1. There’s gold in them thar settlement statements 1
  2. Check your annual loan statements, too 3
  3. Outappraising the market 3
  4. Positive cash flow practically impossible in rental houses 5
  5. How you should think about bear market problems 5
  6. Finding value by using a sharper pencil 7
  7. Ponzi Syndrome may be more dangerous than Ponzi Scheme 10
  8. ‘Seller’s market’ in some areas is really a buyer’s market 11
  9. NAFTA and real estate 11
  10. Natural disasters and real estate 13
  11. Nonconforming uses 14
  12. Hedging real estate 17
  13. Balkanization of the real estate market 21
  14. Prepare the deed yourself 22
  15. ‘March to the Sound of the Guns’ 22
  16. The Bronx is up and the Beanery’s down 23
  17. Are you an evener? 24
  18. Checklist of possible buyers for your property 25
  19. You should use direct mail 26
  20. Do real estate agents steal the best listings? 27
  21. Craigslist.org 28
  22. What if values don’t always go up? 30
  23. Credits at closing 31
  24. Double-digit cap rates 32
  25. The meaning of Houston 32
  26. The $90,000 stone’s throw 33
  27. Anchorage revisited 34
  28. A way to get out of real estate tax-free 34
  29. Short sales and taxes 37
  30. There is no boilerplate 40
  31. Political violence and your real estate 42
  32. Can you spot hot markets in advance? 44
  33. The value of perfect information 48
  34. Exchanging into equity sharing 51
  35. Equity sharing 55
  36. Working for the government 62
  37. Jon Richards’ note system 64
  38. Deals that make sense: Smart trust deed investing 67
  39. Opportunities and hazards in wetlands 71
  40. Divorce and real estate 74
  41. Money and the 21st Century 78
  42. Real Estate in the 21st Century 81
  43. Don’t split up small properties 83
  44. We can’t all be contrarians 83
  45. Used partnerships for sale 84
  46. Cash flow, pride, and absentee investors in Seattle 84
  47. You should wire loan payoffs 84
  48. Adjoining property run down 84
  49. Eleven percent cap rate investor heard from 85
  50. Rooming houses 85
  51. ‘Insisting on breakeven’ 85
  52. No good office buildings (recently) 86

    53. Index 87