Successful Real Estate Investing: How to Avoid the 75 Most Costly Mistakes Every Investor Makes [Paperback]

Robert Shemin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 29, 2003

Successful Real Estate Investing is written specifically for novice investors who want to get started with confidence. It highlights 75 of the most common mistakes investors make and offers specific, real-life strategies for avoiding them. Each mini-chapter covers one mistake and offers pearls of wisdom based both on Robert Shemin's long experience as an investor and on case studies of investors he has met or assisted along the way. For investors worried about making a particular mistake in any step of the investment process, this is the only real estate guide that offers quick, expert guidance on avoiding everything that could-but won't!-go wrong.

Successful Real Estate Investing covers these mistakes as well as many more:
* Forgetting to screen all tenants
* Not taking in adequate cash flow
* Missing out on special loan programs
* Not having the proper insurance
* Holding onto a rehab or rental house that won't sell or rent
* Thinking short-term when you should be thinking long-term
* Punishing bad tenants without rewarding good ones
* Failing to establish minimum requirements for tenants
* Failing to inspect properties regularly


But Successful Real Estate Investing is more than just a list of troubles to avoid, it also teaches the most important keys to real estate success: keep it simple, believe you can do it (because you can!), inform yourself so you know what you're doing, and stick with it! With common sense and the uncommon guidance you'll find here, there's nothing standing in your way!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Successful Real Estate Investing is written specifically for novice investors who want to get started with confidence. It highlights 75 of the most common mistakes investors make and offers specific, real-life strategies for avoiding them. Each mini-chapter covers one mistake and offers pearls of wisdom based both on Robert Shemin’s long experience as an investor and on case studies of investors he has met or assisted along the way. For investors worried about making a particular mistake in any step of the investment process, this is the only real estate guide that offers quick, expert guidance on avoiding everything that could–but won’t!–go wrong.

Successful Real Estate Investing covers these mistakes as well as many more:

• Forgetting to screen all tenants
• Not taking in adequate cash flow
• Missing out on special loan programs
• Not having the proper insurance
• Holding onto a rehab or rental house that won’t sell or rent
• Thinking short-term when you should be thinking long-term
• Punishing bad tenants without rewarding good ones
• Failing to establish minimum requirements for tenants
• Failing to inspect properties regularly

But Successful Real Estate Investing is more than just a list of troubles to avoid, it also teaches the most important keys to real estate success: keep it simple, believe you can do it (because you can!), inform yourself so you know what you’re doing, and stick with it! With common sense and the uncommon guidance you’ll find here, there’s nothing standing in your way!

About the Author

ROBERT SHEMIN, JD, MBA, is the author of the Wall Street Journal bestseller Secrets of a Millionaire Real Estate Investor and the Wiley title Unlimited Riches. A nationally recognized real estate expert, he has been featured in BusinessWeek, as well as on Montel Williams, National Public Radio, the USA Radio Network, the Business Radio Network, and more than fifty nationally syndicated talk-radio programs. Mr. Shemin can be contacted at sheminrealestate.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (December 29, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471453978
• ISBN-13: 978-0471453970
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,088,920 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

108 of 111 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very Disappointed, Please Read!!!, February 18, 2004

By 

Joshua R Schlesselman (Salt Lake City, UT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Successful Real Estate Investing: How to Avoid the 75 Most Costly Mistakes Every Investor Makes (Paperback)

In all actuality, this book lacks all due diligence it portrays. I opened this book up after foolishly spending $12.00 on it and was disgusted by the integrity of the content. This is one of those late night real estate gurus throwing some words onto paper trying to call it a book but in all reality, trying to sell his real estate courses and seminars. I read through the book just because I spent the money and every other page was a sales ad for his course and seminar. I was disgusted and very disappointed. I have been in Real Estate for quite some time now with many deals under my belt, dealing almost exclusively with Rehabs. If your into the buy and hold strategy, I recommend anything by Robert Irwin, an excellent and down-to-earth author. If you are into rehabs, I would recommend "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Fixer-Upers" by Stuart Leland Rider.....Best of Luck!

61 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Worthless, April 22, 2004

By 

"sevenseasgod" (Orlando, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Successful Real Estate Investing: How to Avoid the 75 Most Costly Mistakes Every Investor Makes (Paperback)

This guy is very intelligent. He is getting $12 or more per book, to sell you a book where he is trying to upsell you his other products. Basically, he writes about 75 mistakes to avoid but when it comes to explaining them, he does a terrible job. It is either too general or he tries to sell you on how one of his books, home courses or whatever he's trying to sell, will help you avoiding that. The mistakes mentioned in the book are valid and perhaps, very real but, if you have already made a mistake or just made the mistake and would like to use his advise to overcome the error, guess what, you are on your own. Now, if you want to avoid the mistakes, some of the mistakes mentioned here are self-explanatory, the rest are not, so it might be difficult to avoid these pitfalls, especially for "newbies". In conclusion, THE BOOK IS WORTHLESS. There are plenty of other authors out there that do a much better job at explaining not at selling other products.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your money, November 5, 2004

By 

Paul H. Hodges - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Successful Real Estate Investing: How to Avoid the 75 Most Costly Mistakes Every Investor Makes (Paperback)

as a professional real estate investor I found this book to be a complete rip off. Most of the pages were only partially filled and what was written was compeletly vague hype.