$39.95

The pre-purchase checklists everyone needs

This book is designed to help you avoid overlooking anything important when you buy apartments, single-family rentals, condos. I originally wrote it solely for my own use. I have never bought a property without using it. You shouldn’t either. It is like a pilot’s pre-flight check list and almost as important. When I bought my first property at age 22, the real estate broker was so impressed by my thoroughness—as a result of the checklists in the book—that he offered me a job when I got out of the Army.

If you are considering investing in a rental house or apartment building, this book could save you a great deal of time, money, effort, and emotional strain. Use this book to prepare for your inspections and negotiations. Carry it with you when you inspect the property. Use it as a guide when you are reconstructing an income and expense statement, drafting a contract, etc.

If you only read this book and add it to your investment library, you have missed its main point. You can't learn what is in this book any more than an airline pilot can learn his preflight check list. In the acquisition of a house or apartment building, accuracy and thoroughness are essential, and it is too easy for even a veteran investor—or pilot—to forget one of the many important steps. Real estate investing does not have the life or death aspects of flying a plane, but the stakes are still high. And those high stakes demand the high standards of accuracy and thoroughness that are attainable only through the use of written check lists.

Checklist for Buying... includes:

• Things to take with you when you physically inspect the property
• Items to check in your inspection of the exterior
• Questions to ask the people with the most knowledge about the building—the tenants, previous owners, neighbors, and others
• Income and expense categories to take into account for estimating cash flow
• How to verify or forecast the property's actual income and expense numbers
• Clauses to make sure you have in your purchase agreement
• Clauses to seek in your financing
• How to prepare for closing and what to look for at closing
• Environmental audit information
• How to evaluate the neighborhood
• How to invest absentee acquisitions far from your home
• Residential investment strategy
• How to avoid cities that are likely to get rent control in the future
• What to look for when there is a homeowner’s association
• How to find a good lawyer for the deal
• 13 building-inspection checklists
• 8 interview scripts

$39.95, 176 pages, 8 1/2 x 11 paperback