Customer Reviews

The Insider's Guide to 52 Homes in 52 Weeks: Acquire Your Real Estate Fortune Today

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Don't bother with this book, it's basically a gimmick. The authors claim to buy 52 homes in about 10 months; however it all comes down to gimmicks and also having a lot of available money which enables them to buy homes with a ton of deposits. Also the purchases are 'creative'. For example, Gene Burns is quick to point out he buys a great home for ONE dollar - what this actually means is he lease-optioned a house for two years at $1600/month with the option to buy the home after two years at $235 000.00. But the option fee is $1. So he can claim he bought the home for $1. (Get it?!?! Yah its stupid and misleading). Most of the deals are like this - lease options where the authors take on the existing monthly payments, sometimes with up to $5000 down. The authors also have a seemingly endless supply of $1000 and $5000 checks so their buyer agent could put down deposits on anything that fit their criteria.

One awful thing about this book is the misleading profit margins. The authors claim to make a certain profit on each house and here is one example: they bought a home for $177,000.00 with seller financing and a two-year owner-note. The authors then write "Cash-flow was negative by a couple hundred dollars,,, We quickly ran into the same problems the previous owner had in finding a lease-option tenant...eventually we found a tenant, but he was always late with the rent ...a year later we sold the home for $260,000.00...Profit on sale of house: $83,000.00"

The actual profit is NOT $83,000.00! The authors fail to state the monthly expenses on this home even after they admit it had negative cash flow. The home goes vacant for some undefined period of time, and even when it is sold there is no mention of any closing costs. Ridiculous! Also why would the cash-flow be negative by a couple hundred dollars? THERE IS NO TENANT, meaning the cash flow is 100% negative. To illustrate - a mortgage of $177,000.00 at 4% interest (crazy low) over 25 years is $934.27 / Month. Lets say the mortgage payments were $1000 / month ( which doesn't even include any other house expenses) and lets say they only had a tenant for 3 months. At the very minimum that's $9000.00 in extra costs the authors fail to mention. Plus there are always closing costs, which the authors do not mention either. This is just one example of lying about their profit margin but ALL examples follow the same path. There is never any mention of total expenses in any of the examples, and the authors always show the potential profit as actual realized profit.

The book does show people that there are creative ways to `buy' homes, but in most of these cases you could debate whether the authors actually `buy' the home at all. I also agree with the reviewer that a glossary should have be written. There is a ton of purchasing lingo that is unexplained to the reader. I understood most of it but for the most part, the terminology seems like author slang.

Anyway, this book is a gimmick and the misleading profits are enough for me to warn people that this book is NOT worth buying. The authors also have a ton of cash so they can afford to take on negative cash value homes. If you really want to read it, get it from the library and judge it for yourself before wasting any cash on it.

Any time you read a book and learn even one thing it was worth more that the price of admission. Would I like to emulate the authors and purchase 52 individual homes in 52 weeks? God no, however, there are some great ideas in the book. For example a creative list of 10 ways to attract good tenants and some creative ways to take control of properties. You also get the sense of just what can be done when you set your mind to it.

Some interesting stats on Las Vegas were there are 7000 a month moving to Vegas and 5000 leaving for a net influx of 2000 a month. Houses appreciated 52% in 2004 in Vegas. Wall Mart had no stores in Vegas and then went to 24 stores in 5 years. Pre 2002 RE appreciated an average of 6% a year there for 20 years (before inflation of 3%) for a net of 3%.

Also interesting were the discussions of why people would end up in financial trouble. They claim that 40% of Americans spend more than they make. Scary.

I'm real estate investor myself that went from $0 to $25,000,000 in holdings in less than 5 years starting with $0, only the equity in my house. I also wrote a book: A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate: A True Story About the Ups And Downs from Wall Street to Real Estate Leading Up to Phenomenal Returns. It's a step by step, play by play of how my partner and I built our real estate company in a way that anyone can emulate.

Good Luck, Happy Reading.

My Blog: bloglines.com/blog/KevinKingston

de Roos uses this book and a challenge from one of his students to prove that you can profit from the real estate market and using various principles and stratgies, he shows how you can buy and make money in any market condition. de Roos proves that despite all the "bubble talk" real estate is still a better place to get a return on your investment than the stock market-- in any economy. Informative, funny and useful this book is a must for those just starting out in the real estate world.

Not worth the time nor money. This book promotes the idea of buying real estate through WE BUY HOUSES signs and through ads in newspapers. Ideal for groups of investors who have plenty of time, capital and OPM to invest around the country.

Having earned my livihood from real estate investments for the last 6 years, I am always in the market for books that may provide a new idea. This book doesn't. It is nothing more than an infomercial for van Roos' seminars and private tutoring. The methods are straight out of Aesop's fairey tales. Burns, the student, is ridiculous. Do not waste your money on this most bogus and worthless product. The real world doesn't operate this way.

This is a fun book. An author (any author) finally uses the term buying "Subject to" and how this is really a form of Owner Financing or as Dolf says "OWC". This is not a how to book but rather another glimpse into the day in the life of a real world REI (although at an artificial time when there was hyper appreciation & Vegas ain't no normal city). Other products I value from this author include: DVD Success Series: Dolf De Roos' Real Estate Investor's College

Fun but not much substance. Got lucky the real estate market didn't turn on them or they would have been up the creek.

This guy pretends to be THE great investor, but as a seasoned investor and mentor to many more, I was not impressed. He should write about something he knows about like world travel. Even Robert Kiyosaki dumped him after his earlier book and got a different real estate advisor.

If I wanted to read an egotistical self-congratulatory book, I'd pick up an autobiography. If you want to learn about real estate investment, this is not the book for you. I was very disappointed.

VERY basic stuff. Entertaining read, but not super practicle. Not one of Dolf's better books.