Rental Houses for the Successful Small Investor

by Suzanne P. Thomas

Book Overview

A guidebook for the small investor who wants to invest in single family rental houses. Chapters guide the reader through setting meaningful and realistic goals, locating money for down payments,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0966469119
• ISBN13: 9780966469110
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Gemstone House Publishing
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

A MUST For Real Estate Investors!

I have read countless books on investment rental properties and passive income over the past several years, and none compare to the power of Suzanna P. Thomas's Rental Houses for the Successful Small Investor.Don't let the long title fool you, this is a no holds barred informative book that takes the mystery out of real estate, and truly informs you from the inside.I teach personal finance myself, and I now include this book in my Syllabus as a must read for my course. I encourage anyone interested in real estate or passive income to purchase and read this wonderful piece of work!What I found in this book that I give high marks to versus similar books are the way Suzanne Thomas writes about 1. Down Payments - She explains in simple terminology why you would want to follow her method of placing a down versus traditional or other methods. I find her technique to be much more effective than any method I have studied in the past, and have adopted it for my last two purchases.2. Property Selection - Using her outline, I was able to specify exactly what it was I was looking for prior to calling my agent, thus narrowing the scope of my potential properties. This saved me a ton of time and energy, and gave me a more clear picture of what I wanted.3. Loan Options and Selection - This was by far the most powerful element of her book to me personally. Using her logic and experience that is contained in this book is performing wonderfully for me. I had planned on retiring by age 50 prior to her book. I had my financial blueprint all layed out, but was willing to learn new skills and techniques, and upon stumbling on her book at the bookstore, I am now looking forward to retirement at 40!If that isn't powerful, I don't know what is. I owe a great deal of gratitude to Suzanne for her hard work on this book, and if ever we meet, lunch is on me.If your going to invest in rental properties, simply buy this book, you can thank her yourself later.

Realistic Look At Real Estate Investing

"Rental Houses for the Successful Small Investor" by Suzanne Thomas is a great book to help people who want to become financially independent get started in real estate investing. Cash flow from real estate rental properties, Thomas writes, can be your ticket to early retirement, allowing you to live the kind of life you want.So, why isn't everyone becoming financially independent by investing in real estate? Thomas explains that most people don't understand the principle of compounding wealth. Because of this, people don't remain committed to real estate investing. To make the point, Thomas asks us to consider taking a 35-day job where we can be paid either one of two ways. First, we can be paid $1,000 daily. The other option is being paid only a penny the first day. Then, for each of the next 34 days, our income will double. The temptation is to take the $1,000 per day for a total of $35,000. But, via compounding, the penny-a-day option grows into an amazing $343,597,363.21.Similarly, Thomas observes that many people who get started in real estate investing abandon it after only two or three years because they feel they aren't generating any noticeable dollar return on their real estate investments. Thomas advises, "You should make at least a five year commitment to real estate if you want the chance to experience substantial financial rewards." Most people abandon real estate investing when they only see the pennies in the first few days.Thomas says that each rental property you acquire will probably take about two to three hours per month to administer and that real estate investing can be the ideal home business. She points out as few as five rental properties can provide a core, livable income in five to ten years.The Chapter, "Rates of Return on Rental Real Estate," is especially valuable. Thomas shows new real estate rental investors how to calculate the rate of return they are achieving on their rental properties. This rate of return, Thomas explains, is composed of three main parts. First, there is the potential property appreciation. Second is the rental cash flow from the properties. Third is the "principal paydown," i.e., as the years pass you acquire more equity in your rental real estate. Thomas also allows for the tax saving acquired because the IRS lets you depreciate rental real estate from a tax standpoint, even though your property is probably actually increasing in value.The Chapter, "Rates of Return on Rental Real Estate," calculates the rate of return on one of Thomas's actual, Colorado rental properties showing how it achieved a 30% annual rate of return. Rental real estate returns tend to decrease slightly with time, Thomas explains, because as you own the property longer, more and more of the principal on the loan is paid down. Hence, you are using less and less financial leverage. So, while the return on a rental property just purchased might be 30%, the rate of return on a fully paid-for property might only be 12%.Part

Rate of Return,The Bottom Line

The information in this book was written for the beginner. It illustrates exactly what should be done to decided what type of property to purchase. To me the emphasis of the book or the gist of it is that we need to set goals. Whatever your goal may be, the formula to reach it is spelled out to a tee. I believe that anyone who is interested in real estate investing needs to read this book. It explains how to figure out the Rate of Return on your dollar depending on what property is bought. A great book, I highly recommend it, you won't be disapointed. oscarguerrero@excite.com P.O. Box 242 Paramount, CA 90723 (310) 253-2563

This is the best I've read so far...

In the last year, I've read 6 different books on real estate investing for small investors, and this is by far the best one. This book is well written, easy to understand, and portrays investment results that are believable (not true with other books I've read). This book gives great direction to anyone who wants to transition out of their current career and into a career of real estate investing.