Best Real Estate Investment Books (To Read in 2024)

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For anyone wanting to venture into real estate investing, the probabilities of success are higher if you learn from other successful investors that have already been there and done that.

Fortunately for you, a lot of successful real estate investors have taken the time to write books to share their inspiring journeys. Now, all you need to do is choose the right material that could get you from point A to point B.

To help you achieve your goals, we asked professionals to share some of the best real estate investing books that helped inspire them.

Here are their top recommendations:

Bryan Stoddard

bryan-stoddard

Director, Homewares Insider

The main idea of the book is to teach the reader how to “harness the awesome mental magic of your mind.” Everything required for self-mastery is contained within its pages.

Called ‘the greatest motivational book of all time!’, the book will set the reader on a path to wealth and success. This 1937 classic showcases the money-making secrets of hundreds of America`s most affluent people.

The book is divided into fifteen chapters, and each chapter deals with some aspect of success. For example, the author Napoleon Hill opens the book with discussions on desire and progressively works up the scale towards what he calls “The Sixth Sense”, a new kind of perception tuned into seeing and feeling success.

Written by the FBI’s lead international kidnapping negotiator this book reveals nine effective principles that readers can use to become more persuasive and succeed in both their professional and personal lives.

Created by an expert in negotiating, this book deals with the art of negotiation and provides all the field-tested tools you could possibly need negotiating.

‘Never Split the Difference: Negotiating As If Your Life Depended On It’ will help the reader establish a good rapport and will lead them on a journey of the self-development that will conclude in mastering the various tricks and techniques that will make negotiating in everyday life and work easier.

Related: 17 Best Negotiation Books

Promising to show the readers real-life strategies that smart investors are using to invest in real estate using creativity, and not money!

By the end of the book, the author promises to teach his readers about investing and numerous strategies to mix and match creative investing and deal-making.

The premise of the book is that It’s all about the mindset.

‘The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down: Real Life Strategies for Investing in Real Estate Using Other People’s Money’ will also reveal to the readers the less sunny side of creative investing, and also showcase some pointers on how to attract money, lenders and business partners.

Related: The 19 Best Books on Influence and Persuasion

This book covers a wide range of issues by providing over 30 forms you’ll need to solve day to day problems in real estate investing. There are legal and practical solutions from 50-state charts with specific laws as a great reference point for every aspiring realtor.

The book is a complete legal guide for anyone who owns or manages rental property in the U.S. The goal of the authors while writing the guide, was to clearly explain what the law requires of a landlord, as applied and interpreted by real people coping with real problems.

Included in the book are ways that suggest how to, as a conscientious landlord, comply with the law and make a decent profit at the same time.

Sales expert Grant Cardone opens the book with the primary ideal: everything in life can and should be treated as a sale. The book explains, in layman’s terms the principles of selling as a prerequisite for success.

No matter if you’re selling a product or selling yourself on eating healthy, everything in life, according to the author, can and should be treated as a sale.

Even though the book was never sold in a bookstore, it reached the top one percent of all self-published books. And only with word of mouth. As selling impacts every person on the planet, it’s wise to prepare a strategy on how to deal with that fact.

Ali Boone

Ali Boone

Founder & CEO, Hipster Investments

Rich Dad, Poor Dad is one of, if not the, most epic investing books ever written. Few investors got their start without having read it.

What Rich Dad, Poor Dad hits on and explains that is so game-changing is the reality of money and how it actually works versus how we are raised to believe it works.

Then, it goes onto teach the Cash Flow Quadrant which is imperative for understanding what kinds of investing and work affect your money in different ways.

Once you understand those important concepts, only then are you able to make smarter decisions about how to successfully invest. A must-read for any real estate investor, no question!

The E-Myth Revisited is actually a book geared towards small business.

However, the concepts taught in the book are not only applicable to real estate investing, but they are imperative for real estate investing.

Being a real estate investor really is the same as owning your own business because, in fact, that’s exactly what you are doing. The same concepts that apply to business can apply to real estate investing.

If someone doesn’t understand what is taught in this book, I truly don’t see how they will succeed as a real estate investor unless they hit a rare streak of luck.

The book is short, simple, easy-to-read and with easy-to-follow stories that demonstrate the points being taught.

Don Wede

don-wede

President, Heartland Funding Inc.

Invest in Debt by Jim Napier

$59.99
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10/10/2024 08:41 pm GMT

Jimmy’s book is quite unique. He starts out by explaining why most people are poor. Long story short people use debt to buy things like toys, thing that don’t make them money.

He explains there is nothing wrong with debt if that debt is leveraged and makes you money.

He goes into how to use a financial calculator to determine your return on your investment. He explains the process of buying something for cash such as real estate, cars, and mobile home and how to turn around and sell them on time by carrying payments on the balance that is still owed.

He then explains a fascinating concept that reverse engineer’s the above described process of selling something on time. Say someone has sold a peace of real estate and carried back financing were the buyer is making them payments.

Jimmy then explains how you can then buy that income stream for cash and the payments then come your way. He then explains with the calculator how to figure the amount you can pay cash to receive the return or yield you desire.

John’s book is single family home buying 101. John’s philosophy is to build wealth buying one home at a time.

He goes into the step by step process on how to find these houses to buy. He goes into detail on how you can purchase these houses using owner carry back financing where the seller will take a down payment and is willing then take monthly payments for the balance still owed.

Another technique he outlines is acquiring real estate by the use of options and leases.

John goes into an extensive explanation on what one needs to be a good landlord and the entire rent up process.

Benjamin Mizes

CEO, Clever Real Estate

This book makes something as scary as investing in apartments seem approachable for everyone and is an easy read for even the beginner.

Whether you’re a beginner first getting into the real estate game or an expert who’s been investing for decades, you can learn something new from Brian Murray.

He writes with transparency and honesty, letting you see into his experiences and apply them to your own circumstances and life to achieve success.

It’s definitely a worthwhile read if you’re even thinking of getting into real estate investing.

Written by the real estate wizard himself, The Book on Rental Property Investing is the bible of making money in real estate.

Using tried and tested methods, Turner doesn’t teach anything that he is not or has not been willing to do himself.

If you’ve ever thought about investing in real estate, this book will show you how and set you on the path to financial freedom and independence. For just the price of the book, you can easily be on the way to making thousands of dollars annually in real estate profits.

Know far and wide as a guru in real estate, Robert uses stories of his life to illustrate just how one can leverage debt to make massive quantities of money.

Beyond using money as a tool, Kiyosaki works hard to illustrate the importance of unconventional learning and attributes most of his success to his ceaseless desire for more knowledge.

If you are new to real estate investing, this book will provide you with the energy and motivation to get started. This book is a classic, and almost 50% of investors claim it helped them get started. The content here goes over the basics of using mortgage leverage to be able to buy real estate, and rapidly grow your future.

Michael Blank

Michael Blank

CEO, Nighthawk Equity | Real Estate Investor | Author

After reading many books on real estate investing and trying all types of investing, Joe Fairless’ “Best Ever Apartment Syndication Book” was the most helpful in getting me to think differently.

Instead of spending hours investing in single-family homes or flipping houses, Fairless explains how to invest money in real estate that has a “sponsor” who manages the project for a pool of investors. This is the best book ever for learning the apartment building investment syndication process.

Adam Mitchell

Adam Mitchell

Owner & House Flipper, We Buy Houses Fast In Dallas

This book gives people the true nuts and bolts behind house flipping. Many of the shows on HGTV and DIY leave out the tough grinding aspects of house flipping.

This book explains the entire process of flipping houses from finding the house, estimating repairs accurately, hiring and managing a contractor and finally selling the properties.

Flipping houses is not an easy or glamorous business like the TV shows make it out to be. However, the reward can be substantial. There are several steps like developing a design plan and getting permits that are never shown on TV but really take time. If someone wants to see behind the house flipping curtain then this book is for them.

Enrique Huerta

Enrique Huerta

Multifamily Investor

This book is the analyst’s bible. It is the book that breaks down the financial formulas and real estate jargon for the layperson.

By reading this book, one can begin to comprehend how to analyze, understand, and make decisions on real estate investment opportunities.

A benefit of this book is the inclusion of templates and a link to download complimentary financial analysis tools that one can use to practice analyses and to analyze real opportunities.

Written by a very successful real estate agent, investor, and brokerage executive, this book walks an aspiring investor through the necessary mindset required to succeed in real estate investing.

It also provides a breakdown of business systems and processes that an investor can use to dictate what investments they will focus on and how much wealth they plan to create.

It is simple to follow and has many questions throughout that allow one to dig deep into one’s psyche and understand one’s WHY for their real estate investing journey.

Anyone who has spent any time in real estate investing or success seminar circles will stumble upon this book.

It can elevate one’s consciousness to a fixed understanding of earning money and paying bills, to truly comprehending passive income and how to go about achieving this remarkable lifestyle change.

By simplifying the method by which anyone can achieve passive income streams, the author creates a paradigm shift in his readers. This is all told through a wonderful tale of his childhood and growing up with two fathers – a Rich one (his best friend’s dad) and a Poor one (his own dad).

It is quite an impressive tale and anyone who has read the book will sing its praises as life-changing and often the spark that started them on their journey to financial independence.

This is an academic textbook written by a prominent real estate expert. He is a professor at one of the US’s best schools, and an experienced practitioner in the real estate field.

This book is more for the academically and analytically inclined, but it is chock full of industry keywords, real-life case studies of true investments, and it dives deep into an understanding of real estate as a real investment, and not just a passing fad.

Authored by an experienced professor at HBS and a practitioner in the field, this book focused on DECISION-MAKING when it comes to real estate investing.

We are often faced with competing opportunities and limited resources, as such, it is essential to make the best decisions one can make when putting their own money and other investors’ money on the line.

This book is full of stories about real investors and how they have “played the game” of real estate investing to succeed at a high level.

This book dives a lot into the qualitative factors of the industry and the many players involved, thus giving one an understanding of the true interconnections of the industry and how important and valuable networking can be.

Cornelius Charles

Cornelius Charles

Co-owner, Dream Home Property Solutions, LLC

This book is a good general guide on investing and financial literacy in general.

Although some may consider it “too generic,” I think that this book is a good starting point for anyone looking for basic information on real estate investing.

I think one of its main strengths is describing that investing in real estate is not rocket science and is achievable if you understand the fundamentals and focus your mind on taking action.

Whereas a lot of real estate investing books are geared towards beginners, the “E-Myth Real Estate Investor” talks about the next level of real estate investing.

This book is based off of the original E-Myth book by Michael Gerber, but focused on real estate investing.

The main concepts are centered around creating a business of real estate investing, instead of investing as a hobby or side job.

The goal is to create systems for every step involved with your real estate investing to create a sustainable and profitable real estate investing business.

This is actually one of my favorite real estate books.  Most books focus on buying rental properties, flipping, or wholesaling. 

This book covers subjects that aren’t discussed much when it comes to real estate investing, mainly buying on terms. 

Using lease options and buying “subject-to” can be powerful tools to acquire properties.  When you add this to your traditional methods of buying real estate, such as paying cash or getting a bank loan, you add more tools to your tool belt of buying properties. 

What’s even better, I like how Wendy discusses how the various tools work in seller or buyer markets, which isn’t often discussed in other real estate investing books. 

Brenda Di Bari

brenda-dibari

Licensed Associate Real Estate Broker, Compass NYC

This book is an invaluable tool into understanding how, when, and which questions to ask your potential clients to truly understand their wants and needs, allowing you to deliver an exemplary customer experience and their satisfaction.

Related: What Does Exceptional Customer Service Mean to You (30+ Great Answers)

It offers very simple techniques that are easily implemented into your sales model.

Freese explains step-by-step how to make your approach more customer-centric which is of course the key to a happy customer.

By focusing on his techniques you will quickly learn the value as you realize how responsive clients are to your clear interest in their needs and not so much on your sale.

If you want to break into the luxury market, this is a must read!

Understanding the psychology and expectations of wealthy home sellers and buyers is key to entering and dominating that market.

With top-tier real estate, one of the most challenging aspects is effectively pricing the property so that it will sell, but also be in line with what the seller is expecting.

Before you can create the CMA arriving at the listing price, you need to learn what the seller is thinking and feeling about their niche market. This book addresses this in-depth along with many other tips and insights. So many marketing gifts in this book!

This book is a must read for every entrepreneur. In real estate especially, it can be exceedingly difficult to maximize your potential in your business, personal, and financial life.

Here you can learn to put in place a process, which is essential to optimizing your time and creating a sustainable business model.

Each chapter ends with practical step-by-step exercises to guide you in dreaming, planning, setting, and achieving goals that result in a successful, healthy, and happy life. It’s one of those books that merits reading and revisiting on a regular basis to stay on track and focused!

Focusing on mastering the moments in between, no matter how mundane. Learning to have a purpose driven life. All keys to succeeding as a real estate agent.

Leonard describes the importance of practicing a skill over and over on your path to mastery.

It is important know that much of the time you may feel as though you are making no progress. Progress cannot be the end-goal as you are practicing diligently simply to hone your skill to attain new levels of competence.

You will often feel you have plateaued but it is essential that you continue to practice. This is the path to mastery.

Learn this step-by-step system to become an amazing salesperson. Become the quintessential sales professional that will have your clients thrilled and sending you referrals.

Learn the three crucial ingredients to closing any deal: enthusiasm, benefits, and urgency.

Simple techniques such as saying your customer’s name frequently, asking open-ended questions, demonstrate your product or skill instead of “selling” it, follow-up, etc.

There is so much practical and usable guidance here that you should always keep this book close-by as a reference. Cook also gives many personal stories which are very inspiring!

Daniela Andreevska

Daniela Andreevska

Marketing Director, Mashvisor

The best feature of this book is that it shows regular people how they can make money in real estate through a relatively passive investment strategy.

This makes it perfect for new investors with no previous knowledge and experience as turnkey properties are an ideal first investment property.

Moreover, it also provides people with full-time jobs and other careers with a way to make some extra income without leaving their job.

This book is tailor-made for those willing to start investing in real estate actively and who are not afraid of getting involved in their investments.

The book reveals how you can start wholesaling properties which is a very active real estate strategy.

One great aspect of this book is that it actually focuses on making long-term wealth and becoming rich instead of just making some quick cash and then quitting.

If you are ready to go for real estate in the long term, that’s the right book for you.

Romana King

romana-king

Award-Winning Personal Finance & Real Estate Expert

While this book appears to initially be about the process of how Canadians can turn their mortgage into a tax-deductible, the real premise is how to make that tax-deductible debt work for you — whether you are a Canadian taxpayer or an American taxpayer.

It’s about using debt smartly and using it to build equity (and net worth) through real estate AND through investing. It’s about using leverage to diversify and grow your net worth. Awesome book.

We all know that buying low, selling high and earning income along the way is how to use real estate to grow your net worth.

One great way to do this is to buy properties that need work, put in some sweat equity (your own or pay someone), rent it out before selling the property.

The big unknown in this formula, however, is the cost to upgrade and renovate. This is where Scott’s great guide comes in handy.

While no one can predict with 100% accuracy, Scott’s book does help you assess potential costs and this can help you make much better-purchasing decisions.

A “classic” that was updated in 2015, the principles still hold true today. Many would-be real estate investors make the mistake of not being cash-flow positive.

To be successful at investing in real estate, however, requires positive cash flow — every. single. month of every. single. year.

That means educating yourself on the expenses to expect not just now, but in the future (think energy efficiency upgrades) and how to take these expenses, which are the cost of doing business, into consideration when assessing each potential real estate investment.

Chris Siamof

Chris-Siamof

Broker Associate, Keller Williams Fox Cities

This book is the 4th edition manual by an industry expert. The definitive reference book on REIT trusts. The book focuses on Equity REITS.

He talks from experience about how real estate as an asset is an inflation hedge. As an industry expert, he speaks of REITS historical exponential growth and how currently REITS comprise only 10-15 % of all commercial real estate and are poised for more growth.

He explores the 50 year history of REITS and recent trends. The author does point out the differences between the two types of REITS. They are Equity and Mortgage REITS.

The book focuses on Equity REITS. Equity REITS are a type of security that buys, manages and renovates commercial real estate. By law, REITS are required to pay out 90% of net income as dividends to shareholders and therefore are not taxed on income. Mortgage REITS make money by purchasing and owning mortgages.

A handbook outlining tenant/landlord laws for each state. Each step of the rental process is explored from screening tenants to hiring property managers.

The author explains how to prepare leases and what disclosures are necessary. The importance of move in checklists and nonstandard rental provisions is explored and talks about when a landlord can legally enter their property according to state statutes.

The author provides step by step directions on required steps to handle evictions, non-payment of rent and changes to month to month leases. The laws governing security deposits, giving notice to tenants and sublets is also explored in detail. I learned that one tenant cannot evict another tenant on the lease. That can only be done by the landlord.

The book goes into detail on reasonable costs for credit reports and how to follow the fair credit act. It is a great reference tool for all prospective landlords.

This book provides relevant stories to motivate you. The book was compiled from interviewing 100 millionaire investors.

The book outlines how to develop criteria for identifying property and developing a team. It provides examples of proven models for success.

I found it interesting that the author felt the mindset of thinking big was important. I especially liked his quote of “money lives on the other side of fear”.

Related: 50 Inspirational Quotes About Never Giving Up

He is unequivocal about how not everyone will follow through and proper mindset. The case study example on how opportunity once identified should be acted on and the pain of lost opportunity.

A lot of discussion on the importance of budgeting, developing criteria for purchasing, and “pathing” or watching your money is discussed. The author does a good job of establishing timelines to achieve financial freedom through proven systems.

This is a great guide on how to fix and flip homes. It goes into each step of the process from analyzing potential flip homes, the process of buying and fixing up to sell and outlines how to find motivated sellers and define your target neighborhood.

It talks about the importance of looking for conformity of architecture in neighborhoods taking into account safety, and proximity to schools and amenities.  This book gives great advice on how to calculate offer price based on sales price less improvements/holding costs and minimum profit acceptable to investor.

It has very detailed information designed to help calculate your costs and overall profit margins, details the steps from securing a home to punch list of improvements, cleaning, and end game of staging to sell. It provides a comprehensive flow chart taking into account timelines and costs for rehabbing.

Author from successful blog Bigger Pockets outlines steps in acquiring rental property and building wealth. He shares his enthusiasm for rental real estate outlining how it appreciates, provides cash flow and tax savings.

He outlines the importance of having your spouse being on board and having an accountability partner in following through. He outlines the process for finding an experienced real estate agent, lender, reliable contractors, insurance agents, and property managers.

The author introduces the different types of financing from conventional lending, private and hard money lenders.

Lessons he has learned in writing offers including writing seller letters, including offers to clean out and escalation clauses.

He explains the concept of house hacking. Purchasing and living in a fixer-upper and staying for 2 years to gain tax exemption or owner occupying an acquired rental and having tenants pay lions’ share of the mortgage.

Matt Israel

matt-israel

Real Estate Agent, Triplemint

This book is so helpful in bringing the new real estate investor down to earth with the reality of the game, potentially saving the investor from losing a lot of money due to inexperience.

The book helps you avoid a lot of trial and error, in my opinion.

Julie Broad is a best-selling author, a vividly talented writer, and her writing has real edge. She quit the corporate world at 31 to become a full-time investor, and diligently went through all the struggles and hard knocks to become super successful.

She speaks from a place of someone who has earned the knowledge– she’ll tell you there are zero short cuts, it’s all about perseverance, being honest with yourself, and keeping a sense of humor through all the difficulties you could face. As a former house flipper and current landlord myself, I see the truth in her writings.

Real Estate Investing For Dummies by Eric Tyson, Robert S. Griswold

I am a big fan of Dummies books. I think their over-simplicity in general is their genius.

One of the biggest obstacles to learning is being new and intimidated and getting overwhelmed. This is especially if you’re “smart,” because your ego can get roughed up badly in your confusion!

This book, like most Dummies guides, is designed to make the more technical aspects of real estate investing simple and understandable, which is hugely important to even smarty-pants real estate investors that are starting out!

I am one such person. When I bought four single family investment homes, I first carefully read this and other starter books. It’s so helpful to get a ton of basic orientating data about the realm you’re venturing into.

The author Eric Tyson isn’t trying to sell you anything– he just gives you the relevant facts you need to fully get in the game and to give yourself the best chances of success.

Related: 18 Best Startup Books

This book presents simple, understandable formulas needed in order to look at different properties as potential investment vehicles. It breaks down the numbers you’ll need to understand very clearly.

‘Hold’ is also so helpful in dispelling myths and giving you clarity as you navigate all the variables in making real estate investment decisions.

In fact, after reading this book, I almost felt a little let down because investing when seen through this book’s eyes is so matter-of-fact, methodical, calm and basic. But, that can be great!

When you know what you’re doing, you are an investor, not just a hack predestined to quickly lose his or her money. The book takes the mystery out of the game. It’s essential reading for the real estate investor starting out. You can thank me later!

Michael Kelczewski

Michael-Kelczewski

Realtor, Brandywine Fine Properties Sotheby’s International Realty

Real estate and business, in general, are supplicated by trends. Identifying trends creates resiliency. Looking to the past through primary sources opens a window to the future. One title I found instrumental to understand real estate cycles is “One Hundred Years of Land Values in Chicago”.

The primary source covers the development of a major American city. We can infer greatly from the provided information. Preceding a market cycle or predicting an area deemed suitable for development increases opportunity.

Inferring early urban development and associated values support healthy business models. Currently, a vast available real estate data array to parse facilitates model creation based upon historic trends. As the future unfolds with data science assuming a greater role, modeling based upon historic trend relevancy increases exponentially.

Evan Roberts

evan-roberts

Real Estate Investor, Dependable Homebuyers

The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs by J Scott is a classic book for real estate investors. It shows how to break down the costs of a renovation project so that a real estate investor can derive accurate repair budgets when analyzing properties.

We find that the ability to properly estimate rehab costs is what separates those investors who are profitable from those who end up losing money when flipping or rehabbing homes as rentals.

The book does a great job explaining how to break down renovation projects into itemized tasks that can be priced accordingly.

This top-down approach can be intimidating for most new real estate investors, but The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs provides a template to tell you what the items should cost so that you’re sure not to overpay for a renovation while filtering out contractors who are not providing realistic bids.

Every profitable project begins by buying the home at the right price and this book provides the foundation for new real estate investors to accurately analyze their numbers.

Not only does the book act as a manual for estimating, but it also provides real-life case studies from the author’s personal experience. It shows where he was successful and where he failed, including all the nitty-gritty financial details of the business.

Many readers, like myself, benefited by learning from his mistakes that laid out many common pitfalls experienced by novice real estate investors.

Joe Fairless

joe-fairless

Host, Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever | Author

The Best Ever Apartment Syndication Book is designed for anyone, even real estate beginners, to follow with ease.

Joe Fairless breaks down his four-part system for multifamily syndication and creates a road map to take real estate interest to real estate investment with ease.

Whether stumped by lack of experience, lack of capital or lack of good deals, The Best Ever Apartment Syndication Book solves each of these challenges and gives readers the tools to invest again and again.

Along the way, they learn from expert Joe Fairless’s story – his mistakes and successes – and understand that “labor of love” to become a multi-millionaire real estate investor.

Glenn Carter

Real Estate Investor | Condo Expert, Condo Capital

My favorite real estate investing book lately has been Magnetic Capital by Victor Menasce. As any experienced real estate investor knows, when we first get started we can bootstrap out first few deals and maybe come up with the funds ourselves, or through creative financing strategies.

But, we soon run into the scaling problem, where we need other people’s money (OPM) in order to build our real estate investment business and portfolio.

Victor’s book has been the best when it comes to guiding the reader through the intricacies of raising capital and how to speak and pitch wealthy individuals.

Best Real Estate Books

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