| | |  | General | Home » » » » » Investing in Duplexes, Triplexes, and Quads: The Fastest and Safest Way to Real Estate Wealth | | | | | | | Description: | | Amass more than $900,000 in properties in one year, without using any of your own money, or that of your investors. Real estate investing can be an excellent way to build wealth. With its advantages of cash flow, appreciation, tax benefits, equity buildup and leveraging, real estate may be the only vehicle that can carry the average person to retirement wealth. Real estate investor, attorney, and author Larry Loftis has developed a safe, easy, and lucrative way for new investors to get into the game, and for experienced ones to enhance their portfolios. In Investing in Duplexes, Triplexes and Quads: The Fastest and Safest Way to Real Estate Wealth, he draws on both his real estate investing experience and legal acumen to explore advantages you may not have considered about residential multifamily properties of two to four units. Learn how to: •Buy duplexes, triplexes and quads with no money down, AND get cash back at closing. •Eliminate risk, and guarantee that your mortgage payments are always covered. •Use "cash-out" from refinancing to purchase more properties. •Decide whether to buy and hold or "pyramid" to a large apartment complex. •Use inflation, tax laws, and rehab to build a massive retirement nest-egg. | | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Larry B. Loftis | | Paperback:
| 256 pages | | Publisher:
| Kaplan Publishing | | Publication Date:
| May 01, 2006 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 1419537253 | | Product Length:
| 8.88 inches | | Product Width:
| 7.5 inches | | Product Height:
| 0.53 inches | | Product Weight:
| 0.93 pounds | | Package Length:
| 8.9 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.2 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.6 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.05 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 51 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 51 customer reviews )
Write an online review and share your thoughts with other customers.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
123 of 125 found the following review helpful:
Good book but could be more balancedMar 09, 2007
By C. C. Fairbanks
This book is well written and a quick read with a fair amount of repetitiveness. The author details his experience with rental properties primarily in an era of extreme appreciation of which he bases most of his theory on. I don't believe it is realistic to expect properties to increase at the rapid rate that he suggests which is the premise behind one of the plans he outlines which is to quickly refinance and purchase properties. Keep in mind that he is located in southern Florida which was one of the fastest appreciated areas of the country during the heyday of the recent real estate boom and it was during that time that he continuously refers to. It is my opinion that the author should temper some of his claims with the fact that not all investors will be able to execute his rapid fire acquisition strategies in an environment that is dissimilar to the one he had which was very unique and uncommon. What I'm trying to say is that his assumptions are absolutely "best case" scenarios which are unlikely to be duplicated by the majority of investors.
The one other area of the book that I had a problem with was in the area of tenants. He claimed that he doesn't run background, credit, etc. checks on prospective tenants and prefers to "go with his gut" on whether he feels the tenant is suitable to occupy his property. He goes on to say that if you invest in higher quality properties you will attract higher quality tenants. That is probably true but I don't think it eliminates the need to thoroughly screen prospective tenants. I'm not sure what it's like in south Florida but I can tell you that here in Washington state there is a big problem with methamphetamine labs in rental properties. The financial liability for the property owners is huge and not covered by insurance. When these meth labs operate out of rental property,(half of all labs found do) owners pay a high price that includes: civil penalties, property damage, decline in property values, dangerous and threatening tenants, resentful and angry neighbors, and loss of valued tenants. This is nationwide problem that every potential rental property owner should be aware of. In my opinion, to not perform absolute due diligence in the screening of tenants is unnecessarily exposing yourself to a disaster with serious financial implications. Of course the potential threat doesn't disappear just because the tenant passed the screening phase. There are other monitoring measures that property owners need to follow after the tenants move in to protect the property. My advice would be to spend the money and do the checks.
Overall, I did enjoy this book and would recommend it with the suggestion to readers that they play devil's advocate to arrive at a more balanced perspective of this particular type of real estate investment investing.
64 of 67 found the following review helpful:
 Better than I ever expectedOct 21, 2006
By JDC
Instead of delivering a few nuggets of information, this book delivers the gold mine. It's written so well that page after page, chapter after chapter, it delivers just the right information at just the right time. I couldn't put it down and read through it in just 3 evenings after work (I can't believe I'm saying that about a real estate investment book).
The author gets right to the point and gives you the facts about what works and what doesn't work for investing in real estate. He shows you how investing in multi-family properties (2 - 4 family dwellings) is the easiest, lowest cost, and least risky way to get started making your fortune. He takes you from knowing nothing to being fully armed and ready to go make your first purchase. Best of all, he shares many intimate details on his own purchases, deals he walked away from, and deals he wished he would have completed.
When you're done with the book you understand: 1) how to find properties, 2) how to determine the value of a property, 3) verification and due diligence, 4) the process of making offers, 5) how closing works and what to expect, 6) managing your property, 7) the ins and outs of the three key real estate growth strategies: Buy and Hold, Refinancing, and Pyramiding.
Now that I have read this book, I'm already out looking at multi-family properties and will soon be completing my first purchase. I'm just an average guy with not much in savings, but with what I have learned from this book I can see a clear path to making several million dollars in real estate in just a few years. All that for just the $12.97 I paid for this book on Amazon... it almost seems unfair.
47 of 50 found the following review helpful:
Very informativeSep 11, 2006
By gregory dwyer
I am an owner of a few rental properties which I kind of stumbled upon but which have provided me with some steady income. I was intrigued and decided to pick up Mr. Loftis' book.
My experience has been in lower class neighborhoods. While Mr. Loftis touches upon investing in areas such as those, he prefers to buy triplexes/fourplexes in "yuppie" areas. He clearly states that the monthly income from the lower class areas is usually higher, but that the appreciation in the higher end areas more than makes up for that.
Loftis' explanation is quite detailed. He explains how to use the GRM to help you find a suitable property. By fixing up your property in a high GRM neighborhood, you can build considerable equity.
He also explains how he chooses his renters and has some example leases that you can use. He debunks some of the "wisdom" spewed out by many of the real estate "gurus". He explains how to use a 1031 exchange to free up some capital for further investment and how you can use refinancing to do the same.
In short, there is everything here to get you started on your way to being a successful residential multifamily property investor. Give the book a try...
32 of 33 found the following review helpful:
 Decent investment book, but overly optimisticAug 18, 2007
By donny random
The basic investing information in this book is solid, the problem is that the plan for gaining wealth is overly optimistic for many areas of the United States. Larry bases his wealth building plan on very fortunate appreciation that he experienced on his first investment property. Then as the plan is taught you refinance that first property after one year and use that money to buy another property. In Orlando, FL (where Larry bought his property) around that time the appreciation was 25%, but what about the least appreciating cities like the one where I live at 3%? Then the wealth building plan that Larry talks about goes out the window.
I thought the best part of the book was the info on closing, ideas that I have not reading anywhere else. Word of advice, skip over the property management chapter, the weakest chapter in the book where Larry advocates screening tenant by using your "gut". That is a recipe for disaster.
20 of 20 found the following review helpful:
Good book, one of the better I have readJan 09, 2007
By Anthony Brown
"AW Brown"
This was a very good book about real estate, and gives a clear strategy on how to establish yourself as an investor while taking advantage of tax scenarios. Eve further he gives great references to other books that he reccomends, of which I have read many. The reason I dont say this is a great book is that there are some things that arent addressed very well. For instance, this book is written from the perspective that you will have rapid inflation appreciation on housing, and that multifamily residential is at even pace with single family (it isnt). It also doesnt consider interest rates (rising) as it relates to refinincing - and whether that is a good idea. Instead it treats rates as a constant. Other than that, this is a really good book.
See all 51 customer reviews on Amazon.com
| | |
|
