How to Buy and Manage Rental Properties: The Milin Method of Real Estate Management for the Small Investor (Paperback)

~ Irene Milin (Author), (Author) "Being a successful landlord doesn't require a lot of hard work, but it does require planning..." (more)
Key Phrases: rental interview, wraparound loan, successful landlord, Multiple Listings, Property Maintenance, Tracking Your Properties (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Mike and Irene Milin, who drastically changed their careers, entered the field of real estate with no assets. After attending seminars, reading, and studying, they settled in Arizona to become millionaires. They describe how they accumulated over 200 small-income properties of five or fewer units in a matter of four years. Their theory is based on management of people (buyers, sellers, tenants) and purchase of the right properties. The authors cover all the basics: purchase, advertising, tenant selection, maintenance, expenses, bookkeeping, taxes, inventory, equity sharing, and selling of unwanted properties. Numerous charts and samples of a rental agreement, tenant disclaimer letter, rent increase letter, etc., are included. Recommended for public libraries. Mary Ann Wasick, West Allis P.L., Wis.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Mike and Irene Milin are the world's most successful couple in real estate education, the "Dynamic Duo" whose amazing sellout seminars in real estate management have shown thousands across the country how to find, purchase, and rent properties -- and let their tenants do the work!

Now the Milins have put their practical, time-tested techniques into a book, How to Buy and Manage Rental Properties. They show you how to use the Milin Method to avoid problems and expenses while keeping the money coming in -- the Milin promise is financial freedom in two to three years! How to Buy and Manage Rental Properties will show you how you can get tenants involved in the maintenance of your rental properties -- the remarkable "hands-off" strategies that put your properties on auto pilot, leaving you the time to achieve more as a real estate entrepreneur. Their program covers in detail all aspects of buying, financing, maintaining, and renting properties, including:

* Managing people, not property
* Buying right to manage right
* Rental interviews and agreements
* Keeping good tenants, and getting rid of bad ones
* Bookkeeping, taxes, and property tracking
* Real estate agents and property sales
* Equity sharing and partnerships

It's all here in a guide you can easily read and refer to -- the best, most comprehensive program of buying and rental techniques ever developed, detailing sound and sensible ways to protect your investments and get the most out of your properties with the least trouble.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Fireside; Revised edition (June 15, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671644238
• ISBN-13: 978-0671644239
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #479,027 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Obnoxious Landlords and Poor Authors, September 3, 2001

By	Brian Glass (Zanesville, OH United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a landlord always trying to learn valuable tips on running my properties I picked this book up intrigued by the
hands off method touted on the cover. It didn't take me long to realize that the few helpful pointers found here
aren't worth the effort of putting up with the authors obnoxious egos. The reader is constantly reminded that it's
their way or the highway. That's fine if it works for them, I prefer to be a little less condescending to my tenants
and perspective tenants. Some of their advice is down right ridiculous. They suggest meeting someone in the
lobby of an office building and letting them believe you have an office there. They don't encourage lying but there's
no harm in letting someone believe what they want, right? I'm sorry, if I handled business like that I would feel like
quite a moron when I was found out.

The interview technique is interesting. After writing repetitively about not wasting their precious time on
perspective tenants they suggest an hour and a half interview! And they have the audacity to make it sound like
the would-be tenant should feel grateful and privileged. I have rented several times in my life and if someone
were to suggest I be grilled for an hour just to live in their property I would leave in disbelief.

They seem to hold some naive opinions on dealing with people. Their reward system sounds great in theory but it has been my experience that if someone isn't concerned with paying there rent on time they won't be worried about paying the fifty dollar late charge. The only way to avoid these situations is to do as the book suggests and screen carefully but that is more common sense than some author's patented method.

There are some helpful tips here but none are revolutionary and could probably be stumbled over elsewhere. I feel a little ... for paying ... bucks for this book, but then I remind myself I didn't pay a thousand dollars to attend one of their seminars, I don't think I could take the screening process.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars not entirely practical, January 5, 2000

By	Peter Garcia (Chicago) - See all my reviews

The book focuses on a specific type of tenant (credit worthy) and a specific type of rental property (single-family), and pretty much dismisses all other avenues of approaching rental property and tenants, which, in turn, dismisses a great deal of landlords. Finding an adequate pool of sellers who are desperate and willing to accept the buyer's terms is hardly an easy or realistic prospect. I'm a successful landlord, and I don't fit the book's ideal. Though the book's specific strategy might not be readily applied (out-dated and too narrow), some of the general information that relates to rental property and tenants is good and can be applied to most situations.

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fantasy Tenants - Outdated Data, August 21, 2000

By	"sookyas" (Mission Viejo, CA USA) - See all my reviews

The Milins do a good job describing the ideal tenant for your rental property, however, I think they have cornered the market on all the timid, spineless and straightlaced tenants for their properties. You may have a hard time finding such tenants.

The idea is simple enough: get the quitest, politest and nicest families around, who are too busy working, to pay the rent on TIME - before 5:00:00:00 pm on 1ST of the month. These kind-hearted souls also would love to take care of all the minor repairs on the house, while the Milins are touring the country teaching their dynamic system to others, all for a $50 dollar "discount" on the inflated rent. I guess if you can find just such tenants and put them through a 1.5 hour interview process and grill them through a NINE PAGE lease agreement then you can start to book your teaching tours very soon. A word of caution, some countries may impose entrance restrictions on the grounds of your "crimes against humanity".

Based on the neighborhoods and tenant candidates discussed in the book, the housing prices and rents are severly outdated. The Milins discuss $50,000 to $70,000 single family homes in Arizona and California that are less than 10 years old in safe neighborhoods, near shopping centers and good schools! No such homes exist anymore in these areas - at least not the ones which might attract your ideal tenant.

In inflated housing markets such as California, it is challenging (but not impossible) to make money on single family home rentals. The sellers are not as desperate to sell as the ones described in the book (they are the real heroes in this book, as far as I am concerned!) . Since there are sometimes multiple bids on a property, it is not in the seller's interest to accept your terms when he can get an all cash offer from another buyer.

I would have appreciated more current and realistic options and advice in these types of markets. Unfortunately, the Milins just describe an ideal scenario of desperate seller - meets no cash down buyer - in simple blue-collar neighborhood. And if you have not come across such a place you simply "have not looked long enough", which is just too simple of an explanation.

This book did help me identify what kind of a landlord I would like to stay clear of - on that topic it gets my 5 star rating.