Are You Dumb Enough To Be Rich? Book Review
March 26th, 2009 categories: EnergyWise Education, Investors, Real Estate Tips
One of my favorite real estate trainers is Bill Barnett. I attended one of his three day trainings and he and his wife, Kris put on an excellent event. Bill’s background is finance so he’s very good with the numbers, but his biggest strength is his ability to tell a story to get his point across. Us humans learn best with stories. This carries on in his book, Are You Dumb Enough To Be Rich?, and I read it straight thru.
One chapter that is worth it’s weight in gold is the one on soliciting private money for investment. Bill outlines a plan and a script that makes sense and really works. He says, dont modify it, but you are getting to know me by now, of course I modified it, and it still works! If you are wanting to start investing and cant get a loan from a small local bank (my favorite source) buy this book and follow the instructions. It will work.
The book has only a small section on fixing up and flipping, and almost nothing on Green or Energy Efficiency. There are other books that cover those subjects that I’ll review in other posts.
Another excellent chapter on “Hot Mapping” shows scientifically how to make sure you are buying in the right area. It is the old school way of color coding a heat map, similar to what is done on Trulia.com and Hotpads.com. The advantage of doing it Bill’s way is that you have a huge visual wall map and can narrow the pricing, specifically to your area, unlike the quicker online tools. The exercize is laborious but it will definitely keep you from buying in the wrong area. I have followed his advice to a tee on the the price ranges to buy in and it’s worked for me.
I am recommending this book as a basic textbook for anyone desiring to get started in real estate investing. Bill covers the whole gamut of investing including lots of things that I dont need as an Energy-Wise House Flipper in these special times. He explains how to buy pre-foreclosures, use bandit signs, direct mail, present multiple offers on a property, sell real estate on eBay, buy tax leins, and lots of other techniques that I dont need right now because there are so many great deals simply listed on MLS. When times change, and they will, Dumb Enough will be the first book coming off my shelf.
By Dave Robinson
By Jack Frost
By Andrew Martinez
By Debra Little
I’ve created some detailed real estate heat maps at the site listed (www.localetrends.com) above that may be of some use to you. These are far more detailed than the zipcode level heatmaps at Trulia. thanks
For training in “house as a system” concept, you can do no better than “Residential Energy” by John Krigger and Chris Dorsi. This is the “textbook” for the BPI training/certification.
David, I agree the Krigger – Dorsi book is excellent and on my shelf. I will add it to the bibliography recommendations.