Customer Reviews

Real Estate Loopholes: Secrets of Successful Real Estate Investing

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The book is a quick read, especially if you're into real estate and have read some RE books before. But the authors' writing style, makes it easy for investors of all levels to understand the concepts. The authors are of course two RichDad Advisors (Sutton and Kennedy) and they start out by saying that there are two types of real estate loopholes: tax and legal.

- From the tax standpoint, these are the loopholes that you want to open and use.

- From the legal standpoint, these are the loopholes that you want to close and make sure no one sues you.

Kennedy starts by going over basics of different ways that you can get into real estate, including a section on how to build your team. Then you get walked through how to create a real estate investing plan. It's pretty basic stuff, but very well done.

Then you get taken through the tax system (briefly) in the US and you get walked through the three types of income: earned, passive and portfolio. Real estate is obviously passive in most instances and this is where you want to concentrate your efforts.

You then get a look at seven of the legal deductions that a real estate investor can legally take. There are over 100 deductions, but she covered the main seven you should be concerned with.

Next up is Mr. Sutton who will take you through the legal strategies to protect your assets. He takes you through different types of insurance you should have and then gets to the good stuff: how you should hold your real estate. He takes you through the pros and cons of C corps, S corps, LLCs, LPs, general partnerships, and sole proprietorships. Most people don't think of this stuff until after they purchase a place, but it makes sense to plan ahead and protect yourself.

The last half of the book is how to analyze properties, make the offer, do a title search, and watch the cash flow come in.

The book is filled with some good stories and examples that keep you moving through the book. It will definitely motivate you and make you feel like "I can do this stuff." Which is a great result from a book. I think it's a must-read for the budding RE investor.

Real Estate Loopholes is obviously a RichDad Advisors book so it will sell millions of copies regardless of what's in it, but it's worth the buy. I just wish they had worked with Dolf DeRoos and put his book Real Estate Riches together with this one and made a really great book instead of one good one (this one) and one awful one (DeRoos').

This book was a quick read, but I found that I had more questions after reading the book than I did when I started. One of the primary thrusts of the book is to get asset protection through the use of corporate or limited partnership entities. Some of the techniques discussed in the book cannot be structured through a corporate entity without triggering adverse tax consequences. So what is a person to do? This book makes the most sense if you are -- or aspire to become -- a landlord. For more complicated situations -- or for varied approaches to working with real estate (such as flipping) -- I'm not sure what to do. I guess the bottom line is that you must get good advice from competent advisors who know your business. It's not a bad place to start, but the authors jump around alot, as not all "loopholes" apply to the traditional corporate structures that the authors push.

This is probably the 5th or 6th Rich Dad book that I have read, and I found that there is not much new here if you're already into the Rich Dad series. As a primer, though, it covers some interesting topics.

The two-author approach should have worked great, but only one of the authors, Garrett Sutton, is enjoyable to read.

Diane Kennedy, the advisor for opening tax loopholes to save you money, comes across as conceited (she operates a CPA firm and often talks about clients that she fired or almost fired). She also fills her section with promises of more information to be found on her website, but when you go there, it's nothing but a series of pitches to buy more products from her (complete with 3 pop-ups when you first enter her site).

Kennedy teases a rent-to-buy program as being extremely profitable, but offers very little in details. Instead, you are pointed back to her website and offered the chance to buy more info. What little info she does allow seems predatory in nature (she gleefully reports that, after she pockets tenant's earnest deposits, few of her tenants ever end up buying the property).

Sutton's sections, by contrast, are well written and even entertaining. He mixes real-world with hypothetical scenarios to show how best to protect both your investment and personal assets. While he clearly has a strong preference for holding title as an LLC, he's fair to other methods and demonstrates the pros and cons of many popular plans.

All told, there is some useful information here. To be accurate, however, the subtitle -- Secrets of Successful Real Estate Investing -- should instead read: "Questions to Ask Your Own CPA and Lawyer."

Sadly, the tile "Real Estate Loopholes" is a misnomer -- this book is fluff and little more. Just count the "stories" which are basically filler (something to beef up two or three true "loopholes," which, by the way, you'd be much better off reading about in the Ernst & Young tax guide 2003. Save your money...

mtb

Small business and real estate may be the last bastion for the average person to build wealth and reduce taxes.Real Estate Loophole gives you all of the inside dope on both taking maximum tax deductions and making big money in real estate.The section on how to hold a property was also interesting.Another winner by the Rich Dad Team.

In looking at real estate books available on the bookshelves, I find that most are generic and say the same thing.Real Estate loopholes is different. It starts where the other books leave off and is updated for 2003.I bought it on Sunday and couldn't put it down. Also recommend Real Estate Riches.

The concepts in the RichDad series book Rich Dad, Poor Dad are basic concepts. It was a book to introduce the reader that working hard your whole life is not the way to create real wealth. In Real Estate Loopholes, the concepts for investing in real estate are pretty much the same amount of detail as in RDPD. It's a short read intended to give the reader some surface level knowledge of real estate tax advantage and legal issues to avoid by setting up LPs and LLPs. By reading this book, I'm able to ask more intelligent questions for my real estate attorney.

I'd say that it's a worthwhile read, but only if you are starting out in real estate investment and are going to be working with an attorney so you can ask follow up questions in forming your LLP that will be holding the real estate.

I read this book before I read the Amazon reviews. I was shocked at some of the negative comments. My recommendation is to read all of the how-to real estate books you want. When you finally decide you're going to invest, buy this book. It will save you money and headaches. If nothing else it will give you a basic understanding of ownership options and tax benefits (loopholes) that you can then discuss with a lawyer and accountant. Know what you're getting in to before you make your first offer to buy. It is the only real estate book that I am 100% satisfied with. Good luck!

This book contains many good tips, but it is poorly organized, vague and much too lengthy. It seems as though one of the main objectives of the publisher was to put as thick a book as possible on the shelves regardless of content. The result is a book that often times repeats information in several places without adding any value. It is a quick read, but the lack of depth on any one subject left me with more questions than answers.

One example of this lack of detail can be found in the example the authors use to illustrate how to make money with fix-ups. They say that "a friend" purchased a home for $50k, lived in it for two years while improving the property, and sold it for $200k. While doing this he did not hold a regular job and the improvements cost him $50k. What the authors fail to discuss is where this man got the $50k for improvements as well as additional money for living expenses.

Get this book from your library, take a few notes and save your money.

Some reviewers have mentioned the fact that this doesn't delve into specifics enough, and that all it does do is give you a list of questions to take with you to ask a real estate lawyer or an accountant. While this is true, I feel that is not necessarily a negative. No book should have pretend to have all the answers, especially when talking about real estate, where there are many variables that make each situation unique. So yes, it does not give you definite answers, but it is valuable as a preparation tool and as examples of possibilities.