Real estate investing books provide investors access to virtual mentors with decades of experience to guide their path. Obviously, there’s no substitution for getting your hands dirty and building solid relationships. Still, reading regularly helps stack the deck against your competition.
Very few real estate investing books cover everything you need to know for investing in hotels, so a comprehensive library is essential to cover all the bases. The titles below range from step-by-step to motivational to desktop resource guide.
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1. The Millionaire Real Estate Investor
by Gary Keller with Dave Jenks and Jay Papasan
The Millionaire Real Estate Investor is essential reading for anyone ambitious enough to build a real estate empire. This real estate investing book offers a refreshing balance of mindset development and practical on-the-ground tools to elevate your game.
The book identifies all the excuses that keep you from building the business of your dreams. It then systematically smashes every one of them with easy to follow stories and logic.
At more than 400 pages, there’s no question that this book will take even the most advanced reader some time to digest. However, it’s structured in a way that allows you to quickly identify your most pressing needs and address those head on. Use it as a field manual by jumping around as you progress on your journey to financial freedom.
Real estate entrepreneurship is a challenging vocation with many roadblocks and abundant rejection. Consider this book your periodic pep rally to stay the course through all the inevitable adversity, as most of it is motivational.
(Link: https://amzn.to/2K8e5u4)
2. The ABCs of Real Estate Investing: The Secrets of Finding Hidden Profits Most Investors Miss
by Ken McElroy
The ABCs of Real Estate Investing provides a unique glimpse into investing in large apartment communities. Most real estate investing books focus on small residential projects, so the mindset shift and analytical approach presented here is an important precursor to investing in institutional-quality hotel deals.
Experienced operators falsely believe that they need to have a track record of investing in small projects before getting involved with an institutional investment. While that experience does have tremendous value, your experience in the field is often more important for hotel investments and asset management.
The step-by-step approach described in this book is a good foundation for anything you would expect to encounter in an institutional hotel deal. Read it with an open mind to adapt the financial analysis and business development approach to your target deals.
(Link: https://amzn.to/2W7OXuC)
3. What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow… And 36 Other Key Financial Measures
by Frank Gallinelli
What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow should have a permanent place on your desk – right next to your calculator. It offers an Ivy League-quality education for the price of a dinner for two at Chipotle from a Columbia University graduate school professor.
Part one concentrates on the investigative part of underwriting. It takes you through what you need from the seller and additional research to get the job done right. Thereafter, you get a step-by-step guide to evaluating the financial merits of the deal.
Part two is a who’s who of real estate investing tools and terminology. Each calculation has a pithy explanation of its importance, how to calculate it, and an easy-to-follow example. In true university fashion, you even get some exercises to practice.
This is the one real estate investing book that will unquestionably save you multiples more time and money having it around than the cost. Just think about all the times you filtered through a Google search to get that one high-quality answer to a simple underwriting question.
(Link: https://amzn.to/2QsTkKN)
4. Real Estate Investing For Dummies
by Eric Tyson and Robert Griswold
Real Estate Investing For Dummies is a broad guide for real estate investors. The book covers a wide range of topics from passive investments to intensive fix-and-flip projects. It doesn’t dig deep into any one area of the business, but this book certainly gives a thorough overview of all areas involved in building up a real estate portfolio.
Most real estate investing books start with developing an investor mindset, travel through sourcing and underwriting, and stop at the closing table. The time and effort to find good deals require such rigor in the early stage of an investment. However, business plan execution is essential to fostering a sustainable long-run strategy.
This is not a cover-to-cover read. Take it in chunks as you approach each part of the investment process. The advice and technical guidance will serve as a roadmap for new investors and a refresher for more experienced practitioners.
On a related note, don’t be afraid to carry this one around with pride. Anyone who gives you grief for reinforcing your real estate investing vocation with a “For Dummies” book will never get to the places you’re headed.
(Link: https://amzn.to/2wswXeY)
5. Raising Private Capital: Building Your Real Estate Empire Using Other People’s Money
by Matt Faircloth
Raising Private Capital doesn’t pull any punches. This book offers a guided tour through the trials and tribulations of raising money from private investors. It clearly explains the roles of deal sponsor and capital provider by putting context around each party’s place in the deal.
Many real estate investing books cover this topic very superficially in a single chapter. However, this book could contain the most important advice to get you from where you are today to the business of your dreams. After all, the wealthiest investors routinely turn to other people’s money to stretch their investing capacity. Why not you?
This book is 90% practical advice and only 10% motivational. Still, that 10% borders on practical because of how important mindset is to selling yourself and your ideas.
BiggerPockets published the book so it has a residential investing bias, but all the principles and practices apply to raising money for any type of deal. Hotels are an operating business as much as a real estate investment.
Track record is a major part of raising private or institutional capital. Operations professionals can (and should) use their experience in the field to explain their track record. Form strategic partnerships to fill any gaps in your track record. Consequently, you have no excuse but to begin raising private capital immediately.
(Link: https://amzn.to/2EEJNLN)
6. 50 Real Estate Investing Calculations: Cash Flow, IRR, Value, Profit, Equity, Income, ROI, Depreciation, More
by Michael Lantrip
50 Real Estate Investing Calculations is a no-nonsense glossary for every calculation you would ever need in your financial model. Take this as a companion or secondary resource to What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow. It is a bit denser, mathematically, which is nice for the left-brained investors among us.
Have you ever been in a meeting, where an investor asks you about an obscure financial metric? Your answer was probably, “I don’t want to give you bad information, so I’ll look at my model and get back to you.” Two hours of Google search later, and you come back with an answer held together with hopes and dreams. Never more!
This is one of those real estate investing books that gathers dust on your desk or book shelf. Nevertheless, when you need it, you’ll quickly realize that it’s the best 12 bucks you ever spent.
(Link: https://amzn.to/2QtZRol)
7. The Real Book of Real Estate: Real Experts. Real Stories. Real Life.
by Robert T. Kiyosaki
The Real Book of Real Estate is chock full of real estate investing ideas. This book contains abundant motivation, practical tips, and step-by-step guidance, but its greatest value is in helping you see dozens of different ways to slice and dice a deal.
Every investment platform has its attributes and challenges. No two business plans or execution approaches are the same. Your growth as a real estate entrepreneur comes from experiencing these differences and learning from masters that have been there before.
Don’t go it alone!
The mentors in this book have decades of real estate experience in different capacities. Some charge tens of thousands per month in coaching engagements and others aren’t even available to the general public. Consider this a peak into the upper echelon of real estate entrepreneurship.
Don’t expect a bunch of motivational cheerleading like many other books in the Rich Dad library. This is purely narrative with actionable tips and tricks generously sprinkled throughout.
(Link: https://amzn.to/2EDeIIu)