All Forum Posts by: Jason Bentley

For me the most "anti-guru" book I've ever read on real estate is the "Millionaire Real Estate Investor" by Gary Keller. It's not a bunch of motivational hype or theory, just SOLID investment and business practices. I've read it twice so far and use it to guide and inform what my partners and I are currently pursuing and visualizing for our business.

Alex,

I can't say I've heard of the one you mentioned but a lot of direct mailing investors, including myself, use www.click2mail.com for postcards. It's affordable and easy to use, and you can go through the entire mailing process without ever having to talk to anyone on the phone.

I've been using AWeber for about two months now. The monthly fee is a reasonable $19, the user interface and tutorial videos are pretty simple to follow, and their html editor is relatively easy to use also. I saw that another member recommended them as well, I'm just seconding that opinion.

These forums are awesome for those of us still in the formative years of our businesses. My partners and I (A.K.A. my brother and wife) are in a similar situation as "J" in that our start up capital has been limited. Between the three of us we've completed a total of three deals. I have good credit, my brother's is outstanding. Thanks to his low DTI ratio, we were offered a 10,000 line of credit (read: credit card) to our newly formed LLC soon after it was created. By the way, there is a course out there that covers this type of funding. I think the author's last name is Kish.

Anyway, we both allot our extra paycheck money to our business operations and marketing so that we can do a few deals to make the cash needed to buy and hold for wealth and cashflow. Using a conservative approach, we pay off our credit card bill every month.

In the beginning it is hard to be patient because we all know the possibilities and potential to make a financial killing, especially in this market. Private money and/or financing to do deals doesn't come easy when just starting out but my partners and I have learned that these formative months and years in our young investment careers have forced us to think, be creative, and persevere in order to get where we want to go.

I guess I'm writing this because I can definitely relate to J and sometimes it helps to know others are out there experiencing the same thing. But more than that, we have a great community here on bigger pockets with skilled members who graciously share their info. I'm grateful for that and hope that J, my partners, and I can do enough business to eventually earn the credentials and skill to allow those members to start sharing some of their private financing funds as well ; ]

I've read probably about 15 books so far on real estate, or related material and the best one for me has been "Millionaire Real Estate Investor" by Gary Keller. I just went through the entire book for a second time last month and the thing is priceless.
Why: It gives the reader the perfect reasons for pursuing wealth creation through real estate. Not only that, but the framework and perspective it gives on your business building/investing activities are the best I've read. The concepts, stories, and models the book describes are very relevant to what you're doing, if you're an investor. This is the number one book I recommend to anyone who asks me about good reading material on the subject. Followed of course by mentioning "Rich Dad Poor Dad", as a lot of you have already credited as a great book to get you going, no matter what stage of the game you're in.