Customer Reviews

Investing in Duplexes, Triplexes, and Quads: The Fastest and Safest Way to Real Estate Wealth

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book is well written and a quick read with a fair amount of repetitiveness. The author details his experience with rental properties primarily in an era of extreme appreciation of which he bases most of his theory on. I don't believe it is realistic to expect properties to increase at the rapid rate that he suggests which is the premise behind one of the plans he outlines which is to quickly refinance and purchase properties. Keep in mind that he is located in southern Florida which was one of the fastest appreciated areas of the country during the heyday of the recent real estate boom and it was during that time that he continuously refers to. It is my opinion that the author should temper some of his claims with the fact that not all investors will be able to execute his rapid fire acquisition strategies in an environment that is dissimilar to the one he had which was very unique and uncommon. What I'm trying to say is that his assumptions are absolutely "best case" scenarios which are unlikely to be duplicated by the majority of investors.

The one other area of the book that I had a problem with was in the area of tenants. He claimed that he doesn't run background, credit, etc. checks on prospective tenants and prefers to "go with his gut" on whether he feels the tenant is suitable to occupy his property. He goes on to say that if you invest in higher quality properties you will attract higher quality tenants. That is probably true but I don't think it eliminates the need to thoroughly screen prospective tenants. I'm not sure what it's like in south Florida but I can tell you that here in Washington state there is a big problem with methamphetamine labs in rental properties. The financial liability for the property owners is huge and not covered by insurance. When these meth labs operate out of rental property,(half of all labs found do) owners pay a high price that includes: civil penalties, property damage, decline in property values, dangerous and threatening tenants, resentful and angry neighbors, and loss of valued tenants. This is nationwide problem that every potential rental property owner should be aware of. In my opinion, to not perform absolute due diligence in the screening of tenants is unnecessarily exposing yourself to a disaster with serious financial implications. Of course the potential threat doesn't disappear just because the tenant passed the screening phase. There are other monitoring measures that property owners need to follow after the tenants move in to protect the property. My advice would be to spend the money and do the checks.

Overall, I did enjoy this book and would recommend it with the suggestion to readers that they play devil's advocate to arrive at a more balanced perspective of this particular type of real estate investment investing.

Instead of delivering a few nuggets of information, this book delivers the gold mine. It's written so well that page after page, chapter after chapter, it delivers just the right information at just the right time. I couldn't put it down and read through it in just 3 evenings after work (I can't believe I'm saying that about a real estate investment book).

The author gets right to the point and gives you the facts about what works and what doesn't work for investing in real estate. He shows you how investing in multi-family properties (2 - 4 family dwellings) is the easiest, lowest cost, and least risky way to get started making your fortune. He takes you from knowing nothing to being fully armed and ready to go make your first purchase. Best of all, he shares many intimate details on his own purchases, deals he walked away from, and deals he wished he would have completed.

When you're done with the book you understand: 1) how to find properties, 2) how to determine the value of a property, 3) verification and due diligence, 4) the process of making offers, 5) how closing works and what to expect, 6) managing your property, 7) the ins and outs of the three key real estate growth strategies: Buy and Hold, Refinancing, and Pyramiding.

Now that I have read this book, I'm already out looking at multi-family properties and will soon be completing my first purchase. I'm just an average guy with not much in savings, but with what I have learned from this book I can see a clear path to making several million dollars in real estate in just a few years. All that for just the $12.97 I paid for this book on Amazon... it almost seems unfair.

I am an owner of a few rental properties which I kind of stumbled upon but which have provided me with some steady income. I was intrigued and decided to pick up Mr. Loftis' book.

My experience has been in lower class neighborhoods. While Mr. Loftis touches upon investing in areas such as those, he prefers to buy triplexes/fourplexes in "yuppie" areas. He clearly states that the monthly income from the lower class areas is usually higher, but that the appreciation in the higher end areas more than makes up for that.

Loftis' explanation is quite detailed. He explains how to use the GRM to help you find a suitable property. By fixing up your property in a high GRM neighborhood, you can build considerable equity.

He also explains how he chooses his renters and has some example leases that you can use. He debunks some of the "wisdom" spewed out by many of the real estate "gurus". He explains how to use a 1031 exchange to free up some capital for further investment and how you can use refinancing to do the same.

In short, there is everything here to get you started on your way to being a successful residential multifamily property investor. Give the book a try...

The basic investing information in this book is solid, the problem is that the plan for gaining wealth is overly optimistic for many areas of the United States. Larry bases his wealth building plan on very fortunate appreciation that he experienced on his first investment property. Then as the plan is taught you refinance that first property after one year and use that money to buy another property. In Orlando, FL (where Larry bought his property) around that time the appreciation was 25%, but what about the least appreciating cities like the one where I live at 3%? Then the wealth building plan that Larry talks about goes out the window.
I thought the best part of the book was the info on closing, ideas that I have not reading anywhere else. Word of advice, skip over the property management chapter, the weakest chapter in the book where Larry advocates screening tenant by using your "gut". That is a recipe for disaster.

This was a very good book about real estate, and gives a clear strategy on how to establish yourself as an investor while taking advantage of tax scenarios. Eve further he gives great references to other books that he reccomends, of which I have read many. The reason I dont say this is a great book is that there are some things that arent addressed very well. For instance, this book is written from the perspective that you will have rapid inflation appreciation on housing, and that multifamily residential is at even pace with single family (it isnt). It also doesnt consider interest rates (rising) as it relates to refinincing - and whether that is a good idea. Instead it treats rates as a constant. Other than that, this is a really good book.

After owning 3 condos I decided it was time to move into multi-unit properties. I had some basic knowledge, but wanted to know what I didn't know and some tactics and strategies as I moved into this new realm. Mr. Loftis took a very structured look at the subject from beginning to end and refreshingly also gave credit to other authors and acknowledged there is more than one way to skin this particular cat. The one thing I would say is the appreciation numbers are likely a bit optimistic for most areas considering where the real estate market appears to be heading(8/2006), but if you can't modify them for your area you shouldn't get into the business. In short, an excellent book - both informative and well written.

I have been in the real estate game for 10 years, starting with "flipping" (before it was trendy), then to building "spec" homes (because it was trendy), and finally to "hold and rent" (because I had to!). After the boom, I had several homes that would not sell and reluctantly turned to rentals as a last resort to cut down my mortgage outlay. Much to my relief, it worked!

Since that revelation, I recently set out to find information specializing in "Buy/Fix/Rent" methods and along comes this book. At first blush, it was exactly what I was looking for - and with glowing reviews to boot! Bullseye, right? Well not quite...

THE GOOD: Great introduction for beginners, providing a nice foundation of information. Definitely like his reasoning behind buying multi-family residences. Section on Valuation of Property was a good read.

THE BAD: You need to be fairly well financed for down payments, renovations, margin, etc., and have very good credit. He only buys in middle to upper middle class 'yuppie' areas, that are near where he lives. That may not apply to everyone. He disregards lower income and out-of-state areas as options (I found his explanations a bit unsatisfactory). He also advocates being the property manager, which is a legitimate full time job (believe me, I know!). His long-term success relies largely on appreciation and buying more properties by pulling out equity with refinancing, which is tough sledding these days (not his fault, he wrote this when that was not an issue).

THE UGLY: At the risk of being offensive, his blurb on Selecting Tenants was laugh-out-loud funny. I guess his gut is the divining rod of the rental world. Sorry, I could not resist commenting on that.

In conclusion, this is a quick read and there are some solid pieces to the puzzle (especially if you are a beginner), but I can't quite adapt this to my situation.

I was disappointed in this book. I read the author's book on tax liens, which I thought was very good, and was expecting more. Maybe I should reread the tax lien book and reevaluate it.

While I've sold hundreds of properties of all stripes, my knowledge of investing in 1-4 families is minimal and I wanted to learn more. The author believes that quad-plexes are the best real estate investment and gives his reasons. The author believes in the buy and hold approach. He downplays the work involved in property management. I'm a believer that investors make their own best property manager, however most investors have neither the time or interest in managing their own properties. It's best if you are retired or otherwise don't have a day job.

The subject book was written with the unsophisticated read in mind yet is pretty detailed. I suspect that he loses a lot of unsophisticated investors. That said I did learn a little, but would read several more books on investing in 1-4 families before actually doing it.

The book has some value and you should read it along with many others if you are interested in investing in 1-4 families, but I wouldn't recommend buying it.

I brought about 3 books on real estate investing. I, too, have a three apartment building and a small investment property. When I look back a few years ago, I wish I actually have read this book to evaluate the potential purchases. I did okay in the end, but having to know the concepts and the GRM (Gross Rent Multiples) was the simplest thing to understand and only consistent way for me to compare investments properties. Other books tell you to compare the recent comparable sales, the replacement cost, building cost, etc to come up with the right figures. Frankly, those 'tools' mentioned in other books were not as useful as the GRM method mentioned in this book. The author also explains how the GRM changes, depending on the neighborhood and the locations. So, having that knowledge, I am able to compare properties very quickly to weed out the ones that I do not want. Once I have narrowed down the list of potential properties, then I can use the other methods to do the detailed analysis. I feel better now that I can now compare apples to apples. The sections toward the end were skimpy, but the overall value of this book is great. I recommend to a novice investor, as well as someone like myself who has been in it for about 6 years and still have a lot to learn.

I like this book. It gives me the tools I need to start investing in real estate. There is more than one way to invest, and Larry Loftis explains the different strategies in a way that is easy to understand. He also explains his own approach and shows how it has worked so well for him. If you want a good primer on how to get started, and how to keep going, I recommend Investing in Duplexes, Triplexes and Quads: The Fastest and Safest Way to Real Estate Wealth.