HOW YOU CAN BECOME FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT BY INVESTING IN REAL ESTATE
By
A modestly instructive self-help tract for shoestring capitalists seeking riches in residential real estate. Lowry manages to cover most tricks of the trade: ways to reduce down payments; how to use tax breaks and depreciation schedules; where to secure mortgages on favorable terms; the art of acquiring properties that can be upgraded for sale at handsome profits; and negotiating techniques. Whether the success of the evangelistic author can be duplicated is open to question. Lowry made his real estate fortune in California during the freewheeling 1960s and retired to the sidelines before the recurrent recessions of the 1970s. Consequently, the text largely ignores the unpleasant effects of credit crunches on what are advanced as ""foolproof formulas for financial independence."" Lacking as well is a detailed discussion of the impact of the Tax Reform Act of 1976 on residential real estate transactions. On a less substantive level, Lowry's attempts at humor--the use of such names as Emptor, Morganfellow, and Scrimp in his generally informative examples--is annoying. In sum, an ego trip of marginal value for those seeking either security or shelter through residential real estate in the current economic climate.