Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 494 pages
- Published by: ExPress Publishing
- Edition: 10th Edition November 25, 2006
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0932956300
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0932956309
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Book Dimensions:
10.7 x 8.3 x 1.2 inches
- Weighs: 2.4 pounds
Product Description
Since 1975, this book has been the bible of scrupulous landlords and landladies. It's a comprehensive and readable reference on how to attract and keep good tenants and make good landlording decisions.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Landlording: A Handy Manual for Scrupulous Landlords and Landladies Who Do It Themselves (Landlording) (Paperback)
I recently (within the past 6 months) acquired a rental property, and the book has helped me manage my properties better and had many many excellent tips. His advice is pretty candid- he tells you its ok to say no and be a little bit heavy handed. He has many anectodes as example scenarios to drive his points home. His main focus is on finding good tenants, and leases, as it should be, since they are the source of your revenue. In addition, he discusses many easily implementable ways to increase your profits, especially if you have multiple properties. The book tries to be the one book you will need to be a landlord, and achieves that goal. However, you may find that some of his discussions topics are overly long (IE dealing with pets, waterbeds) and some not long enough (IE legal/liability issues). It is on the issue of law that you will NEED another reference, but nothing short of an entire book or library of books will properly inform you of all the legal issues involved. The cons of the book is that it seemed to be a bit overly long. For example there is about twenty pages of comic strips at the end of the book that I suppose are supposed to be humorous ways to convery things to your tenants (like paying rent) but I found them to be completely useless. The forms included are nice, but they would be far more useful if they were included on a CD. If you really want to be a better landlord, you would be far better off printing new forms w/ your name on them, and not distributing photocopies- This brings me to my next weakness. Some parts of the book push his other products a bit too much. He sells forms on CD ...and a program he wrote to manage properties ...and he mentions them a bit too much in the book for me to say that he is being completely objective. If he eliminated the twenty pages of comics and thirty pages of forms, it would have been quite cost effective for him to distribute all of those things on a CD. In addition, the chapter on computers could probably be omitted. The information was outdated on the first day of printing, bores those born since 1975 who have had to learn to use them, and on top of that does not really inform the target reader enough to the point where they could effectively use one. He should have raised the bar a little and targeted those already familiar w/ office suites on how to make useful databases, word processor templates of the forms, and advanced spreadsheets. The book has a focus squarely on property management. Do not buy this book if you are looking for how to evaluate a property, or estimate cashflow. Landlording covers the ART of property management, not the science of analyzing the potential income of a property. Do not let the negatives discourage you. I mention them because most Amazon reviews tend to all be "5 stars! this book was great!" Overall, this book is excellent, and the best I found at the bookstore on managing property. The book appears a little bit 'no frills' and does not have much shelf appeal( IE pretty layout and pictures), but the information contained inside is the invaluable experience of someone who has successfully managed over 200 properties.
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