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| Real Estate Riches: How to Become Rich Using Your Banker's Money | 
 enlarge | Author: Dolf De Roos
Creator: Robert T. Kiyosaki
Publisher: Warner Business Books
Category: Book
List Price: $17.95
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You Save: $17.94 (100%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (126 reviews)
Sales Rank: 58361
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: Warner Books
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 0.7
ISBN: 0446678643
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.6324
EAN: 9780446678643
ASIN: 0446678643
Publication Date: October 1, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Wish I read this before I sold my first home April 12, 2006
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
This was a good basic introduction on WHY real esate is a good investment...I don't personally think it should be 100% of a person's portfolio, so the reader needs to be very careful and not get carried away into thinking 'real esate is where it's at'! Just like the stock market, RE experiences cycles too.
Having said that, this book was very educational in terms of getting me to think outside the box. I wish we had this book prior to selling our first home that we bought. Our mortgage would've been low (less than $1k) in So. CA(!) and I'm sure we would've been able to rent it out for double that! Had I read this book, we would've either rented it out...or fire the sleazy realtor that ripped us off! We learned from that mistake and by reading these types of books...hopefully we'll make better decisions in the future. For this education alone, I'd recommend you read this, take it w/ a grain of salt (in terms of striking it rich ONLY in RE) and use this info. to make the best decision for your situation.
Good Common Sense, Practical Advice February 2, 2006
11 out of 15 found this review helpful
Dolf talks about how real estate blows the doors off other investment vehicles because of the leverage available. The book is a bit basic and conceptual, but for those investors either just getting started in real estate or thinking about it, this book will give you the push needed. It explains how the returns can be explosive on the capital invested because of the use of leverage. It's true, understanding how the implications of leverage affect total return is very important, however I would have likes more real life examples. In my book, A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate, I go over in detail deal after deal to illustrate this point.
Another key concepts covered are: productivity, and how it is affecting middle America, oceanfront or seaside property, and how it appreciates 50% more than other areas and the time needed to look at 100 properties before finding a real deal. All these are must know for the real estate investors of tomorrow.
This book as well as the others in the Rich Dad series are great starting points. I read all that were available while building my real estate company which went from $0 to $25,000,000 in holdings in less than 5 years.
By Kevin Kingston, Author of, A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate
 Need help with real estate math? January 15, 2006
2 out of 7 found this review helpful
Like most of Kiyosaki books, it gets you thinking and believing in real estate. You have to think it before you can act on it. You have to believe it before you can act on it without being afraid. This book gets you thinking. There are a few math formulas that I found helpful. But mostly it left me longing for property in New Zealand.
 Utter nonsense February 15, 2005
42 out of 79 found this review helpful
In the first chapter, de Roos poses four questions designed to convince the reader that real estate investing is superior to other kinds of investing. The first question is: "How many dollars' worth of stock can you buy with $100,000 cash?" The answer, according to de Roos, is that $100,000 cash will generally buy you only $100,000 worth of stock. He says investment houses will only let you buy "a very limited number of stocks" on margin and "then only for about 30 percent of the value of the stocks." I have never encountered a stock that I have not been able to buy on margin through my Schwab account. Furthermore, I can margin up to 50 percent. Besides, the reason why Schwab won't let me use more leverage is because IT'S RISKY. de Roos then goes on to suggest that you can easily get a loan to buy a $1 million property by putting down just $100,000. How is this less risky than buying stocks on margin? de Roos says: "[You] have an asset worth $1 million that would generate rental income for you. If you had bought wisely, then the rent would more than cover your expenses." Well, what happens if you "had not bought wisely?" What happens if you can't find tenants? What happens if the economy goes south right after you bought? All one needs to do is drive up and down Highway 101 in Silicon Valley and look at all the "For Lease" signs to realize that vacancies are a fact of life.
Consider, for example, the case of Mission West Properties (AMEX-MSW), a real estate investment trust (REIT) that, according to its most recent 10-K, "acquires, markets, leases, and manages Research and Development ("R&D") properties, primarily located in the Silicon Valley portion of the San Francisco Bay Area." In a recent conference call, MSW's management reported that the bursting of the Internet bubble will cause vacancy rates in their R&D properties to approach 40% over the next year. The only reason why MSW may survive is because they are only moderately leveraged. For example, their ratio of mortgage debt to shareholder equity is a modest 2.35 to 1. If, on the other hand, MSW had a debt/equity ratio of 9 to 1, as they would if they had followed de Roos' advice and purchased properties by borrowing $9 for every $1 of their own funds, quite obviously it would be very difficult for them to remain a going concern in an environment of 40% vacancy rates; they would soon be overwhelmed by interest payments.
It seems, then, as if de Roos' first chapter is based on two very dubious assumptions: 1.) it is difficult to persuade your stock broker to loan you any money so you can buy stocks on margin, but it is easy as pie to persuade your local bank to loan you 90% of the purchase price of an investment property; 2.) using leverage is risky if you are buying stocks, but not if you are buying real estate. If the first chapter of the book is filled with such nonsense, the rest of the book can't be much better. I didn't even bother to read any further.
Why you should buy this book January 29, 2005
6 out of 16 found this review helpful
This book can give you incredible insight on what the real estate industry is all about, through the eyes of Dolf De Roos. A very indepth book about real estate that may come off confusing at first, but will all fall in place at the end...or conclusion of the book.
A must buy and a must read!
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