Real Estate Investing – Books, TV Infomercials and Seminars

Real estate investing has become popular today due to television real estate investing infomercials and traveling seminar circuits. But real estate investing hasn’t always been so popular.

In the 1960s, William Nickerson wrote, “How I Turned $1,000 Into Three Million Real Estate” and “How To Make A Fortune Today Starting From Scratch.” It was one of the first real estate investment books to gain national attention. A little later, Al Lowry wrote “How You Can Become Financially Independent By Investing In Real Estate.” Al Lowry could be called “the father of modern real estate seminars” because he was the first to conduct seminars as a result of the sales of his books.

But it was Mark Haroldsen who took the momentum of the real estate investing book/seminar to the next level. Haroldsen wrote, “How to Awaken the Financial Genius Within You.” If he was attuned to real estate investing at the time, he’ll remember the newspaper and magazine ads that featured a picture of smooth, balding Mark leaning against the front hood of his Mercedes. The image appeared everywhere in the full page ads of major publications. And when Mark started selling his books, he started doing real estate investing seminars. I had lunch with Mark and Al Lowry as they traded stories of the ad campaigns that catapulted them to national prominence for their real estate investing prowess. Mark later wrote “The Courage to Be Rich” and “Tax Free”.

But it was Robert Allen who capitalized on the earlier work of Lowry and Haroldsen. Robert Allen was reportedly paid $1 million upfront in royalties for his best-selling book, “Nothing Down,” a compilation of 50 techniques for buying property with no money. Robert had learned these techniques from several years of experience with a commercial real estate company. He later wrote “Creating Wealth” and “First Steps in Real Estate Investing”. Robert Allen’s real estate investing seminars have become a phenomenal marketing bonanza. Conventions were held in major cities across the country including Orlando, LA, Dallas, Chicago, and Atlanta. Authors of various real estate investment techniques spoke at these seminars, but his rant focused on the sale of packages of real estate investment materials that they offered for sale. Millions of dollars worth of real estate investment materials were sold at these 3-day conventions. The convention frenzy marked the beginning of what has since become known as “The Nothing Down Real Estate Movement” of the early to mid-1980s.

I keep all of these books in my personal library, and chances are you can still find them in your public library and bookstores. There is a lot of great information in these books that can make you very well informed, even though some of the ideas are out of date.

We are now presented with a variety of ways to make money in real estate by investing in TV infomercials, books, and seminars. Which is the best? Who can tell? Real estate investing is learned through trial and error. Real estate investment skills and techniques are acquired through practice. I don’t think anyone can dogmatically recommend the best technique for someone else. Every real estate investor has unique needs and is in a unique situation. Real estate investment goals differ.

However, if you’re strapped for education real estate investment and need to generate a quick return on investment, I think fixing up cheap houses is an ideal starting point. Real estate investing in remodeled properties generates fast, profitable dollars with low risk.