Investing in Duplexes, Triplexes, and Quads: The Fastest and Safest Way to Real Estate Wealth

by Larry B. Loftis

Amass more than $900,000 in properties in one year, without using any of your own money, or that of your investors.
Real estate investing can be an excellent way to build wealth. With its advantages of cash flow, appreciation, tax benefits, equity buildup and leveraging, real estate may be the only vehicle that can carry the average person to retirement wealth.
Real estate investor, attorney, and author Larry Loftis has developed a safe, easy, and lucrative way for new investors to get into the game, and for experienced ones to enhance their portfolios. In Investing in Duplexes, Triplexes and The Fastest and Safest Way to Real Estate Wealth , he draws on both his real estate investing experience and legal acumen to explore advantages you may not have considered about residential multifamily properties of two to four units.
Learn how
•Buy duplexes, triplexes and quads with no money down, AND get cash back at closing.
•Eliminate risk, and guarantee that your mortgage payments are always covered.
•Use "cash-out" from refinancing to purchase more properties.
•Decide whether to buy and hold or "pyramid" to a large apartment complex.
•Use inflation, tax laws, and rehab to build a massive retirement nest-egg.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Finance, Personal Finance, Money

256 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2006

Reviews

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

First the bad: Dubious assumptions about appreciation, this was written before the housing bubble. I would not invest based assuming the rates of appreciation that he does. That could be very dangerous indeed. Also his info and strategies for using the internet for real estate are outdated, but that is to be expected. The internet changes almost constantly, so it's nearly impossible to write something definitive on it.

The Good: Great info and strategies for real estate investing. The numbers might be overly optimistic, but the strategies are sound. Good info on pitfalls to avoid, evaluating properties with different calculations e.g. Cap rate, GRM, etc..., tax benefits, finding people to work with, and lots of other little great bits of advice.

If someone were to follow the strategies in this book they would do very well. Just be wary of the optimistic appreciation numbers.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super useful, but should be paired with 'Building Wealth One House at a Time' so you can get a more critical perspective of this investment strategy.

[J Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book has some good concepts, but is filled with fluff, repetition, and examples that could easily be described in one paragraph but go on for three pages. The margins are huge, there are tables and charts that add absolutely nothing to the core messages, and many of the chapters (e.g., on managing tenants and properties) are useless.

The core of the book - using residential multi family properties - is good and that message is repeated throughout. The description of how to use leverage and strategies to increase investments are also good, but the low/no money down approaches and the faith in the continued rise in real estate prices were, of course, powerfully contradicted by the housing “crash” that occurred very shortly after publication.

All in all, this would have been an excellent monograph, but is vastly overpriced and bulky as a book.

[Kurt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was written in 2005 so it is obviously dated and pre-bubble. That being said it offers some very good strategies for a beginner investor. In that respect, I would recommend reading it. However, he places an extremely high value on the Gross Rent Multiplier of a property. I metric that, while useful, is not a number I put much stock in for my area. When I plug in the GRM number for a property in my area it looks decent. When I run the 2% rule it looks marginal at best.
Also, he uses a very conventional approach to investing. In today's current market placing 20% down on a new purchase is common. Back then 10% down or less was common.
A good book for beginners. But even at that, there are newer books that are much more relevant.

[William Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good!! I would have rated it higher, but I didn't agree with some items and because I've read a few other REI books that cover much of the same info. With that said, I would still recommend the book! There was really good info in the first third of the book. Also, I believe that every book provides a slight tweet on past knowledge, so go ahead, read them all. The biggest negative is the time when it was written, 2006. We all know what happened next year, so keep that in mind when reading.

Enjoy Life!

[Arie van Gemeren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good, though a bit simplistic. It’s a little hard to read as well because it was written in 2006 so the writing has the vibe and feel of pre-crash enthusiasm and seems to bank on appreciation of the underlying asset versus more stable financials. Also the loan figures seemed unrealistic - I at least haven’t seen 0-10% down deals often! But the basic idea is the same or similar.

That aside it was a good overview of basic strategies and approaches to building up in the asset class.

[Goutham Beesetty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great intro book on the topic.

This is a very action packed book. Lays out a background on what a novice home buyer with hopes of being a long term investor needs to take into account.

Due diligence, Price Negotiations, Who are the involved in a real estate transaction, the why and how of purchasing Duplexes, triplex and quads

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

I appreciated Mr. Loftis' attorney perspective to real estate investing. Compared to David Lindahl's Multi-Family Millions, Loftis shared more legal considerations, which I valued since I am new to the industry. I recommend this book to any self learner interested in multi-family real estate investing.

[Christopher Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great way to start on the idea of small multi-family investing. It's very step-by-step, pausing every time it introduces a new concept to flesh it out. Well worth a read for any & all budding investors.

[Ken Weiner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for a beginner. As someone with some experience, it served as a reminder to pay attention to GRM (gross rent multipliers) as the primary way to value a 2-4 unit property. Buyers-brokers that will split their commission with the buyer is also something new to me that I will investigate further.

[Joshua Duran]

This author has the unique misfortune of predicting that home prices would continue the unprecedented rise seen in 2006. This book is dated and offers some strategies of questionable viability -- however I cannot say that I did not get anything out of it.

[Leah Salvador-Stelzner · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it, very informative and it could get a bit technical. If I want to have an easy read, it would be rich Dad poor Dad.

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a good book for beginners I felt a lot of the information was repetitive.

[Jonathan Wylie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little outdated but has some good strategies that can be tweaked from the 2020s. I am just thankful for the knowledge that I did not have before.

[Corina Eufinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fine as a beginner book. Otherwise of you've read 3 real estate books, it's useless.

[Ernie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book explains basic real estate investing concepts very well. But, it is a bit dated. So read it and take what you can use from it and move on.

[Denny Troncoso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book on buying small multifamily.

[Cameron Floyd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid book about investing in multifamily homes

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good read, though I really would have liked to sit down in about 2009 with Mr. Loftis, who goes on at some length in this 2006 book - that's the height of the housing bubble, if you're unfamiliar - about how anyone who thinks there's going to be a crash (or even a time where houses don't go up in value) is basically an idiot.

So I take what he writes with a grain of salt, but there was still a lot of good information that does generally apply to the post-bubble economy, and buying and selling 2-4 unit properties in particular. There are a handful of tips and ideas that I took into my own search for property, importantly vetting my assumptions with my realtor, my finance guy, and my attorney.

I do find that there are some places where Loftis' math gets a little suspicious. Particularly when he talks about buying cheap, fixing up, and raising rents? He counts the down payment and maybe closing costs in his 'money invested' column when he calculates cash-on-cash returns, but when it comes to accounting for rehab costs, the money doesn't appear to come from anywhere. There's no reason to believe that money is coming out of equity or rents, so they need to get counted as cash invested. If someone has some insight into this apparent error and I'm wrong, I'll be the first to acknowledge it, but I'm not seeing it.

[Devin · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Wealth-Building Foundation Plan" (p.199)
Phase 1
Chapter 8-Valuation of a property (Margin, GRM, Cap Rate, Comps, ROI,
Gross Rent Multiplier(GRM)- a figure that measures the gross annual rents relative to the purchase price. It's an income to price ratio that can be used to compare properties. The lower the GRM the better cash flow you can expect.
Purchase Price divided by Gross Scheduled Income

Phase 2
*Sample Rental Application (p.179) and Sample Rental agreement (p.186) for use

Phase 3
Taxes (p.191)

[CJ Flynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a really good book on the topic of real estate investing.
It covers why 2-4 unit rentals are ideal because of tax & investment reasons. Since reading this book I have learned that in Iowa (where I live) 2 units is the max any more that & it's tax at the commercial rate!

In this book John T. Reed was mentioned that was the 1st time I had ever heard of Mr. Reed before. I now plan to buy the Reed John T. Reed's Complete Real Estate Investment Bundle.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unrealistic lending expectations post 2008 crash

[Seth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book that makes the case for multi-family homes, just a little too optimistic for my taste. It can't just be all gravy.

[Jarrid Gable · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly informational book. If you are interested in multi family properties, this is the book for you!!!

[Nancy Carr]

Good reference book