Janet Portman

Lately I've been reading a lot about buying real estate to rent out. This book provided a solid base to scare me into reality on what that would involve. The concept of being a landlord seems like a good idea when everything is working well. If you get the finances right, the tenant isn't too pushy, the property doesn't have too many issues -- well then you can probably enjoy the additional cashflow and appreciation on the property. If not, well it might be more similar to my past landlording experience where the tenant stopped paying, had a friend of his move in, had to be evicted with police. Hopefully that means I've at least seen (some of) the bad side to know what to expect.… (más)

This is a good basic book on renting a single-family home. It is well-organized, with references to more specialized books and online resources. It would be handy for anyone who is thinking of purchasing a home to rent, or who has a home that they want/need to rent.
The sub-title is a bit misleading. Many of the examples and equations provided have more to do with multi-unit properties. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but as an investore dealing in single-family homes, I know that I deal with quite different issues than an apartment owner. If the book really specialized in the single-family home market, it might be better to stick with examples in that market, or highlight multi-family investment properties as a contrast.
Throughout the book, there are "USA Today Snapshots." I would have expected them to have some relationship to the text. Sometimes they do. In a section on pets, there is a graphic about pet owners.
More often, they don't; they seem to be thrown in at random. In a section on relationships with investment partners, there's a graphic about spouses who lie about finances. In a section on financing, there's a graphic about joining a business association. Such slap-dash choices suggest that the editors made a decision that a certain percentage of the page had to be graphics, and then the layout artist filled in the spots with whatever was available.
I'm going to keep the book around as a reference work. It looks like a useful tool for a small-time investor.… (más)