Your First Home: The Smart Way To Get It And Keep It

You've probably seen TV shows like Flip This House and Flip That House, in which Real estate investors buy, renovate, and sell a house in a matter of weeks for tens of thousands of dollars in profit. They make flipping houses look so easy that you want to jump out of your recliner (during the next commercial, of course), run down the street, find a house for sale, flip it for a 50 percent profit, and run back home to continue watching the show.

I, Ralph Roberts, have flipped hundreds of houses, and it's never as easy as it looks on TV. People don't generally line up at your front door begging you to buy their house for 30-50 percent below market value. Renovation expenses always exceed estimates. And you can't always sell a house for what you think it's worth.

Flipping houses for a profit requires time, money, and what I like to call sticktoitism—dogged determination in the face of overwhelming uncertainty.

Not just another house flipping book

You can find plenty of books about flipping houses that claim "anyone can do it" and make flipping look easy and risk-free. Flipping Houses For Dummies takes a different approach—honesty. We don't claim that flipping houses is "easy" or "simple" or "risk-free," because, quite frankly, it isn't.

Flipping Houses For Dummies reveals the risks and rewards of flipping properties; helps you determine whether you have the time, energy, cash, and other resources to be successful; and then conveys the expert knowledge that those who wish to pursue house flipping need in order to minimize risk and maximize potential profits in a very competitive market. Did you know?

Most books on flipping houses gloss over the key factors that that make or break the novice house flipper. These are the very items we focus on in Flipping Houses For Dummies. For example, did you know:

• You should secure financing before you look at houses.
• As a flipper, you want dontwanners—houses that the owners obviously don't want.
• You make your profit when you buy the property. You realize your profit when you sell.
• Always plan on earning at least 20 percent after your total investment—purchase price, repairs and renovations, real estate agent commissions, and holding costs (monthly mortgage payments, insurance, property taxes, and utilities).
• Working with a top-notch real estate agent can save you thousands of dollars more than what you pay in commissions.
• You should choose a limited geographical area to work and then become an expert on the houses and property values in that area.
• Your goal when renovating a home should be to bring the property up to market standards, not exceed them.

Flipping Houses For Dummies speaks to the mom and pop investor, steering you clear of the gray areas, which tend to carry high-risks and low-returns, into safer, more potentially profitable areas. We encourage you invest in your comfort zone and take on bigger, riskier projects with higher profit potential only when you're ready.

In Flipping Houses For Dummies we stress that the first flip is the most important one, and we take the guesswork out of the first transaction, to lead you through a positive first experience on which to build a promising real estate investment portfolio.

THINK AND GROW RICH - The Complete & Original Ebook Classic INCLUDING BONUS ENTIRE HIGH QUALITY AUDIO

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"Think and Grow Rich" is a motivational personal development and self-help book written by Napoleon Hill and inspired by a suggestion from Scottish-American businessman Andrew Carnegie. While the title implies that this book deals only with how to achieve monetary wealth, the author explains that the philosophy taught in the book can be used to help individuals succeed in all lines of work and to do or be almost anything they want in this world. For instance, Jim Murray (sportswriter) wrote that Think and Grow Rich was credited for Ken Norton's boxing upset of Muhammad Ali in 1973. The Reverend Charles Stanley writes "I began to apply the principles of (Think and Grow Rich) to my endeavors as a pastor, and I discovered they worked!" The book was first published in 1937 during the Great Depression. At the time of Hill's death in 1970, Think and Grow Rich had sold 20 million copies. It remains the biggest seller of Napoleon Hill's books - a perennial best-seller after 70 years (BusinessWeek Magazine's Best-Seller List ranked Think and Grow Rich as the sixth best-selling paperback business book 70 years after it was first published). Think and Grow Rich is listed in John C. Maxwell's A Lifetime "Must Read" Books List.

The text of Think and Grow Rich is founded on Hill's earlier work The Law of Success, the result of more than twenty years of research based on Hill's close association with a large number of individuals who achieved great wealth during their lifetimes.

At Andrew Carnegie's bidding, Hill studied the characteristics of these achievers and developed 16 "laws" of success intended to be applied by anybody to achieve success. Think and Grow Rich condenses these laws further and provides the reader with 13 principles in the form of a philosophy of personal achievement.