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Terrific! I cannot believe that someone found this book to be worthy of only a two rating. I have bought countless Real Estate books on this site and found Schumacher's book to be the best one yet. I have only been investing for four years and currently have four properties and I have re-read this book countless times for insight, and inspiration. Just because this book was written about properties purchaced in the 60's doesent make the information dated at all. IN fact, it proves that the lessons are timeless. The one negative review that I read stated how silly it was to think that a lesson about picking up cheap properties could possibly be applicable today. Well, they seem cheap now but in the 60's they were very expensive to Mr. Schumacher just as today's "crazy" prices are expensive to us today. Im sure 30 years from now two-hundred and fifty thousand dollars will seem like nothing to us and that is one of his points. So, Im going to keep buying one house a year and if Mr. Schmacher is right and I can hold on through the early years, then I should be sipping cocktails on my water front property not doing a whole lot of work in about 20 years. Great book! Not well organized -- Redundant and Windy While there is good information in this book, it is poorly edited in that (1) it makes the same points over and over again (was an outline made for this book?) and (2) the text is anything but succinct and in some parts, riddled with typos. My major problem with this book is that, for at least the first third of the book, Schumacher expends needless paragraphs touting the virtues of real estate over other investment strategies, giving tiresome example after example to make his belabored point. I don't know why he didn't say this ONCE in Chapter One and move on! About halfway through the book (if you make it that far) Schumacher begins getting into the details and specifics, but as a writer he tends to be windy, drawing on numerous examples of friends and associates to prove his point (as though this is a court trial). After becoming frustrated with this book, I ordered "Rental Houses for the Successful Small Investor" by Suzanne P. Thomas and got what I wanted: it is succinct and gets to the point and holds it throughout the book. Dynamic Duo I bought "Buy & Hold" along with "Income for Life from Real Estate" and read both books. I found them to be quite compatible and also complementary. What one book covers only briefly, the other handles in more depth. Both make a compelling case for holding, rather than flipping properties. Both the authors seem to have actually done the things they are recommending, which makes these books far more valuable than many of the books and tapes from "promoters". Buy and Hold has my HIGHEST recommendation! This is one of the best real estate books ever written. I have read over 200 books on the subject of real estate and this one is in my top ten. I also read the earlier 1992 version called "The Buy & Hold Real Estate Strategy" which sometimes sells for hundreds of dollars. The later 2000 version is just as good if not better and costs ... on Amazon. It would be a bargain at many times that price! Today the author, David T. Schumacher, Ph.D owns approximately 66 units worth about $15 million. While he owns his property in Hermosa Beach and Orange County, California, the principles apply to all areas of the country. He has certainly benefited by the great appreciation rates in California, and while other areas have not appreciated as much, given a long enough period appreciation will build your real estate wealth. He started buying Hermosa Beach in 1960, so he has had the luxury of 40 years or nearly as many years of appreciation on some building. He shares the real estate stories of himself, his brother, mother and father as well as other friends and associates. This vast wealth of 40+ years of real estate experience comes through in Dr. Schumacher's books. He relates about a real estate investment that his parents made in 1939, buying a single family house with a garage and apartment for $7,000 with $500 down. And his first real estate purchase on his own in 1956 of a 4 unit building in Hollywood for $20,000 with $1,000 down. Some people might look at these deals done long ago as a negative and not relevant to today. That is just not so. The author is still an active investor and lecturer today and the principles of his book make sense now. He had worked as a real estate appraiser for many years and relays in his book how to value a property. In this book his 7 step approach includes: 1. Finding the Location 2. Buy 3. Long-term Financing 4. Hold for 20 years 5. Appreciation 6. Sell 7. Attain Your Fortune Schumacher is strongly against short term financing and balloon notes, feeling that they are time bomb waiting to exploded for the investor. He prefers long term financing both from conventional institutions as well as owner financing. He writes in his book about making personal sacrifices to ensure the comfort of his tenants as well as at earlier times to make up for negative cash flow. He is willing to accept a negative cash flow if the property is a sound property located in a growth area. One of his strong principles is to figure out what the value will be in 20 years. By studying government planning, building trends, and growth patterns, he feels that you can become proficient in determining what areas will have growth in 20 years and which areas will not. The author writes that he likes to charge maybe 10% below the market rent to attract and keep the best tenants. He states that a vacancy is better than a bad tenant. His mother would bend over backwards for her tenants and would even lower the rent to keep a tenant. He doesn't do a lot of re-financing and prefers to keep existing financing in place. He advocates not paying off a mortgage early for example. In his book he advocates buying rental properties with a good prospect of future growth. And while he suggests trying to negotiate the most favorable price, that is not the biggest issue. Schumacher relates of negotiating on one property for 9 months, so he is not suggesting buying at any price. However, when you have a long term prospective of 20 years or more, the price you pay is not that large an issue. If you pay $105,000 instead of $100,000, it won't make any difference in 20 years if the property is now worth $400,000. Or in the case of Schumacher, he bought a six unit in Hermosa Beach in 1960 for $85,000 with $3,000 down, that is now worth more than $1million. Buy and never sell, or seldom sell is one technique that this book explores in detail and that you can learn to grow wealth over a long term. This is not get rich quick, but more get rich slow. In a way this book reminds me of William Nickerson's "How I turned $1,000 into $5 Million in Real Estate in my Spare Time", which just might be the first if not the best real estate book. (Nickerson's book is out of print and can cost hundreds of dollars.) I highly recommend both of these books. A Warren Buffett-like approach to RE investing I found this book to be very helpful in reinforcing my own philosophy for RE investment. I also found it to be very logical and down to earth, with lots of real life examples that the reader would need to apply to his/her own situation. A real easy read, with loads of simple and useful advice from someone who's been at this for quite some time. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to invest in RE. See also:
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