Customer Reviews

Unlimited Real Estate Profit: Create Wealth and Build a Financial Fortress Through Today's Real Estate Investing

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I have studied real estate investing for over two years and never new how to take the first step towards buying a rental income property. I tried book after book and even an on TV CD program nothing was getting me any closer. Then I met Marc and Paula Garrison who along with their personal guidence help me get started this past August 2003. I have bought three properties thus far all due to the one buying tour I went on recently. Everything they discuss in this book is true gold. If you want hand holding every step of the way this is a must read. The information in this book has never been shared outside of the students that go on one of their tours. Because of Marc and Paula I now have a network of dozens of students that have been on their tours to network with, its a great group to share ideas. I am not investing in the state I live, but have all the contacts I need in that state, due to the buying tour I went on. I am going on another buying tour March 30 in a different state and can't wait to get started there. Many of the buying tour students are repeat attendees, which speaks for itself. Contact Marc via the book or at NAREI.COM he always returns your calls.

Todd Bertocchi
Part-time real estate investor

This book certainly deserves credit for laying down simple yet tangible steps to becoming a successful real estate investor.

However, I felt I was left "hanging" at the end of several chapters. Before I knew it, I was at the "Managing and Selling Your Properties" thinking "Whoa, what happened to the actual researching and buying process?" I know for myself, locating and buying my first home was the longest, most difficult, and most emotional process I have been through in a long time.

I got a sense that the authors were more interested in getting you motivated and then to contact them to get setup with a mentor. Which is great. I just felt there should have been a few more details. A slight disappointment given the size of the book.

Anyway, I do recommend the book. Just don't get your hopes up that this is the first and last guide you will buy for your real estate investing career.

I've been a full time real-estate investor for 10 years and I've read over 50 books on investing. Unlimited Real Estate Profits by Marc Stephan Garrison and Paula Tripp-Garrison is definitely on my top 3 list. It is one of the very few real estate investment books I've read in years that actually presents an original and effective plan.

Real Estate opportunities in my own city have dried up, and I can no longer make money doing what I've been doing. I've been considering investing in other areas with better opportunities, but I wasn't sure how to get started. This book gives great direction on how to do exactly that. It doesn't make sense to keep, or start investing in your home town if the deals are currently dried up.

As soon as I finished Garrison's book, I called him and ordered his set of investing videos. I also plan on being a part of one of his buying tours in the near future. I want to learn as much as I can from Marc and Paula as quickly as possible. They also seem to be very accessible and genuinely interested in helping their readers.

I feel I have a blueprint for fantastic real estate profits in the near future. I highly recommend this book and the Garrisons to anyone who is serious about investing in real estate.

I first read this book in December of 2003. I went to my first absorption market (explained in the book) in March/April of 2004. Simply stated:This works! In the chosen market I went to (JAX, Florida ) I have purchased 20 single family homes. I live, however, in California. I have been able to follow concepts in the book to "Live where I want, and invest where it makes financial sense." If one can grasp the innovative potential of the concepts and information from this book then large financial gains are obtainable. The book is a guide on where and how to do it but it is up to the proactive reader to follow through and get it done.

I purchased this book less than a year ago and using the advice of the author I have made enough money in real estate investing to quit my job and do it full time. I have read dozens of books on the subject and found this to be by far the most helpful. It is easy to read and gives a lot of specific, useful advise.

This book doesn't really tell you how to do much. Garrison goes on and on about market timing, but he doesn't really give any helpful information about investing in markets outside of your area. He tells you what information to collect from prospective markets, but he doesn't tell you what to do with it.

Another glaring omission is verifiable results of claims. There is no way to find out if he has been successful or not. No addresses of properties. No hard numbers. Not even photos. This makes me rather suspicious of his "successes."

Even his economics don't work. California is an expensive place to live and do business (lots of taxes, regulations, etc.) yet commercial and residential real estate is booming. This is true in many MSAs around the country. But according to Garrison, these areas should be ghost towns by now. Don't waste your time on this book. There are too many problems with it and there are much better books out there.

While the concept of the Garrison cycle and the Fifth Migration makes sense, I feel that a lot of the author's advice is contradictory and risky.

One thing that seems contradictory is his insistence that investors "live where [they] want, invest only where it makes sense" and that "all real estate investors should start in their own back yard". According to the first statement, you should invest in cities where the market is good--what he calls an absorption market in his Garrison cycle. This makes sense because why would I want to invest in a declining market? But then he says that all investors should begin in their back yard. So, what if my back yard is in a declining market? Apparently that doesn't matter, several times throughout the book he mentions how important it is to start investing in your own back yard. But then he says this: "the reality of real estate investing in the 21st century is that in every single economic cycle (except absorption)...the only way that you are going to make money today is either by luck or by being willing to commit yourself to work at nothing but deeply ugly rehab projects" (p225). How is this supposed to help a beginner? Unless their back yard is in the profitable absorption cycle, they're pretty much doomed. But the author insists that they begin investing in these unprofitable markets. Also, starting on page 130, you can read even more of these contradictions. The heading is labeled "Illusion #1: You always have to invest within 30 minutes of your home", then he says "all investors should start in their own back yard", then he talks about two people who can only invest in "properties that have glaring, blatant cosmetic problems" because where they live is a decline market. However, these people "are not interested in doing major rehab projects...instead, they have chosen to buy good stable properties in absorption markets" which is obviously not their back yard! So I guess the advice here is to start investing where you live even if the market is terrible and if you do good, great, if not, too bad for you!

Another thing I don't like are his "plans" to help you begin investing. He has three different plans, depending on how much time and effort you want to put into investing. They all rely heavily on flipping though, which at this time just doesn't seem to be the best course of action. Plan 1, which is the least intense, has you buying and selling 2 homes a year for 5 years, to make $20,000 a year. Is this realistic? And of course he wants you to do this in your own back yard, so more than likely it's not realistic at all. Plans 2 & 3 rely even more heavily on flipping with the addition of keeping some homes as rentals. Personally I don't think these plans help the beginner at all--how can most people flip profitably in an economy like this? And you're supposed to flip a minimum of 2 homes a year? Doesn't sound like good advice to me. Personally, I think a plan should be flexible and adaptable to one's local economy and a plan that focuses almost exclusively on flipping doesn't allow for that.

Many times throughout the book, the author says that you can email him or call him for any questions you have. Well, I emailed him asking what the top markets are that he is working in now. He says on p. 142 and p. 347 that if I want to know his top markets, to just send him an email. His wife, who is also the coauthor, responded instead saying that that information is only available to current investors who are going on one of their buying tours. A buying tour costs around $6000! And on p. 331 the author says that before they let anyone join a buying tour, they must complete their 7 day video "challenge course" ($299 at his website) and they must have invested in their own back yard. So therefore I need to spend $6300 plus who knows how much time and money investing in an unprofitable market before he even lets me know where the good markets are!

After reading this book, I don't feel very confident in beginning a real estate investing career by following his advice. The author sounds so nice and gives the impression that he's there to help you but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'll be searching for other books and websites to help me begin investing.

This book is a must for anyone thinking about creating aditional income outside of their 9-5 jobs. Not only does the book give you very clear instructions on how you can use real estate to achieve financial freedom, but Garrison takes such a hands on approach rarely seen these days, and it is a very plesant suprise and addition! Throughout the book he inculdes his and his wife's e-mail addresses so that if you have any questions you can contact them. I happend to have a question and he gave me a full and detailed response within 48 hours. How many other best selling authors are willing to do that? Great book..easy to follow..a definate must for anyone looking to expand their horizions and earn some extra income!

He offers some speculating advice and that's about it! The rest of the information is very basic knowledge and about education services he provides which can be bought for a fee. The author appeared quite arrogant throughout, even going as far to name the standard real estate cycle after himself! There were a lot of "I did this!" and "I did that!" and "I'm so wonderful to help people!" This book is not worth your time, unless you enjoy reading the advertisement section of the newspaper, only without the fancy pictures and print.

The author recommends "timing" the market. I'm not a big fun of market timing, but it was interesting to know that enrollment of K-6 has something to do with real estate market.

Typical to some real estate investing books (such as Shemin's books), this book has a lot of "buy my course" ad in it, but I still like that book as it contains a lot of useful tools, especially about how to plan your investing and how to start.