Buy and Hold: 7 Steps to a Real Estate Fortune [Paperback]

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".

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.