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Making it in Real Estate: Starting Out as a Developer by [John McNellis]

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John McNellis

Making it in Real Estate: Starting Out as a Developer Kindle Edition

by John McNellis (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Expanded and updated with 20 new chapters about leadership, investment decisions, and the regulatory environment, plus guidance on how to survive an economic downturn. With over 35 years in commercial real estate, author John McNellis has taken the best-selling first edition of Making It in Real Estate and expanded it with new content, market-specific solutions, and real-life strategies to start and grow your real estate portfolio. Like a meeting over coffee with a mentor, McNellis entertains with witty anecdotes and wisdom on how to take advantage of opportunities and avoid pitfalls. Learn the ins and outs of financing; how to work with architects, brokers, and other professionals; and how to make a good deal and win approval for your project. Listed as required reading for students majoring in real estate at universities across the nation, Making it in Real Estate: Starting Out as a Developer, Second Edition, has readers calling it "the best book on development . . . that accurately describes the true upside, downside, and work involved" in commercial real estate.

Print length

180 pages
Language

English
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On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Urban Land Institute
Publication date

October 12, 2020
File size

2761 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

“Best damn book on development I’ve ever read.” —Preston Butcher, chairman, Legacy Partners

“John McNellis’s book on real estate development and investment is extraordinarily insightful and full of wisdom. His wit makes it an easy read. I would highly recommend this book to both experienced and beginning real estate developers and investors.” —George M. Marcus, chairman of the board, Marcus & Millichap Inc. and Essex Property Trust Inc.

“John McNellis fills his book with rich insight, great advice, humor, and inspiration—sharing his deep experience and wisdom, helping us think more clearly about real estate and assorted business issues. A must-read.” —Mark L. Myers, head of commercial real estate, Wells Fargo & Company

"Your book is hands down the best real estate book that I have read and I recommend it to everyone (novice and veteran) in the industry." —Lucas Joseph, Berkeley Capital Advisors, one of the top producing US-investment sales brokerage firms --This text refers to the paperback edition.

About the Author

John McNellis is a principal with McNellis Partners, a commercial development firm he cofounded in the mid-1980s in northern California. After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of California Hastings College of the Law, McNellis began his career as a lawyer in San Francisco. Always more interested in business than in law, he started fixing up houses in his spare time and gradually worked his way to more complicated projects. At 28, he formed a partnership with an older client and began his career as a retail developer. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B08LZYJ1FT
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Urban Land Institute; Second edition (October 12, 2020)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 12, 2020
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2761 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 180 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #359,855 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #39 in Commercial Real Estate
- #155 in Real Estate Investments (Kindle Store)
- #256 in Career Guides

Customer Reviews:
241 ratings

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A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Hastings College of The Law, John practiced law until he co-founded McNellis Partners, a Northern California shopping center development firm, in 1982.

John is a decades’ long member of the Urban Land Institute—a founding member of its Environmental Task Force—and the ICSC. He is a ULI Governor, has chaired two separate ULI Councils and served as both a Trustee and Council Councilor. He has also served on the board of directors for Lambda Alpha International (Golden Gate Chapter).

A frequent lecturer on real estate topics, John writes a monthly column for the San Francisco Business Times and is the author of the critically acclaimed books, Making it in Real Estate: Starting out as a Developer (First an Second Editions), an industry standard and taught in universities nationwide. His lecture series on YouTube is the most widely viewed of all of the ULI’s video presentations.

John is actively involved with Outward Bound USA, having served on its national board of directors and now on its advisory board. He is a past president of the board of directors of Rebuilding Together Peninsula and is a board member emeritus. He has also served on the board of directors for the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center and was a seventeen-year volunteer at the Palo Alto Downtown Streets Team’s Food Closet.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

241 global ratings

5 star		74%
4 star		12%
3 star		10%
2 star		1%
1 star		3%

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Amazon Customer

Fantastic Real Estate Development Primer. Read This When Getting Started!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on January 23, 2023

Verified Purchase

John's book is a fantastic, concise primer on the real estate development business. This book offers great insight into all the things a young developer should consider when starting out on his/her own. Concise and to the point with no "fluff", this book takes all the hard learned lessons from an experienced and successful developer who learned the business the old fashioned way and by making mistakes. His knowledge and experience is invaluable.

Helpful

Mac Ross

Great Resource for those looking to get started in real estate development

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 28, 2022

Verified Purchase

I am a real estate attorney with experience in real estate development (mostly land entitlements and project approvals), John's book hits on a lot of points while keeping it interesting and fun to read. John's expertise is apparent in his writing, and the short concise chapters made the book easy to read, I finished the book in a few sit-downs, and plan on going through it again to highlight, earmark, and extract all of the little nuggets of wisdom that are in there. Given the material it covers, John makes a book about real estate development about as interesting and fun to read as possible. I would recommend to anyone who currently works in real estate and anyone with an interest in entering the world of real estate investment/development. It will be a book that stays on my desk for years to come to utilize as a resource, hopefully someday I have a little of the success that John has had in his career as a developer.

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Best real estate read on the market

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 21, 2022

Verified Purchase

This should be required reading for everyone selling or working in the real estate field. I have been full time in real estate sales and development since 1974, wished I would have started my career with this book but have completely enjoyed the read as it is spot on with his humor and opinions.
Ed Benoit

Helpful

Brosie

The lessons are not applicable only to real estate, but essential to business, investing, and life.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 14, 2021

Verified Purchase

I absolutely loved this book. The title is somewhat misleading. This is not a how to book, but more of the key insights from a seasoned real estate developer. The lessons from John are not applicable only to real estate, but essential to business, investing, and life. John is hilarious, and this is one I will re-read. Here are some thoughts John left me with:

-As long as you’re working and your capital isn’t—you will always be working.

-If you don't specialize, your specialty will be failure.

-To paraphrase Warren Buffett, I'd rather be a mediocre developer in a brilliant city than a brilliant developer in Lancaster, California

-Disclose everything except your bottom line.

-Trust your fellow man, but recognize the frailty of human nature.

-If you're looking for love, at least fall for the numbers and not for the property.

-To PARAPHRASE A VULGAR APHORISM, self-delusions are like opinions—everybody has one. Some have many.

-You might be reminded of the old joke: How do you make a small fortune in real estate? Start with a large one.

-Soberly viewed, a financial statement is more daydream than fact.

-How would you prefer your own personal $10 million net worth—assets of $10 million and liabilities of $0, or assets of $3.01 billion and liabilities of $3 billion? An overleveraged net worth can, back to Cactus Jack, bubble away like spit on a griddle.

-On bankers: "Somewhere along the line, bankers lost their childlike joy in surprises" & "My banker was right: it is all about cash flow."

-The more costs under your control, the less likely you’ll have to read Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

-A great deal is rarely great on the first day it is offered to you; no one consciously gives anything away in business. Because great deals are made, not born, you must analyze many deals that make little sense at their asking prices. Why? Because things have a way of changing.

-If a deal doesn’t work on the back of a napkin, it doesn’t work.

-The strategies that work so well in a bull market can take you down in a recession. When it freezes, animals adapt. Bears hibernate, birds fly south, and bees live off their summer honey. Time to think about adapting.

-They also believed in that American myth, that wrongs can be completely righted in court.

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Odysseus

Interested in Commercial Real Estate Development? START HERE....

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 5, 2022

Verified Purchase

I will not add much to the many positive reviews of Mr. McNellis' wonderful little book (Only 170 pages in length), save to say the following: If you are serious about going into real estate development, the first step is to............KNOW THYSELF. Don't do it "for the money." Don't do it because you may think you'll be some commercial real estate rock star driving to the grocery store in a Lamborghini. Do it because it is your passion, your interest, the thing that makes you want to jump out of bed in the morning and go to work, and, as Mr. McNellis underscores a number of times throughout the book, you want to help others, to contribute something positive to the world around you. McNellis explores the tricky and often risky world of commercial real estate development in dozens of short, humorous, and witty essays, but it turns out that the most important take-away is to know your own strengths -- and weaknesses. A+++++++++++++

2 people found this helpful

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Kim Campbell

Excellent

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 30, 2022

Verified Purchase

Excellent book providing a great underlying knowledge of the basics of real estate.

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Top reviews from other countries

Emir Cehajic

Excellent. Concise. Wise. Witty

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 13, 2021

Verified Purchase

I hope the author writes another book. Educational and written in an excellent style. Covers a lot and filled with wisdom gained from author’s long experience in RE.

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