[.ca] How to Buy and Sell Apartment Buildings (ISBN 0471653438)

Some valuable HIGH LEVEL information, be careful some advice:
While this book contains some great information for someone wanting to get another perspective on Real Estate investing, it is a constaint information tease! You are introduced to valuable information, but you will finish the book with too many questions for a "how to" book! I was thoroughly excited about learning more about the "Center For Real Estate Studies" that the author mentions several times as the place to get the software that you must use to make millions like he did. ... I called information and could not find a listing, I searched the internet and could not find a web site, so I finally gave in and found the information in the back of the book so I could get information about the software. I called the numberand you will not get through to a live person ever! ...The author discloses in his book that he is part of the organization. After a few phone calls I finally received a catalog by mail. In the catalog I found his book on the first page being sold to "members" for a discounted price of \omoney amount\c, and Nonmembers for \omoney amount\c. I could not believe my eyes so I had my wife verify that I was not crazy! I feel violated!

Good reasons in this book for thinking bigger!:
The author provides very sound reasoning and advise for investors on why they should consider larger multi-family units vs. single family homes, or 2, 3, or 4 unit apartments. There's also outstanding advise on partnering to acheive results, and ideas on putting together a team of experts for smart execution. Other outstanding ideas for negotiating financing, and formulas for evaluating fair market value. Very excellent advise overall. Nevermind the publication date. This is an excellent book for profiting in real estate.

this is a \oBad\c book about a \oBad\c get rich scheme!:
This book published in 1993 is one of the worst real estate books ever written. It surprising that a book this bad has lasted this long. Anybody who gives this book a good review is related to the author or seriously delusional. Some real estate books are bad because the author is unfamiliar with the topic, or can not offer detailed real world advice from their theoretical perspective. Believe it or not some real estate books are written by authors, who don't know what they're talking about, or tell a tale that has no basis in the practical real world. Mr. Vollucci apparently has been an investor for 25 years, at least according to the book's cover. so from his years of experience, you would assume that he would write a good book. You know what they say about assuming. He also has taught a real estate seminar entitled "Three Moves to a Million." This is a catchy title! The author states, "You too can become a millionaire starting with just $6,000, and you can do it in only three moves, if these moves consist of investing in midsize apartment buildings." He further defines midsize as 18 to 100 unit complexes. The first move is to buy a "hypothetical apartment building for $600,000" in Phoenix. He hypothetically forms an investment group of 10 individuals who put up $6,000 EACH for the down payment. Four years later the Phoenix property is "hypothetically" sold for $860,000. And a second "hypothetical" 44 unit building was bought in Boston for $1,750,000, now with a group of 5 investors. Apparently one "hypothetical" investor went home. Two years later the Boston property is "hypothetically" sold for $2,325,000. The third move was a 40 unit building in Seattle bought for $1,450,000 with no investing group. The one investor takes the proceeds from the Boston building and buys the Seattle building by himself. In 1990 the Seattle building was "hypothetically" sold for $2,267,043. Therefore the author using a computer program and 10 years of hindsight turned a mythical $6,000, into a "hypothetical" $1million dollars in only 10 years. In the book are other facts that are suspect. For example its written in the book "that seven out of ten millionaires made their money in real estate." Read "The Millionaire Next Door" and the Forbes 400 riches for the real scoop. You'll find that the 7 out of 10 figure is grossly exaggerated by the author. If you want to play a computer game and you want a million dollars "hypothetically", then this is the book for you. Otherwise read "The Millionaire Next Door" By Thomas Stanley and William Danko for information on REAL life millionaires. And for buying real estate apartments read William Nickerson's "How I Turned $1,000 into a Million in Real Estate in my spare time", which is not a computer simulation game.

Reads Like an Info-Mercial:
Its too bad that the "good" reviews get better positioning on this book than the "poor" reviews. I am a lawyer who deals with real estate issues regularly. I was interested in getting into the business myself and this book was of no help at all. I am in a smaller town which made it particularly useless to me as the examples he used were all in places that had plenty of "comps" and other big city services and information available. This book was way too short on nuts and bolts information with lots of dead-ends. Amazon should sell this book as an advertisement only and not for the serious (novice) investor. There is a similar book by Berges that I bought (at Amazon's recommendation) at the same time which is MUCH MUCH BETTER--and its reviews bear this out. I am not related to and don't know Berges.

Gheeeeeeeeeze:
Well, after attending one of his "investing in rentals" seminars, some of the information was ok, some vauge, some just absolutley avoided unless you paid the $500 "member" fee. What a crock. I think if you could read enough books on real estate, talk to some other people, you could figure out how to do it. it is not rocket science at all, save your money, don't buy the book, go take some classes instead. Real estate can be a frightening subject to many, but think about it, your living in a house or apartment. One other thing, he appeared to be a pushy salesman - be aware