Customer Reviews

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

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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

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.

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

I ordered this book for my business library and and happy with it, athough it does have some errors in it. However, the material is informative enough to undersatnd, which allows me to perform the calculations in it.

Michael c. Thomsett's REAL ESTATE INVESTOR'S POCKET CALCULATOR: SIMPLE WAYS TO COMPUTER CASHFLOW, VALUE, RETURN, AND OTHER KEY FINANCIAL MEASUREMENTS finally places in the investor's hands the same tools real estate agents use to calculate yield, values, taxable income and operating expenses. All different types of value are revealed in chapters which cover everything from acceleration techniques and methods for reducing interest to ways of maximizing investment returns. Worksheets, tables and charts provide clarity and all the formulas needed to succeed. Very highly recommended as an essential, basic pick any real estate investor should keep at hand.