No comments about The Real Estate Deal Maker System.

No comments about Invest Like a Millionaire (...and Sleep Like an Angel!): A Spiritual Guide to the Heart & Soul of Real Estate Investing.

1 comments about You Are Not a House: How to Build Your Real Estate Career with Passion and Authenticity.

1. You Are Not a House (Trafford Publishing, 219 pages) is the somewhat disarming title of an excellent book written by Bill Fisher, Ph.D., a former California real estate practitioner and a long-time student and provider of real estate marketing materials. It is a book that is likely to be especially timely for those who, as the author describes them, began their business during a real estate boom and never really felt a need for a marketing program "until the business slows and they notice that they are small fish in a big bowl which is remarkably crowded with other fish."
   
   Its description as "The Service-Oriented Marketing Handbook" is somewhat more revealing than the title as to the contents of You Are Not a House. It is a book about marketing, about a distinctive type of marketing, one that many real estate agents might find worthy of their consideration.
   
   The point of the title is that, for many real estate agents, there is all too much tendency to advertise themselves in the same way that they advertise houses. But the enterprises are entirely different. The point of advertising a property is (in addition to mollifying the owner) to make the phone ring or the email inquiry to be sent. The point of such advertising is to get leads -- potential customers, maybe for the property being advertised, maybe not. For this kind of advertising, the ultimate test of its success is, "How many leads did it bring in? How many times did the phone ring?" But Fisher says that this kind of advertising, with these kinds of goals, is not what builds a steady or satisfying real estate career.
   
   "Marketing is about ever so much more than just getting some unknown person to call you on the phone so you can talk him or her into the office for an appointment.... Your marketing, when all is said and done, is the way you let the right people know who you are and why they should call on you when they need the professional assistance that you can give them so well. In successful marketing, you begin to build relationships of trust, developing a target market made up of people who feel they know you, even though you may not yet know them."
   
   This is to be accomplished through what the author calls, "service-oriented marketing," the first principle of which is, "Design all your marketing and prospecting with your clients' needs in mind. Not your own needs." Too much marketing is focused on telling the target market how warm, wonderful, etc., the agent is. It is true, and one of the principles of service-oriented marketing, that: "Your marketing program is built on who you are." But the marketing program must show people, not tell them.
   
   For Dr. Fisher, one of the key components of a service-oriented marketing program is the provision of useful information. Among other things, people want a real estate agent who is knowledgeable and informed about market conditions and related factors. So, the thing for an agent to do -- consistently and over time -- is not to tell people that he or she is informed, but to show them. How? By giving information away. The now fairly-common practice of providing summaries of listing and sales activity in a neighborhood is a small example of this. But it only scratches the surface. People want the story behind the story. They want to understand why the market is doing what it is doing, and they want to know what strategies they can adopt to best accommodate whatever the realities of the day might be.
   
   Inasmuch as Bill Fisher is a newsletter writer, it is not entirely surprising that he sees newsletters as an important component of an effective personal marketing campaign. But he counsels that newsletters must reflect the character of the agent who is using them. There is no "one-size-fits-all." Moreover, it is clear that today and in the foreseeable future such things as blogs and social networking posts may play equal or even greater roles in personal marketing than do newsletters.
   
   You Are Not a House is about much more than developing a marketing campaign that will lead to a financially successful real estate career. The subtitle of the book is, "How to Build Your Real Estate Career with Passion and Authenticity." The author emphasizes early and often that an important goal is to build a career that integrates who you are. Your career is not your life and it is not who you are. No matter how good it is, you as a person are infinitely more complex and wonderful than that. That is a lesson not to forget, and Dr. Fisher emphasizes it with eloquence.
   
   You Are Not a House is a perfect case study in the service-oriented marketing that its author espouses. The book provides real estate agents with a plethora of information and useful marketing ideas. In doing so, it also brings its readers into the life and character of Bill Fisher and shows them who he is. For both reasons, it is a worthwhile read.
   
   [Bob Hunt is a director of the National Association of Realtors and is the author of the recently-published book, "Real Estate the Ethical Way."]
   
   [NOTE: You Are Not A House is indeed available through amazon.com Disregard any statement that the book is not currently available. Simply order and you will receive it within the usual time period.]

No comments about Doghouse to Dollar$ Workbook: Turn "Yucks into Bucks" Investor's Guide.

No comments about Money: The New Homeowner's Gift Kit (Magazine Kit) (Petite Plus Series).

No comments about How to Make Your Realtor Get You the Best Deal, Nevada Edition: A Guide Through the Real Estate Purchasing Process, from Choosing a Realtor to Negotiating ... Your Realtor Get You the Best Deal Series).

No comments about Real Estate the Ethical Way.

5 comments about The Smith Manoeuvre.

1. Author Fraser Smith has become my hero. His book for making a mortgage tax deductable is brilliant. He writes about all the steps for average folks to do like the rich, and get richer, by turning mortgage interest into tax refunds. This is for Canadians. I will soon be marching down to my bank and demanding they turn my mortgage into a Smith mortgage, then running to my mailbox for my tax refund. I look forward to many worry-free years ahead as my retirement portfolio grows.... Two thumbs up for the Smith Manoeuver.



2. When my acccountant described the Smith Manoeuvre, I was very interested and picked up the book. While not entirely well written (he rambles on about politics, the Canadian Alliance and Joe Clark) the core concept is sound and I'll be implementing this manouevre to start leveraging the principle gained in my current mortgage to get tax deductions.

   His examples are not entirely intuitive. If he spent more time on explaining the fundementals and less on rah rah, it would make for a less confusing read.

   That being said, despite the poor writing, his "manoeuvre" is great and the book is worth every penny. It'll get you on your way to getting tax deductions on your personal residential mortgage, and more importantly, increasing your net worth.




3. There is no useful information in this book. It is a huge plug for some software that anybody could make in an hour with Excel. The author is on a rave about the political system more than trying to explain a useful financial tactic. And why buy the book? The tactic is: use existing money to pay down your mortgage, then borrow back the same amount and buy investments. The interest on the re-borrowed portion is now deductible. Simple as that.



4. "The Smith Manoeuvre" is a book for Canadians to convert "bad" non-tax deductible interest from loans to "good" tax deductible interest loans.
   
   Essentially the whole point of the book is to state that you should borrow money to purchase investments while you pay off your mortgage. This allows you to covert your debt into interest that is tax deductible.
   
   While the technique is certainly useful and important, this book is terrible to read. It is filled with repetition which appears to be filler in order to make a book out of this topic. The examples are poor and the writing make it a very dull read. Additionally there are no illustrations which would great help people understand the technique visually. And finally there are consistent references to the author's software which makes the book read more like an infomercial that reading material.
   
   Regardless, the technique is important. I would suggest borrowing this book or having a financial advisor explain the technique to you instead of picking up this book. 2 out of 5 stars.



5. 
   This book is not about the well worn idea ( in Canada) of selling your investment portfolio to pay down your mortgage and borrow with tax deductible debt to invest; as that is about all there is to be said about that (other than you're likely doing something wrong if you are not paying off your mortgage as soon as possible and so anyone who has investment assets as large as their mortgage is already on the wrong track). This book is not about paying down your mortgage at all but refinancing principal paydowns in order to borrow MORE to invest. This is a high risk strategy that assumes your investing rate is always higher that your borrowing rate; only professional traders should ever borrow to invest (as they don't invest they trade with other people's money!). Many people go brankrupt when they then face a recession. The book makes silly assumptions like 'assume your investing rate is 10% being 'Joe's' financial planner's target return'. If everyone could be assured a positive return over their borrowing rate it would constitute 'free money' and everyone would do it. The banks wouldn't even give you a mortgage of 6% if they were guaranteed 10% elsewhere. The book is a con job for the author to earn royalties, not 10% returns or he would go after those himself! Good luck!

2 comments about Focusing On Foreclosures.

1. Good guide to buying foreclosed properties but to much generalities. No one seems to share the real secrets in buying foreclosed properties. Need a good book on researching liens.



2. I read the book and it was very general. If you knew a lot already you might pick up a few tips, but the book does not have the content needed to teach you how to do this business. Skip this one.

1 comments about Rich Dad's - Teach to Be Rich: Because the Best Way to Learn Is to Teach What You Want to Learn and the Way to Get Rich Is to Help Others Become Rich (Teach to be Rich, Parts I - III (workbook only)).

1. Robert Kiyosaki's Latest Book "Teach to be Rich" is a great summary of how those who are truly knowledgable about money and finance can become highly affluent. He also does an excellent job of describing the falacy of much of the financial advice offered by our "financial advisors" and other self proclaimed money experts today. He shows how his game "Cash Flow" is a wonderful way to learn many of the rule of good financial thinking.
   TJHRich Dad's - Teach to Be Rich: Because the Best Way to Learn Is to Teach What You Want to Learn and the Way to Get Rich Is to Help Others Become Rich (Teach to be Rich, Parts I - III (workbook only))