Product Description The conservative, thoughtful, thrifty investor?s guide to building a real-estate empire. Profitable real-estate investing opportunities exist everywhere as long as you know what to look for and understand how to make prudent deals that transform the property into profits. David Crook, of The Wall Street Journal shows how to make safe and sane investments that ensure a good night?s sleep as your real-estate portfolio grows, your properties appreciate, and your income increases. The Wall Street Journal Complete Real-Estate Investing Guidebook offers the most authoritative information on: ? Why real-estate investing is a great wealth-building alternative to stocks and bonds and why it?s crucial that you avoid get-rich schemes ? How to get the financing and make the contacts to get started ? How to start small and local, be hands-on and go step-by-step with a vacation home to rent out, a pure rental property or a small apartment building ? How to find and value great properties, do the numbers and ensure you have that beautiful thing called cash flow ? How the government blesses real-estate investors with tax breaks and loopholes, and how you can be one of the anointed ? How to deal with the nuts-and-bolts of being a landlord and have a strife-free relationship with your tenants About the Author DAVID CROOK is the editor of The Wall Street Journal Sunday, the personal finance section that appears in more than 75 papers around the country. He was part of the original team that developed and launched the highly successful ?Weekend Journal? of Friday?s Wall Street Journal. He also developed the ?Home Front? and ?Property Report,? the Journal?s residential and commercial real-estate sections. Excerpt. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. But your home is not an investment property. Investing in real estate isn?t the same as owning a house. If you don?t get anything else out of this book, you need to understand that?especially now that so many homeowners are trying to play the real-estate game with their homes. That?s dangerous?not because the value of your home is likely to decline (though it could), but because you are more likely to spend far more money living in your home than you will make when you sell it. Investing is investing. It?s using your money to make more money. Anything else, including most home purchases, is spending. To be considered investments, real-estate purchases must generate actual profits, either immediately in the form of income or long-term in the form of appreciation. In either case, the property must cover all its own costs and produce a reasonable return on the money you spent to buy it. Condition info: The cover and pages are intact, crisp, and clean. No writing or markings. Binding is tight 100% Satisfaction Guarantee Ships from PA