Real estate 'experts' book 'hit and miss'

Book review
Title: "The Real Book of Real Estate: Real Experts. Real Stories. Real Life."
Author: Robert Kiyosaki
Publisher: Vanguard Press, 2009; 512 pages; $19.95 list ($13.57 on Amazon.com)

Because I casually follow him on Twitter and elsewhere, the publication of Robert Kiyosaki's latest, "The Real Book of Real Estate," had been a blurry blip on my mental radar screen for some time, so I was interested to lay hands on it. Very quickly, it became apparent that the thick book was not, as I'd expected, a mid-career or post-bubble revisitation of his original classic, "Rich Dad, Poor Dad." Rather, it was a compilation of article/chapters by 22 other real estate personalities. I use the term personalities because, well, neither "expert" nor "charlatan" would fit all of the contributors.

What an assortment of folks! You've got real experts, like Garrett Sutton, who is an attorney who has both pioneered and mastered asset protection for real estate investors, and you've got infomercial investing pioneer Carleton Sheets, of "No Money Down" fame (or infamy, as the case may be).

There's a sprinkling of lesser-known contributors, ranging from a credible real estate financier that does $100 million deals to Kiyosaki's interior designer (who actually acquits herself quite admirably in a chapter on creating value in real estate investment properties via aesthetics). The bookends are chapters by Kiyosaki himself, his wife Kim (a women's real estate guru and investor in her own right) and Kiyosaki's frequent collaborator Donald Trump.

Once you get past the somewhat bizarre mix of authors represented, the substance of the book is somewhat hit and miss. This is not a detailed, user-friendly guide to, well, anything in particular. What it is is a collection of "expert advice" on various topics, loosely grouped into the categories:

• The Business of Real Estate

• Your Real Estate Project

• Creative Ways to Make Money in Real Estate

• Lessons Learned

Because every author has their own style and value for usability (and perhaps because they were given free reign to select their own topics?) reading the book straight through is inadvisable -- it comes off as disjointed and scattershot, as the chapters often have little to no relation to their neighbors. Nevertheless, there's some very good stuff in this book, especially in the chapters that drill down into the basics of whatever they are about, breaking their topic's complexities into lists and points that assume no advance knowledge of real estate investing, while reminding experienced investors of the easy-to-forget essentials. ...CONTINUED

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