Next book

PROFIT LIKE THE PROS

THE BEST REAL ESTATE DEALS THAT SHAPED EXPERT INVESTORS

Accessible and practical examples of the many ways to break into real estate investing.

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT

An expert provides profiles of investors and their successful real estate gambles.

In his book’s introduction, Corsini explains that he always had an entrepreneurial spirit—reselling Jolly Ranchers as a kid and looking for ways to make more money than the standard after-school jobs offered throughout college—and it soon led him to real estate. Now, with an impressive resume that includes more than 800 homes flipped, several companies founded, and a starring role on HGTV’s Flip or Flop Atlanta, the self-made expert continues to believe in “the unparalleled power of a real estate investor’s ability to inspire other investors.” In that vein, the author focuses his instructive work on stories collected from seasoned investors across the country. Each chapter profiles a different investor and breaks down the specific deal representing a turning point in the individual’s real estate endeavors. The list of 25 investors presents an intriguing diversity of projects: They range from a run-down mobile-home park in Dallas and storage units in Georgia to multimillion-dollar apartment buildings and simple duplexes across the United States. Corsini deftly builds each profile to deliver the maximum useful information for readers wanting to know more about investing. He describes the person in his humorous and good-natured tone before delving into a specific deal, detailing how the investor assessed it and funded it and its eventual returns. Punchy quotes from each investor and “Insider info” blurbs help to explain jargon so readers feel as if they have a good grasp of each project in just a few pages. Corsini has also taken care to puncture notions of the typical real estate mogul. His interviewees represent a balanced mix of men and women from different socio-economic backgrounds, with a few even coming from countries like Nigeria and Brazil. Their most common link is a desire for passive income, and their tales will make readers feel like real estate investments are within their reach.

Accessible and practical examples of the many ways to break into real estate investing.

Pub Date: Nov. 10, 2020

ISBN: 978-1-947200-31-9

Page Count: 256

Publisher: BiggerPockets

Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2020

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2020

Next book

PROFIT FIRST FOR MINORITY BUSINESS ENTERPRISES

TRANSFORM YOUR MINORITY BUSINESS ENTERPRISE FROM A CASH-EATING MONSTER TO A MONEY-MAKING MACHINE

A vigorous and highly readable plan for building the finances of a new business.

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

  • Our Verdict
  • GET IT

A program of cash-management techniques for aspiring entrepreneurs, aimed at a minority readership.

At the beginning of this business book, Mariga reflects on the birth of her daughter, Florence, and on the depressing prospect of returning to her corporate job and missing some of her baby’s early moments. She realized that she “wanted to show Florence…that I could, that she could, that anyone could be anything they wanted to be in this world.” To that end, she wanted to start her own business, and she “wanted to help entrepreneurs build successful businesses that provide opportunities for others.” In a sentiment reflected by others she’s interviewed, she says that she wanted to strengthen her family legacy, so she founded her own accounting firm. She paints a vivid picture of the hardscrabble early days of other minority business owners like herself, the child of an African American mother and a Chinese father who also had a family accounting business. She and others were “all hustling to acquire clients and build our businesses…and most of us had absolutely nothing to show for it.” She was inspired by Mike Michalowicz’s Profit First money management system, and the bulk of her book is devoted to an explanation of how to make this system work for minority business enterprises. (Michalowicz provides a foreword to the book.) One of the primary goals of Profit First is to build “a self-sustaining, debt-free company,” so a large part of Mariga’s work deals with the details of managing finances, building and abiding by budgets, and handling the swings of emotion that occur every step of the way. As sharply focused as these insights are, the author’s recollections of her own experiences are more rewarding, as when she tells readers of her brief time as a cut-rate accountant and learning that it was a mistake to try to compete on price. These stories, as well as financing specifics and clear encouragements (“Small changes and adjustments accumulate. Over time, they will lead you to your goal”), will make this book invaluable to entrepreneurs of all kinds.

A vigorous and highly readable plan for building the finances of a new business.

Pub Date: May 25, 2021

ISBN: 978-1-7357759-0-6

Page Count: 230

Publisher: The Avant-Garde Project, LLC

Review Posted Online: April 7, 2021

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2021

Next book

MAGIC WORDS

WHAT TO SAY TO GET YOUR WAY

Perhaps not magic but appealing nonetheless.

Want to get ahead in business? Consult a dictionary.

By Wharton School professor Berger’s account, much of the art of persuasion lies in the art of choosing the right word. Want to jump ahead of others waiting in line to use a photocopy machine, even if they’re grizzled New Yorkers? Throw a because into the equation (“Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine, because I’m in a rush?”), and you’re likely to get your way. Want someone to do your copying for you? Then change your verbs to nouns: not “Can you help me?” but “Can you be a helper?” As Berger notes, there’s a subtle psychological shift at play when a person becomes not a mere instrument in helping but instead acquires an identity as a helper. It’s the little things, one supposes, and the author offers some interesting strategies that eager readers will want to try out. Instead of alienating a listener with the omniscient should, as in “You should do this,” try could instead: “Well, you could…” induces all concerned “to recognize that there might be other possibilities.” Berger’s counsel that one should use abstractions contradicts his admonition to use concrete language, and it doesn’t help matters to say that each is appropriate to a particular situation, while grammarians will wince at his suggestion that a nerve-calming exercise to “try talking to yourself in the third person (‘You can do it!’)” in fact invokes the second person. Still, there are plenty of useful insights, particularly for students of advertising and public speaking. It’s intriguing to note that appeals to God are less effective in securing a loan than a simple affirmative such as “I pay all bills…on time”), and it’s helpful to keep in mind that “the right words used at the right time can have immense power.”

Perhaps not magic but appealing nonetheless.

Pub Date: March 7, 2023

ISBN: 9780063204935

Page Count: 256

Publisher: Harper Business

Review Posted Online: March 23, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2023

Close Quickview