Book Review: Buy Even Lower

I recently read the book "Buy Even Lower" by Scott Frank and Andy Heller.  The book is subtitled "The Regular People's Guide to Real Estate Riches".  It was published in 2006 and was a follow up to the 2003 book "Buy Low, Rent Smart, and Sell High".

I checked out this book specifically because I love the philosophy of buying rental properties at low prices.  I want properties that need rehab so that I can get them at significant discounts and when I rehab them, I know exactly what goes into the rehab (instead of buying someone else's rehab that could be bad DIY work that looks good).

The authors focus on what they call the "golden keys" of becoming wealthy.

1 - Determine your minimum investor discount

2 - Know what good properties look like

3 - Find good properties

4 - Calculate maximum purchase prices

5 - Make solid offers

6 - Negotiate like a chess master

In steps 1 and 4, they work this like you need to be a math genius.  The formulas in this book look pretty complex (see the top of page 236 in Chapter 8) if you haven't read the book and you just look at the math involved.  It might even scare some people into thinking this is an overly complex topic.

But really, the ideas presented are basic REI theory into making sure you don't overpay on a property (which can be a common mistake new investors make).  So if they want to over-complicate things with a lot of math, there's really no harm in that.  Math is real and as long as you feed in the right numbers, you'll get the right numbers out.

Overall I think this book is great for new investors because it really breaks down the topics listed above into great, step by step detail.