Best books for starting a small business?

[Tien]

Go to Ebay and buy jeffrey Taylor's stuff. You absolutely cannot go wrong learning his management stuff. i can't imagine any property manager not knowing his stuff.

get the book by Gary Keller about general real estate. very good book for beginners.

Get the abc's of real estate investing. A book by one of Rich dad's advisors. robert kiyosaki didn't write the book, its a good book to determining what is a good deal.

Education about acquiring rental property, that, you need A LOT more than a few books to learn how to do.

There are people that are better in this specialty than I am since I primarily flip real estate (for now). I am sure you can go to mrlandlord.com or landlord.com (type it into google if it doesnt come out right) and ask questions about how you acquire rental properties.

I have my crude ways to acquire properties. My methods work rental properties as much as they work for single family houses. But my methods are quite aggressive and a beginner may not be comfortable using them, ie. Aggressively marketing to pre-foreclosure properties, negotiating deals with the owners, etc etc.

start with those books i told you about for now.

Cheers

[Tien]

But if you want to succeed in real estate, you can't go wrong reading as much as you can.

Go to the forums i talked about, even richdad forums and do some searches on book lists.

compile a book list and start reviewing them on amazon and barnes and nobles to see which ones you want to buy.

do the same with real estate courses and look on ebay for the ones you want.

i have a book list of about close to 100 books that i have yet to buy and read and the list keeps growing every week.

[wiseheart]

could you put a link to the post about flipping junk houses?
Please. Thanks.

[Tien]

http://forum.richdad.com/forums/tm.asp?m...de=&s=#3753

Finally found it.

The old Richdad forum back in 2001-2003 was basically a virtual goldmine of information about flipping real estate. Some of the posters there were really top notch guys.

The forum is no longer what it used to be but some of these old posts that I dug up are incredible.


Basically, this thread I linked, was the spark that just exploded my real estate vision and career. IF I didn't find THAT particular thread, I would never have succeeded not only in real estate, but in life.

[lgas]

I think the E-Myth (Revisited), which others have mentioned, is absolutely essential for anyone starting a small business.

[tonybormin]

The first thing that I would advise is to stop reading Kiyosaki. The secret to his success is not real estate like everyone thinks it is. He has the great ability to take a simple idea, write several books, cd's, and conduct seminars on how to become rich. The simple idea is this: If your income is more than your expenses... you will have more money. Wow Sherlcck, you really got to the bottom of that mystery.

In your case, you say you are reading a lot of Kiyosaki lately and it has inspired you to start a business, maybe even real estate. But yet here you are with no clue on how or what to do to make any money. Only that you need a "positive cash flow". You think that in all the books the guy has written he would give some hint on what to actually do in order to create that income? Nope, only that you need it to become rich.

Forget everything you read from the Rich Dad series. Just remember in order to have money you have to earn more than you spend. And don't use phrases from the books either. Call it "net profit" and not "positive cash flow" because you sound like a tool.

I apologize if this is harsh. I'm just tired of hearing about this guy. Maybe I'm just jealous that he found a way to market the simplest of ideas. I wonder if I tried hard enough I could write a series about how water is wet and become a billionaire.

[Tien]

tonybormin, I can understand the Kiyosaki hate. I can also understand how some of these things he teaches can be so trivial to you.

The problem is, if it is so trivial, why are tens of millions of Americans not applying those simple ideas in their own lives?

Why are so many people living paycheck to paycheck, spending more than they can afford, buying more than they can afford, going into record high bankruptcies and 62 year high foreclosures?

Something doesn't make sense here. I thought these ideas were supposed to be trivial. Apparently they are not.

[Tien]

And plus, "positive cash flow" is to real estate as "raising" is to poker.


Net profit is way different than positive cash flow. Negative cash flowing properties can still achieve a net year end profit.

Example: I buy a triplex at a foreclosure sale at 400 000$, it is worth 600 000$ on the market. I rent the property out because the market is appreciating at 10-20% per year. My expenses far outweigh my income from the rents but I sell it a year later for ~650 000$ and achieved a netprofit close to 160 000$ after all the costs of repairs / costs are factored in.

Some things aren't so obvious after all.

[Allinlife]

Tien thanks for your insight, greatly appreciated.

[hmkpoker]

Tien-

From the link you posted,

[ QUOTE ]
Now, the next thing you do is go out and try to find a property that you can flip. I guarantee if you try the right neighborhoods and you spend a weekend, you can compile a list of 10-30 boarded up, abandoned properties. If you can compile 30 of these, now it's time to track down the owners. Look in the tax collectors files. Find the owners mailing address, ask the neighbors if they know where the owner is. Do whatever you can to track down these owners and call them. Negotiate the best all cash price you can do ala Ron LeGrand. "Is that the best you can do?"Listen to what Ron says in his course, I think it is dead on. Get them under contract, you'll find the contracts in Ron's course, or from Legalwiz.com. Once you get them under contract, sell them to one of your investors. If you bought it right in the first place, then you should be able to assign your contract in the matter of a few days. It's really that simple, and you should walk away with $3,000-$10,000. Once you do that, you'll never wonder if this real estate business works again.

So, let me break it down again.
1. Compile your investor list.
2. Drive around looking for abandoned properties
3. Track down the owners
4. Make offers
5. Get the property under contract
6. Sell the contract to another investor
7. Walk with $3-10,000

Don't go for the "home run". Just try to learn a bit and make a few thousand dollars. Don't rehab the property. Just wholesale it. I know you think you can renovate this and make $30-50,000. Don't do it. Just get the money. That $5,000 sitting in your hands will do wonders. Your eyes will start to open, you'll see more deals. Things will come your way. If you feel that the next one you want to rehab. That's fine, you'll have that $5,000 sitting there to protect you. Maybe take a grand out of the money you make and just blow it. Take another $500 and buy some courses. Maybe Steve Cook's wholesaling course, or Bronchicks Nuts and Bolts of Creative Real Estate Financing. But, definitely hold onto some of it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Can you post/link a trip report about your first flip? This sounds pretty interesting.