One of the best ways to become an expert at anything is to learn from the people who do it the best! Becoming an expert at investing in real estate is no different. Here are the three books that have made the biggest difference for me throughout my real estate career:
This is the best nuts and bolts, basic yet thorough guide to the mechanics of investing in real estate. It’s the perfect book for investors who are just starting out and need to wrap their heads around what owning and managing rental properties looks like, and how to do it successfully. Definitely the perfect starting point for many of our clients!
2. The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, By Gary Keller, Dave Jenks, Jay Papasan
Besides covering the overall mechanics of real estate investing, this book introduces mindset, budgeting & financial models to the picture. It also adds more advanced ideas like why networking, aka lead generation, is so important to finding opportunities. We often give this book away to our clients as it forms the basis for many of their long-term investment strategies.
This book outlines one of the most intriguing systems-based approaches for building a local real estate empire. In short, it covers how to find undervalued property that has opportunities to force appreciation through rehab or renovations. Then investors can look to refinance the property with higher value and hopefully net more than acquisition and rehab costs (sometime much more), then hold as a rental, use capital from refi to fund your next project. This is a must-read for any hands-on investor that wants to maximize their capital efficiency.