Analyzing Income Properties for a Profitable Investment
by Joseph T. Sinclair
The New Edition of Real Numbers will soon be available as an Android book app. It will be avialable on Google Play for a price of $65.00. In the meanwhile, you can buy it here for an introductory price of $19.95 (see how at the end of this webpage page).
Here’s the overview!
Richard D. Irwin Inc. originally published this book for real estate professionals in 1993. Joseph T. Sinclair, the author, has edited and revised this book to make it easy for ordinary (grassroots) investors to understand. Grassroots investors are generally those who purchase income properties from $50,000 to $5,000,000.
The book covers the standard real estate investment analysis format, which is well proven (and unchanged) over many decades and quite useful to all types of real estate investors.
This book is not for the faint-of-heart. If you’re looking for a short book that will make you rich in the next two weeks, you’ve come to the wrong place. This is a professional book—revised and re-edited for ordinary investors—that presents a large volume of information. Successful real estate investing takes actual work (a little known fact), and this book is a productive starting point.
This book is a classic. The author provides a thorough report on the classic method of real estate investment analysis. The original major-league real estate investors, the insurance companies, have used it for over a century.
Is this book for you?
Should you use this standard analysis? Some may feel this analysis is overkill for small investments such as single-family residences. But in fact there are many reasons why you need to use it:
- Many real estate professionals such as MAIs, CCIMs, CPMs, income property loan officers and mortgage brokers, and commercial real estate brokers use it. They use it because it’s the most accurate way to analyze real estate.
- It works for a wide variety of income properties and provides you with the analytic discipline to avoid expensive mistakes.
- The income & expense portion of the standard format is an objective analysis providing information you can trust.
- You will need the standard analysis to obtain a real estate investment loan.
- The income & expense analysis is the cornerstone for all other analyses in real estate investment, even non-standard analyses. You need to get it right.
- This standard analysis is taught and used worldwide now.
- It enables you to understand other owners’ or investors’ analyses. It also enables you to easily compare your own analyses to other owners’ or investors’ analyses.
- It enables you to compare your property’s performance to published statistics where available.
- It enables you to use standard rates of return more accurately and effectively.
- It enables you to easily spot untrained or fraudulent people in your real estate dealings.
- You can use it as your own standard so you can compare your various investments even when you acquire them many years apart. For example, 10 or 20 years from now you will not have to decipher how you did your analysis today.
- It’s easy to learn. Once you learn it, it’s easy to understand for any property quickly.
- There’s no reason not to use the standard format because a computer will do all the work for you. Most real estate investment analysis software uses the standard format. But even though a computer does the work for you, you still need to understand what the computer has wrought, and you need to provide accurate inputs.
This book is complete. It’s not a teaser full of fluff designed to get you to sign up for a $4,000 boot camp or any other courses or seminars.
The author Joseph T. Sinclair has over 30 years experience in real estate investmenting, brokerage, property management, asset management, consulting, university instruction, and professional seminar instruction. His experience includes small properties as well as large.
At 478 pages (with no fillers), think of this book as an inexpensive, one-week, full-time boot camp. Yet it’s an easy-to-read book. And it’s better than a boot camp. You get to learn at your own pace.
Testimonials
Join your fellow real estate investors across the country who have found Real Numbers to be useful.
“Mr. Sinclair writes that Real Numbers is not a guru book that will guarantee quick riches from real estate investment. However, it’s hard to imagine that consistent success as a real estate investor will come to those who fail to learn and apply the messages in Real Numbers. Whether an investment real estate expert or a beginner, whether a broker or an investor, this book is an important reference and is a guide to the common language of the business.”
William C. Witting CCIM, Investment Real Estate Consultant, Stanwood, Washington
“It would be an understatement to say that this book covers the territory. It smothers the territory and leaves few questions unanswered. Better yet, it developed my powers of analysis so I can start to answer my own questions. A real confidence builder.”
Chip Ballew, Real Estate Investor, Indianapolis, Indiana
“This book is a real eye-opener for a part-time real estate investor. No more murky notions about what the bottom line is. Real Numbers brought me a clear-cut view of how well my out-of-state investment is performing and how several of my unsold houses will perform as investments.”
Tim Twomey, Civil Engineer and Contractor, Cobb, California
“If you want to make quick decisions, this is the ticket. Most of the good deals I see don’t last long. Real Numbers helps me do quicker analysis, which leads to quicker decisions. My clients and I can shorten our response time and leave no opportunity to slip through the cracks. Great book!”
Anne French, Real Estate Broker, Sedona, Arizona
“I have a little land that I’m turning into income property, and boy has Real Numbers ever helped. I got my numbers down so I knew they were right. At that point I knew I could pull it off. I’m sure the income and expense statement helped me at the bank too. This book makes it easy to move ahead.”
Don Howell, Real Estate Investor, Camp Wood, Texas
“I’ve been supplying numbers to clients for years, but Real Numbers has sure made it easier and quicker. It’s a lot to read and study, but it’s worth it. It provides all the details to important investment concepts. It isn’t vague like many of the investment books out there.”
Ted Straughan, Real Estate Broker, Denver, Colorado
“We’re always searching for good real estate books to use for courses, and this is one of the best. It’s very complete for teaching real estate investment. In fact, I look at it and wonder whether people really need an instructor.”
Rick Roller, Real Estate Instructor, Salt Lake City, Utah
“It’s nearly impossible to conjure a book dedicated strictly to the world of real estate analysis as a ‘good read,’ but Joseph Sinclair has somehow managed to pull it off. This well-written tome is as full of personality as it is of useful instruction and advice. I highly recommend it.”
Steve Kirk, Real Estate Investor, Petaluma, California
This book is an investment by itself and one you won’t regret. This investment in yourself will lead to bigger real estate profits. And unlike other investments, once you know the stuff in Real Numbers, no one can take it away from you.
Boost your confidence
Without proper investment analysis, you will have a difficult time developing the confidence to make a timely purchase decision. If selling, you may shortchange yourself; or you may ask a price too high and thus miss selling opportunities.
Today the aftermath of the subprime mortgage chaos of 2008 affects many income properties—particularly single-family houses—and it is now more important than ever to get the numbers right. For many owned properties, this classic analysis may mean the difference between eventual success or total loss.
As the real estate markets come off the bottom, proper analysis will help you find the best investment opportunities. And there will be many! Indeed, proper analysis will give you the confidence to make smart purchase decisions long before less-informed investors catch on.
A booming market tends to cover up mistakes in analysis. A market bust tends to magnify mistakes in analysis. Don’t make the blunder of doing careless analysis in today’s slow market.
The author is the first to admit that the numbers are only one aspect of making a profitable real estate investment. There are certainly other important things to consider too. But without knowing and understanding the numbers, let’s face it, you are not likely to develop the confidence to make timely decisions—and good real estate deals won’t wait around for you to make up your mind.
This book offers robust features
Chapter 1–27 cover the 27 line items in the standard forecast format for your convenient reference. This is especially handy for using with analysis software; it provides you an easy step-by-step learning tool; and it makes a great reference.
The book provides five comprehensive examples: an apartment building, an office building, a shopping center, a four-plex, and a single-family residence. By studying analysis using these properties as examples, you will develop the skills to analyze income properties of any kind.
The book covers income taxation as a concept rather than teaching the current tax laws. This is not a tax book. When the tax laws change, this book will not be outdated. This approach enables you to integrate your current tax knowledge with the standard investment analysis at any time you read this book. (If your tax knowledge is limited, you will begin to understand how the tax laws affect real estate investments, but you will still need to acquire your tax knowledge elsewhere.) In any case, the book shows you how to accurately estimate the effects of income taxation on owning real estate.
The book covers the most important indicators (rates of return) used in real estate investment. You may already use some of these, and the book shows how to use them accurately, thus saving you from profit-reducing mistakes.
The book covers discounted cash flow analysis, the basis for understanding the “time value” of money. Financial matters are often not what they seem to be until you analyze them using the time value of money. This is an important step in learning to calculate an intelligent rate of return. This approach gives you an accurate means of evaluating a real estate investment opportunity. It also enables you to compare real estate investments against other types of investments (e.g., corporate bonds).
The book covers Net Present Value (NPV) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) calculations, which many professionals deem to be the most accurate of all investment analyzes. You need to know how to use these useful evaluations in order to choose the best investments out of those available.
No one will ever be able to intimidate you with numbers after you read this book. Make yourself an expert.
What’s your situation?
If you’re retiring, leaving a job, or changing professions, you can put your new real estate investing activities on the fast track with Real Numbers. A quick and diligent reading will bring you up to speed immediately.
If you are a real estate professional working on getting a certification from the:
- CCIM Institute
- Institute of Real Estate Management
- Society of Industrial and Office Realtors
- Realtors Land Institute
- Certified International Property Specialists Network
- Appraisal Institute
Real Numbers will help you to painlessly learn the course materials and pass the exams.
If you’re an investment real estate professional and don’t know how to use the standard analysis that this book covers, some of your prospective clients who do understand it will be likely intimidate you.
If you’re serious about investing in real estate and looking for an easy way to learn about it, this is a must-have book at an easy-to-buy price.
Use the 100% solution
Most real estate investment books cover analysis with less than 10% of their content. This book is all analysis: 100% of the 478-page (print version) content. This book is really all you need in order to learn solid and practical real estate investment analysis.
Buy this book at Google Play soon for $65.00 in the Android app format. In the meanwhile, you can get it here for introductory price of $19.95. Simply send $19.95 via PayPal to jt@sinclair.com. The PDF version will be delivered to you by email within one business day. Sorry we don’t have a more sophisticated ecommerce system, but we don’t intend to sell from the website once we get set up on Google Play.