Investing in Real Estate

by Paul McGreevy, Gary W. Eldred

"This is the best of the how-to-invest-in-real-estate books currently available."–Robert Bruss, from his review of the Second Edition The bestselling guide to residential real estate investment–updated and expanded for today’s market Experienced and successful real estate investors Andrew McLean and Gary Eldred explain in an easy-to-read guide–packed with examples–how you can make money investing in houses and small apartment buildings. Even with today’s lower rates of inflation, residential real estate remains your surest and safest way to build wealth. Now, to help you achieve a profitable and secure future, this new Third Edition of the ever-popular Investing in Real Estate explains why your real estate investments can outperform the stock market and demonstrates how to enhance cash flow, negotiate deals, spot market trends, and explore the Internet. It also covers the important tax law information you need to know. Experts McLean and Eldred show you how To plan for your child’s college education, a higher quality of life, or a prosperous retirement, read Investing in Real Estate. It’s still the most insightful and authoritative guide available.

Genres: Business, Finance, Nonfiction, Education, Money

336 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1988

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent book for those wanting to invest in real estate, more so than those exploring earlier stage questions, like 'rent versus buy', or first time home ownership. It gets quite technical early on covering various financial terms and legal mechanisms, as that is where a lot of the opportunity lies. Eldred is not bashful about his anti-government, pro-developer politics, but should one be surprised at all? His main points regarding different ways to create value in real estate investing are useful in learning to think more strategically, and to understand common mistakes and biases that newbies and amateurs tend to make.

[Jen]

I didn't get very far in this book, because its a few years old and therefore wildly out of touch with the current housing market. I'll look for the next revision, I suppose.

[Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being completely ignorant as a real estate investor, I don't know if any of this book is legit or not, but it sure made sense to me.

[David McClendon, Sr · Rating 5 out of 5]

We review every book that comes into David’s hands unless, for some reason, we can’t give that book at least three stars. We checked Investing in Real Estate, 5th Edition by Paul McGreevy and Gary W. Eldred, which was published back in 2005, out from the Wharton County, Texas library. We discovered there is a newer version published in 2012 that is available. This review is based on the 2005 version.

Although this book was written in 2005, the information it contains is still timely and pertinent. These authors did not specifically predict the soon-to-be real estate bubble. They did give information that would have prevented a savvy investor from getting caught in that bubble.

One recurring piece of advice is to do your research and not to trust the advice of so-called professionals without verifying the information for yourself.

Investing in Real Estate, 5th Edition is very well-written and chock full of information that would be of great service to any would-be real estate investor.

We give this book all five stars. We think that anyone interested in the topic would probably do well to buy the more updated edition.


We borrowed a copy of this book from the Wharton County, Texas Library. We are under no obligation to write any review, positive or negative.

We are disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255.

[Ayesha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Includes a lot of great tips for people interested in investing, general real estate knowledge, and examples. I'd love if it had more real life examples especially of people that failed and learned from mistakes. If it had more real estate investing math scenarios, that would be helpful too.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny how I bought this book to learn more about buying rental properties, but I have to keep skewing all his examples since the author not only lives in southern California, but wrote this during the ascent of the housing bubble. 40 year mortgages, balloon payments, 10% down payments... It’s like bizarro world. Nothing I see around me here in upstate New York even compares. Still, the valuation methods and the ratios make sense. The bits on what to include in a lease and finding good tenants are great. I just have to replace all his numbers with ones that are more realistic.

[Laurie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great jump start in learning about real estate. It breaks things down and makes it easy to understand. It will pump you up about the possibilities Real Estate has to offer.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

A decent read on the principles and mechanics of investing. In terms of demonstrating fundamentals, this book is great.

[Bobbi]

great info!

[T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book regarding the fundamentals of real estate investing. None of the usual get rich quick hogwashery.

[Donald W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent source of information for those interested in beginning a career in Real Estate investing. Covers diverse topics from appraisal, contract negotiation, performance evaluation and more.

[Brian Hara · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent for basic concepts.

[Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book, this author takes a different approach from the other gurus...that of an entrepreneur.