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...TURNED $1,000 INTO A MILLION IN REAL ESTATE-IN MY SPARE TIME (497 pp.)-William Nickerson-Simon & Schuster...
Beware Deadbeats. Real Estatesman Nickerson's basic action verb is Borrow ("The road to riches is paved with borrowed money''). The parts of his scheme are equally simple: 1) "Buy only property that needs improvement"; 2) "Make selective improvements that increase value," e.g., paint, landscape; 3) "Keep selling at a profit and reinvesting...
With a $10,000, two-unit house in mind and $2,500 in pocket, a budding operator can borrow $7,500 and mount the first rung of the realty ladder. Two years later, according to Nickerson, the operator should have $5,800 in hand and be able to borrow $17,400 for a four-unit dwelling. By virtually geometrical progression, this mounts to $1,187,195 in 20 years. Arguing from the low foreclosure rate, Nickerson claims that an average man with "average luck" has a 400-to-1 chance of succeeding in real estate. By contrast, "Fifty percent...
Inevitably, the pitfalls just about equal the opportunities, and whole sections of Nickerson's book might be subtitled "On Guard." Example: many brokers understate the age of a building. A trip to the meter will reveal the tattletale yellowed card left by the electrical inspector and stamped with the property's true age. While most tenants are reliable, there is always the hazard of "The Professional Deadbeat...
Avoid "Janitor." Encyclopedic in managerial lore, Nickerson is perhaps most fascinating in discussing the semantics of the trade. In what might be called Nickerson's Law of Apartment Ad Copy, it turns out that "redecorated" and "spacious" will make a prospective tenant's mouth water more longingly than any other words. "Owner" is the O.K. word today for landlord ("The New Deal fostered a bitter reaction to 'Landlord' "). An accomplished owner delegates most of his work to his "manager" ("Avoid the word 'janitor' ... a higher-class manager can be hired by referring...