Saturday, January 10, 2009

Review of "Fix em Up Rent em Out" by Terry Sprouse



I recently ran across this book after reading Terry's blog. In fact, I just finished reading it today over my morning coffee.

I recommend this book for any aspiring (or greenhorn) real estate investor. Having just completed my first fix up, I learned much from Terry's methods but I especially related to his philosophical approach to life in the world of real estate investing. In fact, one might subtitle this tome, "Zen and the Art of Rehabbing".

Blended with this extremely practical and useful guide to finding, fixing and successfully renting properties are the intangibles of rehabbing and landlording. Terry waxes about the pride he feels from taking on and completing a repair job and the confidence that builds for tackling more complicated tasks.

Two parts of this book alone make it worth adding to your REI library:

Chapter 9, "Let the Tax Law Help You Make Money" was invaluable to me. As I mentioned before, my wife and I just completed an extensive remodel in our SFR rental. Along with my sense of pride for completing this daunting project, I have several thousand dollars of receipts stuffed in a file folder. He clearly laid out the difference between repairs and improvements how the IRS treats each category. Thank you Terry!

The reference sections in the appendices are as complete as they are varied. Especially helpful to me was the list of books the author consulted to write this book.

I encourage you to add this book to your REI library. It's a keeper.

1 comments:

Terry Sprouse said...

Boomer,

Thanks for posting that review of my book.

Good luck with your fixer upper! It sounds like you are off to a good start.

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