Short Sale Investing Tip 1: Learn Rental Property ABCs

Tip 1: Learn More about Rental Property Investing Before You Start

I want to suggest you read another book, a more general book about investing in and managing rental properties if you do decide to pursue investments in short sale properties. Specifically, I suggest you read Retire Rich from Real Estate by Marc Andersen (Sphinx Publishing 2007).

Lots of the books written about real estate are essentially autobiographical success stories written by real estate investors who are confusing good luck with talent. Andersen's book isn't like that. Andersen's book is a readable "how to" manual for doing real estate investing right.

One quick tangential comment if you read Andersen's book: He doesn't like (and presents a robust argument for avoiding) single family rental property investment. I agree with this analysis. But I think in this specific market that the short sale discounts and cap rates change profitability.

Next Section: Tip 2: Work with Agent Who Understands Short Sales

Additional Information for Shortsale Investors

If you want additional information about how tax laws work for a short sale investment or for an individual running a business based on short sale investing, you may also be interested in one of my downloadable e-books shown below:

Tax laws provide active real estate investors with giant tax planning loopholes. A little upfront planning on your part could save you thousands a year...

One of the most powerful tactics for saving small business taxes is maximizing your deductions. You can literally save thousands in taxes each year.

Using an S corp for your real estate investing? To maximize savings, you need to minimize the salary paid to shareholders. But this decision is tricky.