Author Chat: Michele Lerner Spells it out for First-Time Buyers
By Erica Christoffer, Contributing Editor, REALTOR® Magazine
Michele Lerner took 20 years of experience writing about the real estate industry and compiled a gem of a book, ideal for people buying their first home or plunging back into the market today. Homebuying — Tough Times, First Time, Any Time: Smart Ways to Make a Sound Investment (Capital Books, 2009) takes extremely complex issues and makes them understandable with the backing of solid advice from real estate pros throughout the country.
Here’s what Lerner had to say about writing a book that a practitioner can hand to any potential first-time buyer:
Your writing style is very clear and readable, were you conscious of that when writing this book?
Lerner: My background writing for The Washington Times real estate section helped me become conscious of first-time buyers and people who didn’t know a lot about real estate. I’ve always tried hard to take complicated ideas and terminology and make them understandable for the average person reading the newspaper. If you’re not a REALTOR® or lender, you may not be as familiar with the language or process. I was striving to make this book understandable for all people. Read more
Top 10 Real Estate Books (2/17/10)
Here are the best selling real estate books from Amazon.com:
1. Shift: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times, by Gary Keller
2. The Real Book of Real Estate: Real Experts. Real Stories. Real Life. By Robert T. Kiyosaki
3. The Millionaire Real Estate Agent: It’s Not About the Money … It’s About Being the Best You Can Be! By Gary Keller, Dave Jenks, and Jay Papasan
4. The Great Depression Ahead: How to Prosper in the Debt Crisis of 2010-2012, by Harry S. Dent Read more
Excerpt From Supercoach: How to Ask for Anything From Anyone
The following excerpt is taken from the book SUPERCOACH: 10 Secrets to Transform Anyone’s Life by Michael Neill. It is published by Hay House (March 2010) and is available at all bookstores or online at: www.hayhouse.com.
What is it that allows one person to ask and ask and ask for what he wants, while others stop themselves before even popping the very first question?
This is the simple secret at the heart of this session:
You can ask anyone for anything when you make it okay for them to say “no.”
Your ability to not take the word no personally, no matter how dramatically that “no” may be delivered, is the key to success—not (by definition) because people will always say yes, but because it won’t be emotionally devastating to you if they don’t. The more comfortable you get with the word no, the less likely you are to get caught up in a sort of “post-traumatic stress disorder” of the mind, walking on eggshells and becoming more and more afraid to ask for what you want.
One of the things that can make it considerably easier to face up to the possibility of a strong “no” is knowing that this response invariably comes from one of three places:
1. Other people’s fear that you will “make” them hear something they don’t want to hear or do something they don’t want to do. Read more
Top 10 Real Estate Sales Books
Here are the current top selling books about sales in real estate from Amazon.com:
1. FLIP: How to Find, Fix, and Sell Houses for Profit, by Rick Villani, Clay Davis, and Gary Keller
2. Success as a Real Estate Agent for Dummies, by Dirk Zeller
3. Keepers of the Castle: Real Estate Executives on Leadership and Management, by William J. Ferguson
4. The ABC’s of Property Management: What You Need to Know to Maximize Your Money Now (Rich Dad’s Advisors), by Ken McElroy
5. Your First Year in Real Estate: Making the Transition From Total Novice to Successful Professional, by Dirk Zeller
6. Confessions of a Real Estate Entrepreneur: What It Takes to Win in High-Stakes Commercial Real Estate, by James A. Randel Read more
