Product Description

Buy & Hold 7 Steps to a Real Estate Fortune by Dr. David Schumacher, CCIM, now available in Audio book format, abridged, approx 6 hours.

In this great book, Schumacher shares his life time of wonderful real estate profit experiences and sage advice based on 50 years of realty investing. These are the words of Robert Bruss, Nationally Syndicated Real Estate Columnist. If you want to get rich this audio book will tell you how to buy smart and never sell. Schumacher has built a $15 milion fortune after losing all his money in the commodities market. Listen while you drive and learn how to become a successful millionaire.

Reader of the audiobook is Ralph Lowenstein, a prominent TV & Radio announcer In New York

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #653196 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 350 pages

From AudioFile
The buy and hold strategy assumes a long-term commitment to individual properties, so the emphasis is on a property's future value, and especially its position in a community that is developing economically. Finding up-and-coming neighborhoods is more important than finding homes at distressed prices. The program leaves no detail unexamined, from negotiating price to managing tenants, evaluating risk, and maintaining the right attitude about being a landlord and a long-term investor. With the stock market not the sure thing it was during the Clinton years, this may be just the thing for many bruised stock owners. T.W. © AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Robert Bruss, Nationally Syndicated Real EstateColumnist. Bruss November 2001 Newletter
"Sage advice based on 50 years of realty investing. If you haven't read it,you should.Now on tapes."

Robert Bruss Real Estate Newsletter November 2001 #01327
If you haven't read it you should. New, four-tape set which I am now enjoying as I ride about town.

Customer Reviews

Dynamic Duo
I bought "Buy & Hold" along with "Income for Life from Real Estate" and read both books. I found them to be quite compatible and also complementary. What one book covers only briefly, the other handles in more depth. Both make a compelling case for holding, rather than flipping properties.

Both the authors seem to have actually done the things they are recommending, which makes these books far more valuable than many of the books and tapes from "promoters".

Buy and Hold has my HIGHEST recommendation!
This is one of the best real estate books ever written. I have read over 200 books on the subject of real estate and this one is in my top ten. I also read the earlier 1992 version called "The Buy & Hold Real Estate Strategy" which sometimes sells for hundreds of dollars. The later 2000 version is just as good if not better and costs ... on Amazon. It would be a bargain at many times that price! Today the author, David T. Schumacher, Ph.D owns approximately 66 units worth about $15 million. While he owns his property in Hermosa Beach and Orange County, California, the principles apply to all areas of the country. He has certainly benefited by the great appreciation rates in California, and while other areas have not appreciated as much, given a long enough period appreciation will build your real estate wealth. He started buying Hermosa Beach in 1960, so he has had the luxury of 40 years or nearly as many years of appreciation on some building.

He shares the real estate stories of himself, his brother, mother and father as well as other friends and associates. This vast wealth of 40+ years of real estate experience comes through in Dr. Schumacher's books. He relates about a real estate investment that his parents made in 1939, buying a single family house with a garage and apartment for $7,000 with $500 down. And his first real estate purchase on his own in 1956 of a 4 unit building in Hollywood for $20,000 with $1,000 down. Some people might look at these deals done long ago as a negative and not relevant to today. That is just not so. The author is still an active investor and lecturer today and the principles of his book make sense now. He had worked as a real estate appraiser for many years and relays in his book how to value a property. In this book his 7 step approach includes:

1. Finding the Location
2. Buy
3. Long-term Financing
4. Hold for 20 years
5. Appreciation
6. Sell
7. Attain Your Fortune

Schumacher is strongly against short term financing and balloon notes, feeling that they are time bomb waiting to exploded for the investor. He prefers long term financing both from conventional institutions as well as owner financing. He writes in his book about making personal sacrifices to ensure the comfort of his tenants as well as at earlier times
to make up for negative cash flow. He is willing to accept a negative cash flow if the property is a sound property located in a growth area.

One of his strong principles is to figure out what the value will be in 20 years. By studying government planning, building trends, and growth patterns, he feels that you can become proficient in determining what areas will have growth in 20 years and which areas will not.

The author writes that he likes to charge maybe 10% below the market rent to attract and keep the best tenants. He states that a vacancy is better than a bad tenant. His mother would bend over backwards for her tenants and would even lower the rent to keep a tenant. He doesn't do a lot of re-financing and prefers to keep existing financing in place.
He advocates not paying off a mortgage early for example.

In his book he advocates buying rental properties with a good prospect of future growth.
And while he suggests trying to negotiate the most favorable price, that is not the biggest issue. Schumacher relates of negotiating on one property for 9 months, so he is not suggesting buying at any price. However, when you have a long term prospective of 20 years or more, the price you pay is not that large an issue. If you pay $105,000 instead of $100,000, it won't make any difference in 20 years if the property is now worth $400,000. Or in the case of Schumacher, he bought a six unit in Hermosa Beach in 1960 for $85,000 with $3,000 down, that is now worth more than $1million. Buy and never sell, or seldom sell is one technique that this book explores in detail and that you can learn to grow wealth over a long term. This is not get rich quick, but more get rich slow. In a way this book reminds me of William Nickerson's "How I turned $1,000 into $5 Million in Real Estate in my Spare Time", which just might be the first if not the best real estate book. (Nickerson's book is out of print and can cost hundreds of dollars.) I highly recommend both of these books.

A Warren Buffett-like approach to RE investing
I found this book to be very helpful in reinforcing my own philosophy for RE investment. I also found it to be very logical and down to earth, with lots of real life examples that the reader would need to apply to his/her own situation. A real easy read, with loads of simple and useful advice from someone who's been at this for quite some time. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking to invest in RE.