Customer Reviews

Flipping Properties

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Just a gloss over. Offers some weak advice. Look for the worst house in the best neighborhood - ????? Everybody and their dog does that, and how many ratty houses are there in good neighborhoods? For a book like this to be worth anything it needs to offer advice you cant get elsewhere. Try "Fast Cash" by LeGrand for better.

I have read several books on real estate investing and I have even attended real estate licensing courses to learn the fundamentals of real estate. Having done all that my opinion of this book is generally good.

The author doesn't promise instant riches or make it seem so easy that you can do it without any work, in fact, he advocates that this is a lot of work to do it right. The sections on prospecting for houses to buy and how to approach potential sellers is also very good.

What I didn't like about the book, is his treatment of the infamous "due on sale clause" for those of you who don't know what this is, it is a clause in most mortgages that says if an owner sells you a house and he still owes money to the bank you can't just "assume" his loan, in other words you can't just take over the loan and start making the payments...at least legally. The authors advocate doing it anyways and hoping you don't get caught by the bank and making sure you explain it to the sellers, what he says is that if the bank is an out of state bank they will probably never know you have taken over the payments so don't worry about it. What he doesn't tell you is that if the bank does find out and they do decide to force the issue they can call the entire balance of the loan due at once, possibly putting the investor in a bad situation, which could also affect the original sellers since they are still listed on the loan.

The second issue about the book is the creative financing aspects of the book, it is not that these techniques don't exist, becasue they do, but understand that only about 1 in every 100 people who agree to sell to you would be interested in some creative financing, especially if they are distressed buyers. Most distressed buyers will want out of a bad situation right now with all their money (if any is left). They need cash, not some payments over time. Second the zero percent interest situation will work, sometimes, but it is even more rare than the general creative financing techniques. Most houses you buy this way will require you put some cash into the deal (or find a partner who can) and finance the remainder through a private mortgage broker paying interst rates of about 15-18%. Most banks will not lend money on these types of property because they may need a lot of work. So your three options are creative financing or private mortgage lenders, or the third is put all the cash in yourself.

The last comment is that the book doesn't discuss tax ramifications of doing flip deals at all. If you are successful and flip 3-4 properties in a year for 10-20K in profits you will be facing some mighty tall tax consequences and it would have been nice if the author had discussed this a little and some common techniques for dealing with this.

This may sound like a negative review, but it's not meant to be. The book has some great information and the author's writing style is easy to understand, but it is just meant to let you know that there are clearly some down sides to the author's suggestions that you need to be aware of before rushing into this form of investment. I would recommend reading Kevin Meyers book "Buy it, Fix it, Sell it, Profit" This is fantastic book that will compliment this book very well. I would also recommend the real estate investor's tax guide, both would be needed to give this book a balanced view.

Mister Bronchick does a great job at the beginning of his book explaining the different strategies investors may take from starting out to becoming more experienced. Although, some of us may know of these strategies already I found it useful to have them shown all together. Flipping Properties is a fantastic source of marketing material! There is a section in the rear of the book that makes the book worth buying alone. Finally William provides another very useful section at the rear of the book with sample forms you can use for all types of real estate transactions.

DerekBuysHouses.com

This book reads very well and contains a lot of practical ideas. I have been investing in real estate for about 10 years and have read a lot of books, most of them hype and fluff. You won't find anything but solid, good advice here, despite the "instant riches" hype in the title.

The book starts out by covering the difference between legal and illegal flipping, an issue commonly misunderstood by real estate brokers and lenders. It then goes on to cover real estate law, finding motivated sellers, drafting contracts, negotiating, estimating rehabs, and funding deals. It wraps up with a nice chapter on the real estate business, going full-time vs. part-time, etc. Lot of bang for the buck.

I've done quite a bit of flipping of properties, and this book really hits the highlights of the process right on the mark. Keep in mind that some lenders (particularly FHA) are not as cooperative in lending on properties that have been flipped recently. This is backlash on the dark side of the business, the fraudulent activities of a few bad seeds. This book, however, will keep on you on the straight and narrow - definitely a must read.

I am an experienced real estate broker, and I was looking for a good text to recommend to my beginning investor clients - this is it! The book reads very well, considering the vast amount of technical information about deeds, contracts, escrow, title, etc. No hype in this book, just practical, ethical information about the "quick turn" real estate business. Some very good sample forms are included in the appendix as well. If you are getting started as an investor, this one should be on your list of MUST-READ books!

Informative book, though slick as a dolphin's back. The biggest drawback, in my view, is that the strategy is based solely on distressed properties--the so-called motivated seller. The authors make this clear from the get-go, defining "distressed property" on page 3, and cautioning the reader throughout the book to deal only with motivated sellers.

This approach makes good sense, but it cuts out a world full of wonder: the physically sub-par house in the upscale neighborhood. Sellers in such places are seldom highly motivated, but who can deny that there are profits to be made there? Too, distressed properties are the domain of the giant wholesalers such as Homvesters,Inc., so you have very well financed competition.

I read all the way through just to see what the process was like in these sorts of transactions. Title problems in particular interested me since motivated sellers are apt to be up to their eyeballs in liens and judgements. On page 79 I found this information: "Even if the title report shows problems with the title, the contract is still in force if the seller can cure the problems before closing."

And if the seller can't, which is highly probable, since they acquired the problems and signed a contract to sell the house to get out of the problems? Well then the authors have 3 solutions for you, the buyer, and they all start with "Sue".

1. Sue for specific performance
2. Sue for damages
3. Sue for return of the earnest money

So unless you're a lawyer, which Bronchick is, you can kiss your prospective profits goodbye just prior to signing and sending a check to the lawyer of your choice. No one you see is smarter than he.

Not surprisingly, the authors recommend doing business as a corporation, since we "live in a litigious society...Eighty million lawsuits are filed every year." Scandalous. In addition, Bronchick and Dahlstrom provide timely and comic advice for keeping your marriage together as you make the transition to flipper: "If you are married, make sure your spouse reads this material with you and participates in the fun process of making money."

Easy to read. Just the sample forms and ads alone are worth the $15 price. You may need to understand the mechanics of real estate investing to follow well. Covers some techniques that only a seasoned investor/dealer would consider but I found the step-by-step to rehab a property and a link to how not to do business under your personal name very helpful. I created a checklist for my project folder so we don't miss anything. The basics work! This book is a good stepping stone to your garden of financial freedom.
I don't see however doing a double closing or convincing a non-delinquent owner to sign over his deed to me. My experience this last year is that I have had to Overbid on properties and have absolutely no contingencies (weasel clauses) just to get a counteroffer. Make a note of the basics and investigate from there. There's no magic, only work. PUSH247

The bad... thing about this book is that the real estate jargon used by the authors is really hard to grasp for someone who is a rank beginner. These guys really know the business, but for someone who doesn't know it or doesn't have a familiarity with real estate jargon, you'd need to read other things before trying on this book.

One example of what I'm talking about, quoted from the text of the book: "In some cases, the seller may already have a mortgage on the property. If this is the case, the seller may require the buyer to pay most of the purchase price in the form of cash so that he can satisfy his loan balance. The difference between the loan balance and the purchase price (equity) is paid in the form of a promissory note. Assuming the buyer borrows the cash from a conventional lender, the note to the seller will be secured by a mortgage that is junior or subordinate to the lender's mortgage. When the transaction is complete and all documents are recorded, the buyer has title recorded in his name, the lender has a first lien, and the seller has a second lien on the property."

Whhhaaaaaaat......???? They totally lost me on that one, and this book is so full of paragraphs like that one that I have to read everything three times before I even begin to get an idea what the hell they're saying. They don't mind in the least bit using complicated phrasing and technical/legal real estate jargon that totally intimidates and confuses the beginner.

I'm not saying this isn't a good book for seasoned, experienced real estate investors, but for the beginner it's worthless. All the who-holds-what-note lender-seller-escrow-third party-deed of trust-subject to finance-lien-agent-power of attorney-due on sale mumbo jumbo and all the paragraphs that seem to go in thirty directions at once do nothing but intimidate the beginner. I got to the end of this book thinking "I'm never going to be able to do this at all, let alone make any money at it." Thank god I have other books that don't make me feel that way at all, such as "Buy It, Fix It, Sell It, Profit!" by Kevin C. Meyers. This is a much easier to understand book that doesn't use a bunch of pretentious legal jargon and phrasing that looks like a literary M.C. Escher drawing.

If you know a bit about how real estate transactions work, I might recommend this book...... MIGHT recommend it. If you don't know anything and have never bought a piece of real estate, read other, simpler books before you read this one. These guys write like lawyers (one of them actually is a lawyer) who are writing for other lawyers. Very hard to grasp if you're a beginner, to the point that it makes real estate look too intimidating to get into--which I know is not the case since people do this all the time and it really is a feasible way to make a lot of money as long as you don't read anything by bozos like these two who are apparently trying to scare everone away from it.

I just received Flipping properties two days ago. The good news is that it is a very easy book to read and comprehend. I have already read it cover to cover twice. The book provides some excellent forms and is very good in defining basic Real Estate 101. It gives some good ideas and theories, Gee, it seems a lot of the reviews in RE are very generous.

I see some holes in the theory of "Flipping Properties". The major theme of Bronchick & Dahlstrom is to go out and find (or hire someone, " a scout") a distressed house with a motivated seller, make an offer, approximately 80% of the value of the home, Make a small deposit, ( $500-$1000) ,while promising the current owner they can close within a short period of time. Then, or concurrently, find an investor, ( retailer) to purchase the property and while giving yourself a profit.

This sounds good an very easy to do, but how many people or contacts would you or could you find to finance 80-100K? I am talking about the average person. The only suggestion is joining an investment club? And networking? Great, I am going to front money to trust people on the Internet? Also, even if you can flip the property, why would an investor continue to use your services on a double close? Lastly, the Flipper is required to have an exit strategy . The answer is if the investor backs out, then just purchase the property yourself. Great, I am sure I will get bank funding when I am already holding a note on my house for 300K! The book does not give enough info on how to finance, HUD, foreclosures, Etc, Also, the tiny little adds in newspapers doesn't sit well with me, as you will see.

Overall , the book is interesting, and I believe you can get an idea of the theories behind flipping properties but this book is not the total answer, I am going to take some of the info and combine it with info from other books and financial institutions.

This book got me started in real estate investing. It is a must for any beginning investor, covering the whole gambit: flipping ("quick-turning") real estate, rehabs, negotiating, writing contracts, dealing with realtors, setting up a game plan, finding other investors to work with, etc. It comes with some real good sample contracts, which, from my attorney background, I must say are quite good! Syndicated Columnist Robert Bruss, also an attorney, gave this book a "12" on a 10 scale.

I have since read some of Mr. Bronchick's other books and they all cover the important details and legal aspects of real estate better than any other books. As an attorney, I often notice that these details are often glossed over in other books which are loaded with theory. You won't be disappointed with Bronchick's books - they are loaded with content! It's good to see there's a real estate attorney out there covering people's bottom line!