Product Description

An updated edition of the most reliable guide to commercial real estate for small investors



Commercial real estate investing is easier and cheaper to get into than you probably think it is. But if you're a novice investor or an investor who wants to make the switch from residential to commercial properties, how do you know where to begin? This Second Edition of How to Make Money in Commercial Real Estate shows you how to make the move to commercial real estate and wring the most profit from your investments. Successful investor and former accounting professor Nicholas Masters explains all the math and gives you all the expert guidance you need to successfully invest in commercial properties.

You'll learn how to:
* Prepare yourself before you start investing
* Evaluate different types of real estate and undeveloped land
* Read economic cycles and indicators so you know when to invest
* Calculate the long-term potential profits from properties
* Understand tax issues that impact your profits
* Form an investment club to share the risks and costs of getting started
* Find and evaluate individual properties with great potential
* Negotiate, finance, and close your deals
* Manage your properties yourself or through a management company

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #816254 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From the Inside Flap
Now in an updated second edition, How to Make Money in Commercial Real Estate helps small investors just like you get started building a profitable real estate portfolio. Focused on the high profit potential in commercial real estate—but packed with unbeatable advice for residential investing as well—the book's step-by-step approach simplifies the real estate game for beginners and explains complicated subjects in terms anyone can understand.

Written by former accounting professor and successful real estate investor Nicholas Masters, this practical guide won't show you how to get rich overnight, but it will show you how to build a profitable, successful portfolio over time. Real estate is the key to long-term wealth building, and this reliable guide gives you all the tools you need to succeed.

Point by point, Masters explains the various types of real estate, including family homes, residential complexes, shopping centers, office buildings, and undeveloped land. He explores the relative advantages and disadvantages of each type of real estate, including tax benefits and other factors that need to be considered. He shows you how to get started even without a big down payment and walks you through every step of investing in and owning property, including basic management.

If you think investing in real estate is beyond your means or skills, think again! How to Make Money in Commercial Real Estate, Second Edition shows you how to find the right properties, take advantage of auctions and foreclosures, properly value homes and buildings, negotiate the best deal possible, get great mortgage terms, and manage property profitably. With new case studies and up-to-date information, this is the ultimate resource for new investors and those who want to make the move from residential to commercial properties.

If you've ever dreamed of attaining financial security, real estate is the best way to establish a steady, reliable source of income for years to come. You don't have to be Donald Trump to succeed. All you need is the right guidance and information you can trust. Full of reliable, time-tested advice, How to Make Money in Commercial Real Estate, Second Edition takes the mystery out of buying real estate and helps you make your dream a reality.

From the Back Cover
An updated edition of the most reliable guide to commercial real estate for small investors

Commercial real estate investing is easier and cheaper to get into than you probably think it is. But if you're a novice investor or an investor who wants to make the switch from residential to commercial properties, how do you know where to begin? This Second Edition of How to Make Money in Commercial Real Estate shows you how to make the move to commercial real estate and wring the most profit from your investments. Successful investor and former accounting professor Nicholas Masters explains all the math and gives you all the expert guidance you need to successfully invest in commercial properties.

You'll learn how to:

• Prepare yourself before you start investing
• Evaluate different types of real estate and undeveloped land
• Read economic cycles and indicators so you know when to invest
• Calculate the long-term potential profits from properties
• Understand tax issues that impact your profits
• Form an investment club to share the risks and costs of getting started
• Find and evaluate individual properties with great potential
• Negotiate, finance, and close your deals
• Manage your properties yourself or through a management company

About the Author
NICHOLAS MASTERS, MBA, CPA, is a licensed real estate broker and has been a real estate investor for more than thirty years. He is also a former assistant professor of accounting.

Customer Reviews

Disappointing: out-dated and not comprehensive
While Mr. Masters does make several good points, most of the information in this book could apply to any real estate investment: whether it be residential or commercial even though the title of this book clearly makes it appear that this book will focus on commercial properties, which it does not.

Mr. Masters starts the book by making a quick comparison between real estate and other investments, such as holding your money in cash, saving accounts, securities, collectibles, and precious metals. He gives the advantages and disadvantages of each: namely, liquidity versus returns. Now, we get into the meat of the subject matter. First, Mr. Masters argues that an investor should own their own primary residence and have 12 months of expenses in the bank before venturing to invest in commercial real estate: conversative, but good enough advice. He gives comparisons between different commercial properties you can invest into, with garden apartment complexes and anchored shopping centers getting his nod as the best investment choices for a real estate novice. He argues that novice investors should form investment clubs to invest in real estate together; however, he gives very little advice as how to hold title and what form of ownership the group should take. I understand that people must consult with tax and legal professionals to see what best matches their situation, but it would have been nice to have Mr. Masters elaborate on this since its a key argument of his book.

To find property, Mr. Masters tells the aspiring investor to work with a knowlegable broker and not purchase a property with a cash-on-cash return or a cap-rate under 8-10%. While I agree its very important to buy properties with positive cash-flow, this is one of my biggest issues with this book: while in theory it'd be great to skip every property that offers lower returns, in today's market its virtually impossible in most top markets to find properties with those types of returns. If you follow the advice of the author, it will now be impossible to purcahse most investment opportunities as he does not leave room for exceptions in his rule. He also ignores other calculations and never shows how to construct an APOD, which really dates this book. There is no mention of an IRR or projected cash-flows. He also never says to independently confirm the income and expense figures given by the seller even though 9 times out 10 the cap-rate the seller gives on a property is calculated off of proforma numbers that are not aligned with market realities. I can sum up his financing section in a single sentence: find a good mortgage broker to find you a good rate on a fixed, 15-30 year mortgage. And to manage your property? Use a professional management company and watch them for a year to see how they do it, then you can consider doing it on your own. He gives very little helpful advice on what to look for in a management company, mortgage broker, or real estate broker as well.

Tax information is included relegated to an appendix, yet it doesn't even touch on a 1031 tax-deferred exchange and tax implications of real estate investments are hardly touched upon, and when they are, they're no longer applicable as tax laws have changed. I don't remember reading anything about what will effect the basis of your property, how to calculate cash-flow after taxes, or even more than a few quick words about depreciation!

For someone who has purchased their own home or has even a little bit of real estate knowledge, this book has little pratical use -- the only difference between this book and better, cheaper books that I've read is the author's limited information on investment clubs. He even gives poor advice on finding information online: he tells the reader to go online and type in a few keywords on a search engine, not realizing that the reader will find plenty of advertisers and unscrupulous companies in the results.

For anyone who's interested in investing in real estate, I recommend the first thing they learn is how to evaluate properties so they know what to look for in an investment opportunity. To that extent, I highly recommend Frank Gallinelli's "What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow and 36 Other Key Financial Measures", a far-superior, more-practical, and less expensive book.

Buy this book first
When I decided I wanted to learn more about commercial real estate investment, I bought a pile of books that claimed to be relevant and started working my way through them. This one was the ONLY one that I feel was really worth the read. It starts out by ascertaining whether the reader is truly ready to buy commercial real estate, taking a very prudent view of personal finances. It lays out everything worthwhile that any of the books on this subject lay out, and does so in a very readable manner. At the same time, it does not talk down to the reader or try to "dumb down" any of the material. I would suggest starting with only this book, and then buying other books (or talking to experts) in a more focussed manner, based upon what you find here. Incidentally, I haven't bought any commercial real estate yet, but I still intend to and I am trying to follow the advice of this book in preparing to do so.

Sound information. Good for experienced or beginners.
This is a good book with lots of good information. The book is great for persons without any knowledge of commercial real estate and is a good reference book for persons with experience in commercial real estate.

It is worth noting, however, that the much of the author's experience with investment real estate seemed to be during the 1970's decade. During that period of time there was hyper inflation in the real estate market. Often values and prices paid for real estate did not make much sense.

Some of the examples in the book refer to properties indicated to be worth several million dollars - and not exactly what you would call a small investment property.

However, the financial scenarios in this book are based on reasonably sound financial and economic theory. And the reasoning for the mathematical financial calculations seem to be fairly sound.

The book is a good buy for the price.<...