Books That Deserve a First, Second, Third and Thirty-third Reading

Reading this wonderful post over on Shaun’s blog, How To Get Started In Real Estate For Under $400, got me thinking about our own beginning in REI. For starters, our experience closely mirrored his post (never tried #10… just not a birddog by nature). And I can’t help wondering how much we spent on our real estate and financial education. Books by the dozens followed me home, some helpful, some not-so-much.  Many’s the time, I wished for an outhouse just so the book wouldn’t be a total waste. 

So in the spirit of meat for the hungry, here’s a list of favorite authors. These are the books re-read between projects.

For inspiration:

• The first few books by Robert Kiyosaki, particularly Rich Dad/Poor Dad, Rich Kid/Smart Kid, Cash Flow Quadrant. These started our journey to financial independence. It took way too long to figure out they don’t actually tell you *how* to do a single thing and much of the advice is seriously dated and/or doesn’t work InYourLocalMarket. Still, I recommend them to everyone because the concepts are foreign to most and nobody tells the story better.
• Richest Man in Babylon by George Clason. If you haven’t read this book, buy a copy right-this-minute and send me a big thank you donation when you’re financially free. And I’m not joking- read and apply the principles and your life will change. (Make sure you’re reading the original version written in 1926 as a series of pamphlets– several contemporary authors have written books with the same or very nearly the same title.)

For practical application, anything by:

• Jay P. DeCima aka Fixer Jay (author of Start Small, Profit Big in Real Estate and Investing in Fixer-Uppers) Jay’s method will work almost anywhere making his books an exception to the general rule that most real estate books are big on pep-talk and low on practical application. The mister and I read his books about once a year.
• Lonnie Scruggs - Lonnie’s known as the mobile home guy (Deals on Wheels and Making Money With Mobile Homes) but I love his books for another reason-he understands the principle of compound interest. Read through his stuff and you’ll begin to see the Richest Man in Babylon principles worked out practically in the present day.  (I’ve got his latest book, Taking the Mystery Out of Money, on order and plan to review it separately.)

Note: Terry Sprouse over on Fixer Uppers and Rentals Houses has a book titled, Fix Em Up, Rent Em Out, that looks particularly good, especially for anyone getting started. It’s next on the reading list with a full review planned for next week.

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Tags: getting started in REI, landlord, Rehab, rent houses