In an effort to become financially independent, we have discovered the BiggerPockets website, a site focusing on real estate and the various ins and outs of it. Back in 2015, after we bought our first house and started house hacking (by renting out our spare room), we realized the benefits of real estate investing and we wanted to add it our financial independence strategy.

In 2016, we bought our first investment property, a buy-and-hold rental around 20 minutes south from our place. We then bought the Biggerpockets Guide to Managing Rental Properties (at the time these books were not available in our library), and it has been an invaluable source of information for us as we continue on our real estate dreams.

In 2019, we closed on another primary house, which we are also house-hacking, converted our original 2015 house into a rental and thus, we now own 3 properties. Yay. I figured it’s about time to learn more about real estate as we scale up. It wouldn’t hurt, right?

Book Review: How to Invest in Real Estate

And so, I picked up this book from the library as I try to gain more knowledge in real estate investing as that’s where I want my future career to be in. With our small success as landlords in rental #1 and rental #2, we want to scale up and get more rentals to replace my earned income (which I’m getting tired of sometimes, to be honest).

So, even though we already have rentals, I find that we should always keep learning the fundamentals, and thus, this led to me picking up this book.

Thoughts About the Book

Numerous stories about successful real estate investors dot the book as examples in the various sections, which can be inspiring and frustrating at the same time. Frustrating because buy & hold real estate is a slower strategy than flipping, but it is what we chose to focus on, and thus, we’ll definitely have to work longer in order to achieve our goals.

While some of the lessons in the book are already things we know, we did pick up a few tips here and there – like how to get more money to buy more properties, some other methods and strategies that are available out there (we’re still sticking to our niche, but it’s nice to know there are other options out there), and mindset changes.

This is a good book for people who are beginners or wanting to start with real estate investing. It’s not a get-rich scheme, as real estate, like other investments, need time to grow and earn you more money, but it is definitely a good step to start learning about the business.

The authors definitely know what they’re talking about, given their history in real estate investing, and of course, Bigger Pockets is one of the biggest online resources out there for real estate. We go to that website to read articles, listen to their podcast, and go through their forums if we need help or clarification on something.

Note that this book is published by Biggerpockets themselves, so it is available on Amazon (also available on Kindle format as well as an audiobook), but I managed to pick this book up from the library (one of the few titles they have that were available).

Other Book Recommendations:

• Book Review Master List – a blog post with all the book reviews we’ve managed to post
• Loopholes of Real Estate – Garrett Sutton