All Forum Posts by: Ryan Struthwolf

@Michael Ealy, I appreciate it. I'm glad there are some new ones for you to read!

I've listened to the BP podcast for a long time now. The other day I got curious as to what the top recommended books are from the show up to this point, and decided to figure it out. I started doing it myself, but after about 30 minutes and not much progress, and realizing that The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss was showing up often, I took a page out his book and outsourced this project. So, $22 and 48 hours later, I have a list.

Keep in mind that BP promotes their books pretty regularly on the podcast (as they should) so their books are mentioned often (not to say you shouldn't read them, because you should!).

These are listed in order from most mentioned, but there are hundreds of books that were mentioned so I've only included books with 5 or more mentions...

1. Rich Dad, Poor Dad - Robert Kiyosaki --- 135
2. The 4-Hour Workweek - Tim Ferriss --- 62
3. The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down - Brandon Turner --- 60
4. The E-Myth Revisited - Michael E. Gerber --- 46
5. The Millionaire Real Estate Investor - Gary Keller --- 39
6. The ONE Thing - Gary Keller --- 34
7. The Book on Flipping Houses - J Scott --- 33
8. The Book on Rental Property Investing - Brandon Turner --- 30
9. Set For Life - Scott Trench --- 30
10. Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill --- 26
11. The Richest Man in Babylon - George S. Clason --- 19
12. Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrant - Robert Kiyosaki --- 19
13. How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie --- 17
14. The ABCs of Real Estate Investing- Ken McElroy --- 16
15. The 10X Rule - Grant Cardone --- 15
16. Long Distance Real Estate Investing - David Greene --- 15
17. The Book on Estimating Rehab Costs - J Scott --- 14
18. The Miracle Morning (Series) - Hal Elrod --- 14
19. The Millionaire Next Door - Thomas J. Stanley --- 12
20. The Book on Managing Rental Properties - Brandon & Heather Turner --- 11
21. The Millionaire Real Estate Agent - Gary Keller --- 11
22. The Book on Tax Strategies for the Savvy Real Estate Investor - Amanda Han & Matthew MacFarland --- 10
23. Landlording on Auto-Pilot - Mike Butler --- 10
24. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R. Covey --- 10
25. Good to Great - Jim Collins --- 8
26. Emerging Real Estate Markets - David Lindahl --- 7
27. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity - David Allen --- 7
28. Finding and Funding Great Deals - Anson Young --- 7
29. How I Turned $1,000 Into $5 Million - William Nickerson --- 7
30. Ultimate Beginners Guide to Real Estate Investing - BiggerPockets --- 7
31. What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow… And 36 Other Key Financial Measures - Frank Gallinelli --- 7
32. Building Wealth One House at a Time - John Schaub --- 6
33. 80/20 Sales and Marketing - Perry Marshall --- 6
34. Lifeonaire - Steve Cook & Shaun McCloskey --- 6
35. Pitch Anything - Oren Klaff --- 6
36. The Snowball - Alice Schroeder --- 6
37. The Art of the Deal - Donald Trump --- 5
38. Never Split the Difference - Chris Voss --- 5
39. The Obstacle Is the Way - Ryan Holiday --- 5
40. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind - T. Harv Eker --- 5
41. The Total Money Makeover - Dave Ramsay --- 5
42. Traction - Gino Wickman --- 5

....

Hopefully this helps at least one person. Cheers!

Thanks for the response @Wayne Brooks.

I've read more about FHA loans and understand them a little better now. I misunderstood the common advice I've heard of buy your first house with a FHA loan as meaning the only time you can use a FHA loan is when buying your first house. 

I'm working on buying two homes as investments and I am planning to have my LLC be the buyer/owner. At the same time, I just reached out to a local credit union about buying my first home under an FHA loan. As it stands, the two homes to be bought under my LLC will close before I buy a house under my own name, with an FHA loan.

Since I'll be going for a FHA loan as a first time home buyer, am I disqualifying myself from that program if my LLC buys these two investment properties first? I am the registered owner of my LLC, so does it matter to the FHA if my LLC already owns homes?

The smarter way to go about this is for you to PM people that you look up to. Talk (or meet) with them, build rapport, be open and honest, and discover what value you can provide them with.

Well done, @Mala S.! It looks really good.

I'm not a hotel owner or investor as of yet but I've done a lot of research on them and been to classes because I think they're a cool niche. I personally enjoy running businesses so I'm okay with the idea of day to day operations, but if you're looking for a super passive investment hotels are probably not the answer. Hotels are businesses, and even if you have a great full-time manager you need to be cognizant of how well your manager is running your operation because, as @Justin Bauer mentioned, a business's reputation is easy to destroy and hard to fix.

That said, how many doors a hotel has is only a partial component as to whether or not it's viable to have a full-time manager. The income and expense numbers are more important.

It doesn't matter if it's a flagged hotel or an independent hotel owned by mom and pop. The latter may not know how to hire or perhaps they've just always done the work themselves, but at the end of the day, there's nothing other than numbers preventing a mom and pop hotel from having a full-time manager.

How long has it been listed? If it's been listed publicly for a while and no one is going for it you should really look into why that is.

There are a lot of great forum posts on BP about D class apartment investing. If this is going to be your first investment, you'd be wise to partner up with someone who has specifically been involved with D class investing.

Listen to BP Podcast 276. Bryce is, or at least was, doing his deals in Bethlehem.

Guy, this looks like it could be an awesome deal.

When you state the three options you're considering, you might need to rethink about Option 1. Although I haven't done a commercial deal yet, from what I've heard and read I think you'll have a hard time finding a commercial lender willing to hold a loan for 30 years. I believe all of the commercial lenders I've researched offer 30-year amortizations but with a 3-, 5- or 7-year balloons.

That's just my 2¢. Best of luck to you.