Buy It By The Acre, Sell It By The Foot

This book is writen by Sam Allman, a real estate developer and investor with over fourty years experience. This book gives a real life example the author did in Parksville, British Columbia, on the beautiful Vancouver Island. He bought a piece of land of 30 acres and developed it into and sold lots in three phrases. Along the way, he demonstrated the life cycle of land development, in each step summarizing his thoughts over the years. The book illustrates how to find a project, raise the money, find a mortgage, deal with municipal and provincial governments, how to find engineers, surveyers, land designers, and selling process.

I have read the book several times. When I read it the first time, I was a very small investor and I could not relate to the example in the book. But I learned a lot by reading through it. The second time I read it, I began to be able to relate to the example although I was still not big enough to deal with projects that size and I will probably not going to deal with bare land in the near future. As a matter of fact, I borrowed a lot of ideas from the book when I structured my first commercial size project last year.

Here are some contents of the book:

Great Truth #1: There are only two ways to make money in RE. You either have to buy below fair market value so you can sell at fair market value or you have to do something that is within your control to add value so that you can sell at a profit.

Great Truth #2: It's not the things you don't know that kill you -- it's the things you know for an absolute fact that just an't so.

Great Truth #3: There are only three ways to lose money in RE: Greed and Ignorance and Bad Luck.

Great Truth #4: When it comes to RE you can't learn what to do from a book -- but, you can learn what not to do from a book.

Great Truth #5: If you are going to reach for a high return you must undertake high risks--unless someone in the deal knows what he's doing. That way you can displace the risk and replace it with experience.

Great Truth #6: It is a wise travleer who knows when it is time to abandon his luggage -- Somerset Maugham

Great Truth #7: RE developers are usually only found in one of two places. Either in their palatial mansions or in the bankruptcy court.

Great Truth #8: Good judgement comes from experience--unfortunately, experience only comes from bad judgement.

Great Truth #9: You are not the smartest person in the game.

Great Truth #10: Hey, if this business was easy everyone would be doing it.

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Great Truth #37: If you think that education is expensive, you ought to try ignorance.

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The book can be had for $19.95 by calling [phone].