6 Books for Rental Property Investors

When discussing his favorite book, Warren Buffett, who reads approximately five to six hours a day, remarked, ‘‘I can’t remember what I paid for the first copy of 'The Intelligent Investor.' Whatever the cost, it would underscore the truth of Ben [Graham]’s adage: Price is what you pay; value is what you get. Of all the investments I ever made, buying Ben’s book was the best.’’

Despite being relatively inexpensive, books can be extremely valuable to entrepreneurs and investors. With just a few sentences, book readers can walk away with new insights and practical lessons that they could use to improve both their personal and professional lives. This is especially true for rental property investors. Whether you are a new or veteran real estate investor, these six books will add value to your rental property portfolio.

Unlike stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, investing in real estate requires a significant amount of money. Even if an investor plans to finance the acquisition or development of a property with debt, he or she will still need to have enough money to make a strong down payment to secure a loan.

Although this might sound like a deal breaker for investors who simply do not have large cash reserves, "The Book on Investing in Real Estate with No (and Low) Money Down" provides practical strategies to overcome such dilemma. These include forming partnerships with individuals who have money to invest and using hard money lenders. The book was written by Brandon Turner, who is the co-founder of BiggerPockets.com, an online social network with more than 400,000 rental property investors.

"The Book on Managing Rental Properties" was also written by Brandon Turner, along with his wife, Heather. It serves as a comprehensive guide for rental property owners after they have closed on their deals. In the book, the Turners provide advice on a wide range of aspects associated with the day-to-day property management. This includes how to actually find and screen tenants, how to properly collect rent owed to you, as well as important clauses to include in your rental lease and bookkeeping tips.

Unfortunately, the world of real estate has a lot of financial jargon that often confuses new investors, but luckily "What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow" helps investors understand important terms such as discounted cash flow, return on equity and capitalization rate. The physical nature of real estate often makes it easy for investors to fall in love with a property even though it may not make much financial sense to acquire it. This book can help a person avoid speculating and making emotional decisions when investing in real estate because it teaches readers how to analyze a deal and make calculated predictions on its future revenue.

A part of the Rich Dad Advisor’s book series, "Loopholes of Real Estate" contains a number of strategies to protect yourself legally when investing in rental property as well as several tax loopholes to take advantage of to maximize profits.

Every year, many rental property investors overstate their net income. This results in a higher than needed tax bill. Jamaican Billionaire Michael Lee-Chin once remarked that in order to be a successful investor, one needs to "minimize their taxes." "Every Landlord’s Tax Deduction Guide" shares a long list of available deductions that are often forgotten by real estate investors. Knowing this can help reduce an investor’s tax liabilities while staying on the right side of the IRS.

"Multi-Family Millions" is the perfect book for ambitious investors who instead of owning individual houses would like to own and operate apartment complexes, often known as multi-family real estate. The book provides readers with a step by step guide to acquiring their first multifamily property, how to finance a deal of such scale, and how to eventually exit the investment.

Books will always make a great investment. This is especially true with published works on the subject of entrepreneurship and personal finance. Such books often offer readers the opportunity to learn new strategies of how to become better entrepreneurs and investors. Additionally, one can save a lot of money by simply reading about decisions made by others that turned out to be expensive mistakes.