I recently devoured Confessions of a Real Estate Entrepreneur by James Randel and I have to say I rate it as the best commercial real estate book available today.  Although, he does not get into the technical aspects of investment real estate, his stories and points, are the most realistic of any other commercial real estate book in my library (and yes, my commercial real estate library is quite large). My clients and partners who are multi-millionaires through real estate investment, play the game very similarly to the way Mr. Randel outlines.  They add value in their purchase, operation and sale of investment real estate to create a disproportionate return on equity invested and share of the upside.  In other words, they are earning north of 30% annual return on every dollar in the investment; while mitigating and managing risk a the same time.

If you are looking for ways to get into the real estate game, this is a good primer.  He discusses finding and adding value to deals, how to work with lenders and attorneys, the basics of ownership and contracts; and touches on brokerage and development among other interesting real estate topics.  As compared to other similar books written by experienced investors, this one is somewhat low on ego (still high on non-real estate people's ego scale) and even has a chapter devoted to his mistakes where he lost millions.

Overall this is a great conceptual read full of seasoned advice and fun stories. He touches on some technical aspects of financial analysis such as Net Present Value and Discounted Cash Flow Analysis and how investors use the techniques. But readers should turn elsewhere for detailed methods and how to of such techniques.  The CCIM Institute has several classes devoted to the nuts and bolts of investment and market analysis, which I highly recommend.

To learn how you can earn 20% annual returns on you dollars, simply contact me and we can discuss your needs and objectives.

Thomas Morgan, CCIM 1-866-539-1777