.

From the Back Cover

Your complete reference guide to finding, financing, and building a portfolio of exceptional investment properties

Insider Secrets to Financing Your Real Estate Investments is today's most comprehensive examination of financing alternatives for real estate investors. From types, terms, and sources of mortgage loans to tips for convincing even the most demanding lender, it provides everything you need to know to overcome one of real estate investing's most important hurdles--getting the money to buy the property.

More than that, however, this no-nonsense guidebook supplies you with a wide-ranging introduction to virtually every aspect of real estate investing. Vital topics covered include:

• Strategies for setting your real estate investing parameters, then finding and evaluating properties that meet those parameters
• What lenders really want to see before they write you that check
• "Rules of Thumb"--Dozens of concise action items throughout the book that tell you what you need to know, now

Real estate investing has allowed thousands of average Americans to start with a modest investment and build exceptional, lifelong wealth. But before you can excel, you must learn the basics. Insider Secrets to Financing Your Real Estate Investments is a boot camp for real estate investing, revealing what you need to know to succeed, why you need to know it and, most important, how to convince lenders to give you the money to start.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill; 1 edition (December 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071445439
• ISBN-13: 978-0071445436
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #578,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

First, the professional side: I am the author of "What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow...," now in its second edition. It is actually about a lot more than just cash flow. It provides readers with a basic grasp of how income property investments really work and serves as a handbook for understanding essential financial measures related to real estate investing. I have a second book, "Insider Secrets to Financing Your Real Estate Investments," which was released in December 2004. In 2008 I released "Mastering Real Estate Investment," a sequel of sorts to the "Cash Flow" book.

My company's website, realdata.com, has a strong educational component and I write a series of articles about real estate investment and development for that site. Speaking of education, I also serve as Adjunct Assistant Professor in Columbia University's Master of Science in Real Estate Development program, teaching real estate finance.

I founded RealData in 1981 to provide usable, affordable software for investors and developers who weren't necessarily proficient with computers. Most of our products perform pro-forma analyses that range from basic to quite sophisticated. Besides information about this software, my company's site offers a variety of resources that you should find useful if you're interested in real estate investing or development.

On the personal side: I started off life in Hoboken, NJ, home of the other Frank -- the one who could sing. We moved to Connecticut when I was about 6 and that's where I've lived ever since. I graduated from Yale in 1968 and then taught English and math for several years in New Haven. That might explain why I've written books with a lot of formulas and no split infinitives. I received a graduate degree in education, then left the classroom to go into real estate, became an investor and the rest, to coin a cliche, is history. My wife Jean and I have a son who teaches and lives in China with his wife and darling baby daughter. He also entertains us with a monthly newspaper column about his life there. We have a daughter, also married, who lives nearby and who has blessed us with a beautiful grandson.

My CV notwithstanding, I always wanted to be a writer, although the great American novel was really what I had in mind. Nonetheless, I'm very grateful for the opportunity to be launched into print. And maybe that novel is still lurking somewhere.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the better real estate investment books, February 3, 2006

By 

David Muscato (Missouri, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Insider Secrets to Financing Your Real Estate Investments: What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Finding and Financing Your Next Deal (Paperback)

No fluff or filler, this book tells you what you really need to know in concise and certain terms. It's a refreshing break from all the "No Money Down" motivational seminars in book form. This is the real stuff... highly recommended. After reading the first few pages, I got back online and bought his Cash Flow book.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great info on how the loan process works, April 9, 2007

By 

M. DiSalvo - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Insider Secrets to Financing Your Real Estate Investments: What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Finding and Financing Your Next Deal (Paperback)

This is much better than his cash flow book. Really provides insight about the borrowing process and what lenders expect. Great for understanding the terms. Covers Loan to value, Debt Coverage ratio, Different types of lenders and uses. He compares zero down deals, all cash deals, and the mix of both and points out the real deal of all the scenarios. Also gives good instruction on how to be prepared when going to a lender.

This book is not motivational type at all. Just facts and info about what I mentioned above. It made a lot of things very clear to me. A must read if you are not familiar with the loan process and terms.

27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Book, October 16, 2005

By 

Michael F. Swanick - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Insider Secrets to Financing Your Real Estate Investments: What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Finding and Financing Your Next Deal (Paperback)

I read this book as a follow up to Frank's other book, "What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow".

Overall, I found the book to be an excellent summary of analytical ways to evaluate your alternative investments in real estate.

The book contains numerous tables, reference charts and tools that one can use in analyzing investments.

Frank has a unique [i.e., simple) way of taking the reader through an analysis or example of what otherwise would be a complicated discussion.

Again, all in all, a great book. I refer to it frequently. Highly recommend it.