The Real Estate Investor's Pocket Calculator: Simple Ways to Compute Cashflow, Value, Return, and Other Key Financial Measurements [Paperback]

Michael C. Thomsett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 2005

Your success as a real estate investor, agent, broker, or appraiser depends on your ability to know which calculations you must use to analyze a property at any given moment, and how to perform them correctly. The Real Estate Investor's Pocket Calculator gives you all the guidelines and formulas you need, right at your fingertips. This invaluable resource helps you avoid risk and make smarter decisions by providing must-have measurements including: * yield * valuation * monthly breakdown schedules * time value of money * taxable income * capitalization rates * operating expense ratio * adjusted basis * land measurements * and much more The book breaks down the daunting task of calculating all the different components of value -- including cashflow, income taxes, market forces, financing, and investment yield -- into a series of focused, easy-to-understand chapters. You'll learn valuable acceleration techniques, methods for reducing interest, and other ways to maximize return on investment. Using definitions, worksheets, and tables, the book provides much needed clarity to a complex topic, helping you know what questions to ask before committing capital, and allowing you to maintain control over all your real estate investments. Comprehensive and easy to use on the go, The Real Estate Investor's Pocket Calculator is an invaluable reference for anyone who needs to understand the numbers behind savvy and sound real estate investment.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

"Your success as a real estate investor, agent, broker, or appraiser depends on your ability to know which calculations you must use to analyze a property at any given moment, and how to perform them correctly. The Real Estate Investor's Pocket Calculator gives you all the guidelines and formulas you need, right at your fingertips. This invaluable resource helps you avoid risk and make smarter decisions by providing must-have measurements including:

* yield * valuation * monthly breakdown schedules * time value of money * taxable income * capitalization rates * operating expense ratio * adjusted basis * land measurements * and much more

The book breaks down the daunting task of calculating all the different components of value -- including cashflow, income taxes, market forces, financing, and investment yield -- into a series of focused, easy-to-understand chapters. You'll learn valuable acceleration techniques, methods for reducing interest, and other ways to maximize return on investment. Using definitions, worksheets, and tables, the book provides much needed clarity to a complex topic, helping you know what questions to ask before committing capital, and allowing you to maintain control over all your real estate investments.

Comprehensive and easy to use on the go, The Real Estate Investor's Pocket Calculator is an invaluable reference for anyone who needs to understand the numbers behind savvy and sound real estate investment."

About the Author

Michael C. Thomsett is a financial writer with hundreds of articles to his credit. He is the author of The Landlord’s Financial Tool Kit, Getting Started in Real Estate Investing, J.K. Lasser’s Real Estate Investing, and more. He lives in Port Townsend, Washington.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 17 and up
  
• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: AMACOM (November 7, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814472966
• ISBN-13: 978-0814472965
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #711,428 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I have been writing professionally since 1978 and fulltime since 1984. Previously, I was an accountant.
From 1978 to 1984 I wrote part-time and also was a consultant in the financial services industry. Once I began writing fulltime, I began in the magazine journalism field as a freelancer. In 1985 and 1986 I wrote approximately 500 articles in business, trade and professional magazines. I then switched over to books exclusively and have written over 70 books. These include my own as well as ghost-written projects.
Today I like to work on multiple books at the same time, normally two or three projects. Being able to switch back and forth keeps the writing process fresh and interesting. I generally write from 7 a.m. until noon and spend afternoons on research.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars invalid formulas, January 9, 2006

By 

Moe Money (Phoenix AZ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Real Estate Investor's Pocket Calculator: Simple Ways to Compute Cashflow, Value, Return, and Other Key Financial Measurements (Paperback)

Correct me if I am wrong but looking at the definitions for assessment ratios they are defined as appraised price (P) * assessment ratio (R) = assessed value (A) so restating this as P * R = A then R = A / P which is not consistent with the book. The book states that R = P / A which is invalid. If you take the example of asked price which for this example lets say it is the appraised price of $107,500 and assessed value of A = 90000. If you use the formula of R = A / P then the ratio is 83.7% if you run the numbers defined in the book formula you get 1.194444444444. Other than that, the book has been very good at figuring the value of a given property. This also applies to the Assessment ratio adjusted.

Here is the reference I found for defining the assessment ratio http://co.laplata.co.us/asrinfo.htm

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Bad...but take it with a grain of salt!!, February 21, 2009

By 

Ricardo Rosario - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Real Estate Investor's Pocket Calculator: Simple Ways to Compute Cashflow, Value, Return, and Other Key Financial Measurements (Paperback)

The book explains a lot of helpful, common calculations that real estate investors need to know. However, as with the first reviewer I also found a CLEAR mistake. Luckily I only bought this book as a review of sorts and am not using it as a verbatim reference tool. Please make sure you have an understanding of math before you take this book literally. On page 117 there is a mistake on the Operating Expense Ratios. For some reason the answers are actually (1-the OE Ratio), so where it says 73.7 it should read 26.3, which obviously changes it from an OE ratio to something else (maybe Operating Income Ratio). For something that is titled as an authoritative reference guide its sad that the editors didn't check out the calculations. These are the kind of books/mistakes that destroy kids education in grammar school; You know there's a mistake, but the teacher wont believe you!

The book is good, but I definitely wont bank my business on it without double checking everything.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Book, March 20, 2007

By 

Werner, Werner And Werner "CASHMEOUTMAN" (GROSSE POINTE SHORES, MI United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Real Estate Investor's Pocket Calculator: Simple Ways to Compute Cashflow, Value, Return, and Other Key Financial Measurements (Paperback)

I bought the book back in September of 2006 and have just started reviewing it. I did find an error as mentioned on page 18 in another review by another reader. The Assessed value formula is backwards and you have to reverse the numerator and denominator variables P & A to get the formula to work. Also the revised assessment example on page 20 has some errors also. The formula (1+i)^y should calculate the revised assessment column on page 20 using the 1.5% average increase in assessed value. When you plug in values with y = 1 as the power the values come out. When you use 2-3 years for y, you get a higher value that does not agree with the examples for Laurel St; Haynes St; Green and Hayward Lane respectively. So far this is the major errors I have found but will write back when I see some more. I do agree the classifications of the related formulas are great to the subject matter being expounded on. However I would also like to see more worked out examples for the formulas as this would also serve as a self check for errors. Some of the simpler formulas have no worked out examples and for some this is needed to lock in the theory.

Carpe Diem

God Bless

Dr. Werner