Comments on: Giveaway: Complete Real-Estate Investing Guidebook by David Crook

By: Flexo

Flexo — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 06:00:13 +0000

Thanks to everyone who participated. The contest is now closed and I’ll announce the winner shortly.

By: archetypical

archetypical — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 02:55:22 +0000

Count me in!

By: Kay

Kay — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 01:56:21 +0000

I would love to read this book. I am 28 and just made the decision about 3 months ago that I wanted to not only buy a house but also get into realestate. I’m sure its all “HGTV”‘s fault. Watching their programs has showed me how fun and “grown up” it is to own your own place.
So again, I would love to have this book.
thanks and good luck to all.

By: tmg

tmg — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 23:07:39 +0000

It’s definitely time for me to diversify my investments…

By: thebronze

thebronze — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:40:39 +0000

Free is one of my two favorite words…

By: Cynthia

Cynthia — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 14:59:30 +0000

Count me in

By: Patrick

Patrick — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 23:11:17 +0000

My wife and I are proud owners of a mortgage and currently have no investment properties. :)

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 16:22:16 +0000

Been very interested in real estate investing for a while, but afraid to pull the trigger. Sign me up.

By: MM

MM — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 06:12:45 +0000

Buying property in NYC can be so frustrating. Real estate brokers pull a lot of bait and switch tactics when advertising and showing properties. Then some delay in providing the disclosure agreement. I need this book because I am looking to purchase property within the next two months. I have seen so many dishonest practices that it is time for me to learn the procedure and not put up with their unhanded tactics.

By: Edwin

Edwin — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 00:55:31 +0000

Sounds great, count me in.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 21:49:22 +0000

Currently saving money while deployed to Iraq. Thinking that buying a house would be a great investment. Just don’t know where to start.

By: Big

Big — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 16:18:42 +0000

I’m feeling lucky…

By: Family Savings

Family Savings — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:36:45 +0000

I have yet to learn about real estate investing. This book would be great to start out with.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:23:03 +0000

Still worries me that it is written by a guy with the last name of Crook, but count me in!

By: Sestos

Sestos — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 14:09:42 +0000

Free. Free is good.

By: Lindsay

Lindsay — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 13:22:59 +0000

Thanks for the neat opportunity! I am interested in a free copy of the book to give as a gift to a coworker who has expressed interest in making money from real estate. :)

By: rb

rb — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:09:06 +0000

i hope i learn from this book…

By: WannaBeARealEstateInvestor

WannaBeARealEstateInvestor — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 02:12:23 +0000

Having read lots of books and purchased many real estate seminars from Allen, Cook, Rich Dad, Whitney, Sheats, and the likes I was pumped up about real estate investing. One thing they don’t tell you are stories of failed attempts, which people can learn a lot from. Hopefully someone can benefit from my story. I believe we learn more from our failures than we do our successes. The path to success is thru failure often times. I took the plunge, purchased properties and became a landlord. 7 years later I had 3 duplexes, 3 single family homes, and my primary residence. The only problem, I financed it all on credit cards. Big problem. The properties were old, in need of constant repair, and the tenants were transient, so I always had too many vacancies. Big problem. I could not keep tenants. Bad part of town. Negative cashflow caused by constant repairs and vacancies were the reason I could not continue to make the payments on high interest credit cards. Management of it all was a nightmare. I am a programmer by trade, so I had an 8-5 job at the same time. At one point my company downsized and I was let go, so all I had were these loser properties and they were driving me nuts losing money. I could no longer make the payments because I also financed many or the repairs on credit cards. I went bankrupt and lost it all. That was 15 years ago and I have recovered. I have repaired my credit and it is good now. I built a new home (5 years ago) and would try it again. This time with better, newer properties less in need of repair, better financing, and with the services of a professional property manager. I would do things much differently this time, but still have much to learn. Anything your good book could show me that could help would be appreciated. Thanks.

By: sfordinarygirl

sfordinarygirl — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 07:56:35 +0000

I haven’t had any failed attempts at real estate investing, yet.

I almost decided to liquidate my savings a year ago to invest in real estate after listening to one seminar and getting hooked at the spreadsheets and how easy it looked. I’m glad I didn’t because it involves a lot more work but something I’m interested in exploring.

By: Joy

Joy — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 04:01:57 +0000

Hmmm…failed attempts at real estate investing…I got one. I spent over $5000 buying a “No Down Payment” course and coaching over a year ago and have not bought a single property. I think I really need the Wall Street Journal Complete Real-Estate Investing Guidebook.

Thanks!

By: thomas

thomas — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 22:37:03 +0000

This sounds like a pretty good book. i’ve been hitting my local library all summer grabbing books on real estate investing and home purchasing. I live in a very high cost area, but have roots in another state that has much lower costs. My goal is to buy a property there, rent it out, having tenants pay my loan. All this subprime mortgage fallout and liar loans are making my purchase more difficult.

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 23:06:47 +0000

Count me in. My wife and I are saving up for an intended real estate investment in the next year.

By: mark

mark — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 20:06:29 +0000

I’m actually saving for my first investment property in a college town. I’m planning on buying a 2 bed 2 bath condo and would love some help!

By: VG

VG — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:59:20 +0000

Please count me in!!!

By: Gavin

Gavin — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 19:28:45 +0000

I’m 33, make 100K+ a year, have no debt and can’t afford a house. You may have guessed I live in LA but either way, I need to learn more about real estate.

I really enjoyed your review and would love to learn more about this stuff.

By: EA

EA — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 18:57:21 +0000

I’m on year three of a one-year fixer-upper project, does that count as a failure? I’m living in it so it’s not that bad financially.

By: mstein_88

mstein_88 — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 16:26:04 +0000

Pick me Ã¢â‚¬Â¦ pick me! I don’t yet own any RE property but this will likely change in the next year or two.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 14:07:31 +0000

::waves hand:: Send me the book and you will prosper.

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:57:07 +0000

Book looks interesting, I put it in my Amazon wishlist.. but free it way better.

By: awcool

awcool — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 09:18:14 +0000

I currently have one investment property, which is managed by a professional company. However, I would like to learn about doing this on my own if the increase in profits is worth it. Having read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I too found that there isn’t any concrete information to get you started. This book would be a great way to get started!

By: Brenna

Brenna — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 03:49:14 +0000

Real estate investing has always been an interest of mine. Getting a free book about it is even better. :)

By: Derek

Derek — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 02:28:55 +0000

Not much of an investment
But when my parents moved away from Toronto they did not sell their house, thinking it would eb a good investment. Unfortunately our tenants trashed it, so 13 years latere we sold the house at a loss (when it should’ve been a gain by market parices).

By: Bobby

Bobby — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 02:22:17 +0000

Please count me in. I currently don’t have any investment property, but do own a home and have learned what not to buy, for personal residence, the hard way.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 02:05:50 +0000

I purchased my first rental property in high school with my stepdad. While in the process of renovating it we had a friend move in who offered to do some of the work as a trade for free rent. He skipped town a few weeks later after stealing all the tools from the house. Then we had problems , after problems, and more problems. People constantly broke in and vandalized the place and in the while the population of our medium sized mid west town dropped by 10 percent. Well I didn’t lose hope but hope lost me. A few weeks ago some one lit her up in flames and burnt her to the ground for me. With no one living in it I couldn’t get it insured and the city wants twice the price I paid for the place to pay for them tearing it down after it burnt (I’m in a legal battle with them over this). I still love real estate though and I’m looking for my next property, but with a little more homework and education before the next step because as I have learned this takes a lot of knowledge and comes with a lot of risk.

The lesson I would give to everyone is that you have to have speed. Have everything ready to get a positive cash flow going as fast as possible before you buy (which means a lot of cash beyond what you take to close). Because if you let them sit they will sink you.

By: The Happy Rock

The Happy Rock — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 01:43:36 +0000

I will participate in order to enhance the PF community…………I like free too.

By: C

Tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:53:44 +0000

I just graduated with my undergraduate degree and my main goal is to own a home. I live in a very high priced area and have been considering possibly investing in some real estate in a near-by area that is much, much, cheaper. Doing so, and playing landlord, would hopefully help me reach the goal of owning my primary residence much faster.

This book could help me accomplish these goals!

By: Midg

Midg — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 00:38:28 +0000

Sign me up. I’ve been wanting to invest in real-estate and have been looking for a good place to start learning about real-estate investing.

By: glimmy

glimmy — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:43:48 +0000

Well, I’m a “newbie”, took my first class a month ago, and came here, because I can use all the help I can get and then some- good blog!

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:11:23 +0000

I am only 23 and have a lot to learn. Count me in – thanks!

By: klerg

klerg — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 22:51:20 +0000

I’d LOVE to win the book because for the last 2 years, I’ve investing and studying how money works. I got involved into a REIT mutual fund late last year and have done pretty well (of course, the manager moved into natural resources and out of real estate not too long ago). But i’d like to invest in more real estate as time goes on.

By: Familyfinanceguy

Familyfinanceguy — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 18:10:55 +0000

Free is good!

By: Compounding

Compounding — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:32:16 +0000

I live in a fairly large metro area, and there is this one old town, very close to me, and it was consumed into the main city about 40 years ago. I would like to buy up all of the properties on the corner of the main “downtown” area and redevelop them. I want to tear the homes down and build new upscale, all-brick, townhomes, and then buy the building that houses the market and post office and build it to match, with some office space above them.

I think it would be awesome to fix it up, keep the old small town feel, but give it a great upgrade.

By: BeeTee

BeeTee — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 16:01:34 +0000

I have a duplex now and want to expand my holdings! The first year was very rough and the tenant really worked to take advantage of me. The current tenant has been a completely different story!

I’m thinking about a partnership, combining capital for a large, multi-unit complex and use a quality PM company.

I’d love to read this book!

By: Jake

Jake — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:24:22 +0000

Saving up right now to buy a house for cash roughly 7-10 years from now. This book may prove to be usefull

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:09:45 +0000

I’d love to read this book. I’ve got a few investment properties. I’m more of a bottom feeder. I and my partner buy rental units with prices that are so low that the units are “free” with the land. They have been a challenge to manage as they typically require quite a bit of cash to repair upfront, but we finally have them rented and they are throwing off enough cash to pay for themselves at present.

My one word of caution as a personal injury attorney make sure you have liability coverage. Even if you are not at fault, someone getting injured on your property can be really expensive if you have a loss-only policy. I am defending a case for my partner right now on that exact situation. He’s got bi liability coverage now especially on our jointly owned properties.

By: Tony

Tony — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 15:06:18 +0000

I like free books…