Over the years I have met many successful well-established real estate investors. Several of those are now some of my closest friends.
I personally have seen young entry-level investors starting their journey here, and many of them have been only growing their path to wealth further.
Investing in real estate is one of the most common ways to get to financial independence.
With real estate investing, you will be able to create instant rental cash flows, obtain beneficial tax breaks, and continually take advantage of accumulating equity and market appreciation. The best part is it’s a process that is repeatable!
11 Best Books on Real Estate Investing
If you are interested in pursuing real estate investing, then this list is a great place to start your path to wealth and financial freedom. This curated list is made of some of the best real estate investment books that will not only give you the blueprint you need to get started, but also give you the techniques and mindset to scale your path to wealth beyond imagination.
- The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller
- The House Hacking Strategy by Craig Curelop
- Retire Early with Real Estate by Chad Carson
- The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner
- What Every Real Estate Investor Needs To Know About Cash Flow by Frank Gallinelli
- Crushing It in Apartments and Commercial Real Estate by Brian H Murray
- Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat by David M Greene
- Long-Distance Real Estate Investing by David Greene
- My Life & 1,000 Houses by Mitch Stephen
- The ABCs of Real Estate Investing by Ken McElroy
- Every Landlord’s Tax Deduction Guide by Stephen Fishman
1. The Millionaire Real Estate Investor by Gary Keller
This is the beginners’ book all real estate investors should start with. It was my first real estate book I picked up that later opened the door into my first apartment rental.
It contains a collection of wisdom and experience from over 100 of the most successful millionaire real estate investors who found financial wealth. Gary Keller makes sure he gets right to the point covering big ideas from buying a million to owning a million.
I especially found the “Buy a Million” section most helpful for me, as here you learn about the various types of real estate investment options. For example, did you know the key investment difference between single family homes and apartments? (hint it deals with appreciation vs cash flow).
Overall this book is great to put you in the investing mindset. Starting out with common investing advice we all need and getting deeper into how it is applied in within real estate. The advice and tips in this book are perfect for someone just starting out.
Although, if you have already begun your real estate investing path, I would suggest some of the other books below to dive into deeper.
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2. The House Hacking Strategy by Craig Curelop
How would you like to get someone else to pay for your rent or mortgage? How would you like to learn how to hack the system and live for free or little to no money out of pocket?
Sounds amazing because it is completely possible with house hacking. When you master this, it will save you thousands of dollars in monthly expenses allowing you to invest your hard-earned money elsewhere instead of spending it on rent or a mortgage.
Here in New York, this is a common practice. Rent is so expensive we need to become resourceful on ways to save. Apartment hacking has become the norm where having more than one roommate is the standard. After doing it for a while, you become a pro at turning your apartment into an asset.
Craig Curelop is a serial house hacker who lays it all out in detail on the multiple ways to house hack. Craig was so successful; he was able to save his way to financial freedom.
There are some great tips are how to get started with little to no money and turn your apartment, single family home, or multi-family property into a cash flowing investment. The best part is you begin learning the power of cash flow. I admit it can get a little addicting.
Housing expenses, next to food and transportation is one of our largest expenses. By eliminating this expense from our lives, we can save 40x faster getting us closer to financial independence.
Start learning how to escape the housing expense trap and begin house hacking your way to wealth.
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3. Retire Early with Real Estate by Chad Carson
Why would you wait to retire at 65 spending your best years slaving away in that 9-5 job? What if you can retire early and be able to live a free lifestyle without being bound to a job? Well, that is what Chad Carson asked before being able to retire at 37. And how did he do it? Answer: Real Estate
Chad’s book is dedicated to learning the investing techniques of real estate resulting in your ability to walk away from that 9-5 job. Using proven strategies and some real-world advice, this book provides a five-step process to creating your own real estate early retirement plan.
After personally meeting Chad and learning more about his approach, you can truly see someone living the retire early reality. In real life, Chad is very relatable and down to earth which these great characteristics also show through in his writing style.
If you are looking for ways to get out of that 9-5 and thinking about getting into real estate, check out Retire Early with Real Estate. It will certainly open your mindset to new possibilities of escaping the modern-day rat trap through real estate investing.
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Check out our post on How to Live Without a Job.
4. The Book on Rental Property Investing: How to Create Wealth and Passive Income Through Smart Buy & Hold Real Estate Investing by Brandon Turner
First of all, there is no one right way to do real estate investing. Instead, this book lays out all of the different ways you can succeed in real estate investing. It is a great how-to book for a novice investor looking to get into the game, or even for someone with a little more experience under their belts.
Written by Brandon Turner, part of the BiggerPockets community you will learn about how to build an achievable plan, find incredible deals, and leverage other people’s money to pay for your assets.
One of my best takeaways was learning about calculating your ROI before making your deal/purchase as well as understanding the pros and cons of each type of rental property. This was really beneficial when I was getting started.
Overall it is a great real-world advice book for anyone looking to build real wealth and cash flow through rental properties. After reading this book, you will look at investing in real estate rentals in a whole new light further expanding your potential towards financial freedom.
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5. What Every Real Estate Investor Needs To Know About Cash Flow by Frank Gallinelli
Getting started in real estate is one thing but knowing how to make it profitable and cash flow it properly is a whole other thing. The most important part of real estate investing is knowing the numbers; and when you know how to crunch them properly and decipher their meanings, you will upgrade to an intelligent real estate investor.
Knowing how to use the numbers to your favor puts you one step ahead of your buying competition as well as helps you understand the critical metrics needed to become a real estate investor.
Frank Gallinelli is a graduate professor here in New York at Columbia University and an all-time real estate expert who walks through the most critical financial calculations every real estate investor must know. His book lays out how to measure the critical aspects from discounted cash flows, Net Present Value (NPV), Return on Equity (ROE), Internal Rate of Return (IRR), and many other must-to-knows.
This is not just any book, but a critical tool you will return to over and over during your real estate investing career. I go to this book regularly when I am looking into my next deal. It is the staple go-to guide for many serious real estate investors. My copy is so worn out the binding is starting to split.
Overall, a must-have in your personal inventory of investment tools as you will find yourself going to this book over and over.
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6. Crushing It in Apartments and Commercial Real Estate: How a Small Investor Can Make It Big by Brian H Murray
This is an excellent book for any investor getting started in real estate. Written by Brian Murray, originally a teacher looking to make some income on the side and later ended up as CEO of his multimillion-dollar real estate company.
When reading this book, you will see Brian’s passion for business. Applying some common sense and knowledge about the business will create a simple but highly effective investing approach.
Some great take-aways are learning creative ways to finance a commercial property, growing a portfolio without any help from outside investors, and practical ways to increase profits while keeping costs low.
This is a gold award-winning book that is very well written. If you are just getting started, or want to go bigger, this book will give you the tools and wisdom you absolutely need to crush it with apartments and commercial real estate.
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7. Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat: The BRRRR Rental Property Investment Strategy Made Simple by David M Greene
This is a book that makes obtaining financial freedom more attainable than ever. Instead of the old practice of buying a house every few years, this book shows you how to buy a house every few weeks! Now that is speed to wealth!
David Greene does a great job laying out a proven easy to follow system that will grow your wealth without letting the lack of cash get in the way.
He covers how to identify target properties locally and across the county, to negotiating strategies on making offers that get accepted, and later discusses several unique ways to increase your property value along with your own net worth.
The refinance section alone is worth the time reading as it will save you thousands in the long run! (i.e. just a few percentage points off your mortgage interest rate can save you from a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of hard-earned dollars)
Overall this is a great book for anyone looking to retire early, diversify your investments, and build a profitable rental portfolio.
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8. Long-Distance Real Estate Investing: How to Buy, Rehab, and Manage Out-of-State Rental Properties by David Greene
Whoever said “you need to live near where you rent” has obviously never read this book. Instead, with this modern society why should I have to live near where I invest?
Traditionally, out of state investing has been considered high risk and unwise, but with the technology and new rules of today, that tradition is finally broken. David Greene, a highly experienced real estate investor explains the new rules of today laying out how to build profitable rentals through buying, managing, and flipping out-of-state properties.
Overall the book focuses on two common ideas: buy and hold, and flipping for a quick profit out of state.
Since David lived in the high-priced San Francisco Bay area, he was forced to begin his real estate career in other lower priced communities (something we here in New York also have to face).
The book is great for anyone looking to get their feet wet into becoming an out of state investor.
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9. My Life & 1,000 Houses: Failing Forward to Financial Freedom by Mitch Stephen
This is an autobiographical tale that is perfect for any entrepreneur and a must-read for upcoming real estate investors. You will learn more about how Mitch Stephen was able to master the sale of single and multi-family residences, small commercial properties, manufactured homes, and raw land lots.
The book is well written with not only personal and professional adversities Mitch had faced but also how he was able to triumph over them. You will even love the opening section “Adversity University” as we cannot grow if we never get exposed to adversity.
My favorite section was learning how Mitch had structured some of his deals. I found that to be extremely valuable and insightful. The lessons and investing techniques and food for thought “Escaping the Debt Trap” and “The Moat Theory” provides way more insight than just cutting a profitable deal.
The best part is Mitch is a very real down to earth guy who truly wants to help others. If you doubt it, write him an email and see his personal response! Maybe you might even get a follow up call. The guy is a great mentor and really seeks to educate others on his experience.
Overall not just a real estate book but also a motivational story as well. It shows we all can become a success and how our education never ends.
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10. The ABCs of Real Estate Investing by Ken McElroy
I have read countless books on real estate and by far, this is the book for anyone looking to learn the basics of real estate investing. This book is continuously packed with valuable information on every page you turn and will certainly tool you up to get started investing.
Personally, I have learned more in this one read through than many other real estate books promise to provide. There are great tips from learning to find a property with real potential to negotiating the deal and applying the critical metrics for sustainability and increased wealth.
Although the book mainly focuses on apartments, the knowledge in here can still be applied to other types of real estate investments as well. But overall, apartments are not a bad way to go! Especially here in New York where 80% of the population rents an apartment.
Go ahead and give it a read, and before you reach the third chapter you will already have taken in some highly tangible advice you can immediately put into action.
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11. Every Landlord’s Tax Deduction Guide by Stephen Fishman
The ability to obtain a positive cash flow from your real estate investments is a great accomplishment and you should be proud. Now that you have money coming in, you need to learn how to keep that money. Unfortunately, many of us forget we have to pay taxes on our investments, and those taxes can take a once profitable transaction to a much less desirable one.
Fortunately for us investors, the government has created many tax benefits and potential write off that specifically apply to landlords and real estate investors.
This is a great reference book that will provide new ways to save you more money when it comes to tax time!
The book goes into great detail explaining how taxes are applied for landlords and real estate investors and then dives in deeper into how repairs compared to improvements are taxed. Additional sections elaborate further on how travel expenses, casualty and theft losses, and much more.
For anyone looking to take their real estate investing to the next level and start a business, this is a must have. You will pull it out over an over as you learn the tax loopholes and benefits to take advantage of.
I personally keep my copy close by on my shelf when tax season is coming around and I am searching for some additional reductions.
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