Janet Portman

Lately I've been reading a lot about buying real estate to rent out. This book provided a solid base to scare me into reality on what that would involve. The concept of being a landlord seems like a good idea when everything is working well. If you get the finances right, the tenant isn't too pushy, the property doesn't have too many issues -- well then you can probably enjoy the additional cashflow and appreciation on the property. If not, well it might be more similar to my past show more landlording experience where the tenant stopped paying, had a friend of his move in, had to be evicted with police. Hopefully that means I've at least seen (some of) the bad side to know what to expect. show less

An Early Reviewer here:

I was so excited to see this book pop up on the list. I'm saving up to purchase a rental property in a few years and this is both motivational and informative.

The info in the USA TODAY-inspired graphs is older, but the content of the text is up to date, complete with foreclosure-buying info updated to include the legal blow-back from the banks' use of robo-filers. There is also good info here for after the purchase, on things such as choosing a tenant and how to show more protect yourself from the Tenant from Hell types (like the gentleman in one example who went from Tenant from Heaven to crackhead - and this was in a property near the landlord's own home).

While individual markets and such will probably make further research advisable, I would recommend this for anyone who wants to turn rent day from pain day to pay day. This is especially helpful if you also take in some podcasts on the topic, such as those on the Jason Hartman 'Creating Wealth' site. show less

This is a good basic book on renting a single-family home. It is well-organized, with references to more specialized books and online resources. It would be handy for anyone who is thinking of purchasing a home to rent, or who has a home that they want/need to rent.
The sub-title is a bit misleading. Many of the examples and equations provided have more to do with multi-unit properties. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but as an investore dealing in single-family homes, I know that I deal show more with quite different issues than an apartment owner. If the book really specialized in the single-family home market, it might be better to stick with examples in that market, or highlight multi-family investment properties as a contrast.
Throughout the book, there are "USA Today Snapshots." I would have expected them to have some relationship to the text. Sometimes they do. In a section on pets, there is a graphic about pet owners.
More often, they don't; they seem to be thrown in at random. In a section on relationships with investment partners, there's a graphic about spouses who lie about finances. In a section on financing, there's a graphic about joining a business association. Such slap-dash choices suggest that the editors made a decision that a certain percentage of the page had to be graphics, and then the layout artist filled in the spots with whatever was available.
I'm going to keep the book around as a reference work. It looks like a useful tool for a small-time investor. show less

This Nolo press book is a pretty fair introduction to the issues a prospective landlord needs to consider when renting out a single family home. You should probably consider this an overview and introductory book. Still, it is more than 300 pages of pretty good advice and coverage of the topic. As usual, Nolo would be happy to have you purchase other books that cover aspects of landlordery more in depth. This technique of recommending their other related books seems to rankle some people, show more but I'm not one. In any case, this would be the book to purchase first, and if it serves your purposes, fine. If you do need more "book learning" help about taxes, property protection, finding tenants, etc., then consider more specific works. And Nolo is NOT the only press that covers this subject area.

And if you're really clueless, you should probably hire somebody competent in the field (e.g., a real estate lawyer). This book would still be a good purchase since in dealing with a lawyer (or other rental professional) you'll have a good overview of the issues.

All in all a good book, highly recommended for any public library's reference collection. show less