The most recommended real estate books

All the books I recommend have to do with business and finance. Why? Because that’s how you succeed as an artist.

It didn’t take me long to realize this key fact: talent alone gets you nowhere. It’s about marketing, business, strategy, and, yes, finance. This book helped me to realize two things: my wealth is measured in time, and to never say, “I can’t afford it” (Always ask: “How can I afford it?”).

It’s only because I was able to manage my money (eventually) that I was able to end up co-starring in a film that was sold at Cannes!

An Honest Living is another great New York novel that made me nostalgic for the city where I used to live. I loved how Murphy used mystery conventions to upend the genre altogether.

The book might strike some as deeply unsatisfying. Still, I loved how it didn’t satisfy expectations, and (without revealing too much) I loved the story’s message about the meaningfulness — or unmeaningfulness — of life’s tragedies.

Race for Profit connects all the dots on the imbalances in housing in the United States today.  As someone who bought a first home right before the mortgage meltdown, I’ve always wondered about the experiences of Black homebuyers historically.  This is an expertly researched look at predatory inclusion, the nefarious ways that institutions—in this case the banks and real estate industry—extended opportunities for homeownership to poor, Black families to purchase homes in the late 1960s and early 1970s.  Rather than create high-quality public housing or enforcing the principles of fair housing laws, the federal government supported home buying schemes that ultimately imperiled buyers.  Taylor places emphasis on how discourses about Black women and housing planted the seeds for backlash against people who received public assistance and housing program users.

This is an Urban Land Institute publication by lead author Rick Peiser—a longtime Harvard University Graduate School of Design faculty member—and a large group of additional contributors. PRED is especially useful for those taking management or developmental roles in the commercial real estate industry. It’s systematic, comprehensive, and logically organized. It’s also expensive, but then again, it’s 400 pages long. Spring for the hardcover edition—easier to work with, and well worth the investment. 

I absolutely adored this book. I laughed from beginning to end. This is an adventure like no other and set in one of my favourite countries, Scotland. I have been lucky to visit Scotland twice. Its history, culture, scenery, and people have intrigued me since I was a child. The main characters are kilt-wearing animals, eating lots of cake and doing their best to fit in. These wolves might be the polite high society type, but they have a voracious appetite that makes the story so entertaining. It’s a tale full of delightful Scottish humour, castles, dungeons, and a villainous real estate agent. This hilarious romp through the Scottish countryside brings back wonderful memories of all that I have encountered while visiting this fabulous country. 

This book is one of my favorites simply because of the down to earth style Terrie portrays in her writing and business, yet she is extremely productive in her investing career.

Terrie is very clear that her book is not a get rich quick or instant wealth playbook, but rather she takes you on the proper journey to building wealth with real estate rentals.

One of the unique things about Terrie’s book is that she dives deeper than just the surface level investing and helps you get into your investing mindset and establish a solid foundation for you to build upon, not only from an investing standpoint, but also from a standpoint of how you operate your business and the relationships you build. 

I came of age in the 1980s. It was the time when I first discovered my love of New York. It was also a time when America was in the heady throws—partially fueled by cocaine—of an economic and real estate boom. More skyscrapers were erected in Gotham than in any other period, even more than during the Roaring Twenties. It was a time when every developer thought that if they bought a well-located lot, they could turn dirt into gold by building a skyscraper—a post-modernist one at that. 

Jerry Adler’s book follows the up and down fortunes of the young and ambitious New York developer Ian Bruce Eichner as he painstakingly assembled a large lot, raised financing, and erected a skyscraper on Broadway in Times Square. And then, just when he thought he had achieved his greatest glory, the real estate market tanked, and his crowning achievement became a ghost… show more.

As soon as we meet Rick Masters, the hero in our story, we know we are in for a bumpy ride.

Rick is struggling like crazy to keep up with the other real estate agents in his office, and he’s failing miserably. Luckily, Rick meets a guide who teaches him about a new way to communicate, and a powerful way to sell more.

This book reads more like a novel than a boring business book. In fact, it’s even a love story! I’ve implemented many of the strategies from the book, and each time I have, I’ve seen a dramatic improvement in my sales results. If you are in business or sales, this book is a must-read and a fun read!

If you like investing and making money in real estate, then you will love learning how to make money being a “lienlord” instead of a landlord. Paper Profits gives you everything you need to know to purchases performing and non-performing mortgage back notes and profiting from them. Most people I talk to don’t understand that most banks don’t want to deal with defaulted mortgage notes. They would rather sell them at a discount, take the tax write-off, and move on. This is an awesome opportunity for the small investor. Josh Andrews shows you how you can get started in this unique investment class with a small amount of money. In my opinion, discounted mortgage notes are the best way to elevate your income outside of your job or business. At the same time, if you really love this investment/income niche, you can make it your full-time income endeavor as the… show more.

When I walk through the streets of Manhattan, I’m constantly awed by the variety and density of its buildings. I wonder how such a city could have ever been built. New cities today lack the soul and character. But when you look at why these buildings exist, you see that they are there for a more mundane purpose: as shelter. The Garment District, for example, was created to house massive sweatshops to clothe America. Gotham’s apartment towers enclose the beds on which residents sleep. 

Many of these structures were built by a group of family-run development companies. The founders of these enterprises invariably began as immigrants trying to hustle their way up the economic ladder. They started as teenagers working in the sweatshops or hawking newspapers and, bit by bit, erected their own real estate empires. Tom Schactman’s book tells how entrepreneurial spirit, along with New York’s rapid economic growth,… show more.