Property investment books/education

Hey PCers

Property investment education- where does everybody learn / up-skill / research in order to become "better" property investors?

Has anybody taken courses? Attend property investment group meet ups? Books to read?

I've read a couple of Margaret Lomas books, has anybody used her "20 must ask questions " and found it to be useful?

Cheers

Scott

 

forget the courses, just read every post on this forum and it will save you thousands.

 

Hi Scott
youtube and podcasts are very useful

 

Courses and seminars all have an agenda, give them a miss.

Read through the forum and also through Somersoft and you'll learn a lot.

Also check the networking/meetups section of the forum, talk to people who are actually in the game.

Above all - you learn by doing.

 

Yes I found this book useful when focusing on if a new area was suitable for investment. Many of the questions are obvious but they do help in finding areas which might not be the flavour of the month yet are viable options. They allow you to immediately disregard many smaller regionals or low yielding capital city locations. This sort of strategy doesn't necessarily involve chasing the next wave driven by market sentiment rather its based more on fundamentals of an area.

 

Agree that podcasts are great as I listen on the way to and from work as they make that time seem at least a little more bearable.

One of my favourite podcasts at the moment

Podcast Archives - The Property Couch

 

There is a wealth of knowledge here.
For books this is an incredible list
Book list
My personal favs include:
Rich Dad Poor Dad - Robert Kyosaki for general financial thinking as a starting point
More Wealth from Residential Property - Jan Somers - great all round summary
Real Estate Riches - Dolf De Roos - another all rounder but highly positive and motivational
Ordinary Millionaires - Jim McKnight - stories of some folk using different strategies LOVE THIS
Working with the Law - Raymond Holliwell - mindset book

Courses have their place for specialist knowledge, nothing wrong with them if you are discerning just be aware some have an upsell.

 

Richest Man in Bablyon by George Clason! Great story and lessons!

You could find a pdf on Google

 

Cheers guys much appreciated

 

I'm a huge believer in courses and I attend a lot of live training events myself. It has to fit, you can't do a course on flower arranging if you are own a garage and then label it as rubbish because you cant get it working for you - those flowers are just BS they don't sell in my garage and they said I would make an extra $5000 per week doing this.... der.

It only works if you are a florist and adding value to what you already doing.

It only works if you have a plan, if you have goals and if you fully trust yourself to do look for the right fit.

Upselling does not worry me in the slightest as I fully trust myself, I will enroll in things that will add value to what I'm doing and find the others interesting but not for me at this time.

You learn so much more when you are not defensive and thinking that they are after you to spruke you or scam you. No one can ever do anything to you without your permission.

 

Hi Scott,

I believe the technical side of property investing is fairly straight forward. You can find alot of the information here. Like riding a bike, difficult at first but once you get it, you won't forget it.

The mindset is the difficult part and is what separates alot of property investors. Most investors, buy a few and then stop. Alot of the time it isn't a lack of technical knowledge but because their mindset wasn't right or dream not big enough.

Try a few of these books

Magic of Thinking Big - David Schwartz
Think & Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
Slight Edge - Jeff Oslon

Supplement your property books with these, over time you will find that the property books are phased out and replaced with these.

Good luck!

Cheers,
Michael

 

Just hang around here like a bad smell.

 

Thanks Michael

Have read Magic of Thinking Big and Think and Grow Rich also plug them in on audio from time to time! Great content!

Scott

 

I started with Steve McKnights books '0-120 properties in something years' but i found that after further learning they are out of date as the market has changed. One thing they do well is introduce you to the idea of CF+ and examples of real life purchases.These books are super cheap so even if you get very little from them they are still worth a read.

They also lead me to propertyinvesting.com which lead me here so

 

I find books to long, the mags are good for an introduction and understanding the ins and outs... But don't believe everything you read just get an understanding for how things work.

 

I agree with Xenia and love how you have expressed what you did, @Xenia . It is so true!

 

Magazines are a good, cheap way get some info. You can see what other people are doing, even though some are nothing startling really. Go to your library and borrow a handful. There are some good articles usually.
It's interesting looking at the stats in the back of old ones too.
I recently gave a way a lot of my old ones and I was skimming through some from 2011 where they "predicted" that Sydney median would hit $799k. haha. No one guessed it would hit $1mill.
Meetups are great as you meet real people that are actually in the game. You'll hear about different strategies and get ideas of what's the right fit for you.

 

Hey @Scott Townsend,
Yep, have read lomas 20 questions book - I thought it was a great read especially for a new kid on the block. I also leant it my mate and they found great value in it also.

To go with Michael's post on books on mindset, have you read Grant Cardone's The 10X Rule?
It's bloody awesome!!

 

@Scott Townsend, aside from the forum and books, you will learn a ridiculous amount by networking with other investors and learning about their techniques and methods, their vision and dreams, their biggest mistakes and greatest successes.

I think networking is the most easily overlooked aspect of investment education.

 

Agreed, provided that the network is someone that is not trying to mislead you and have a hidden agenda. I was very fortunate in that my property mentor is someone who is so giving and he lets his results do the talking. I spend hours talking to him and he has even attended open homes on my behalf.