By Mary Martinez, NAR Manager, Library & Information Services
No surprise, real estate sales books consistently rank among the top circulating titles in the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®’ Virtual Library eBooks Collection, a special library collection just for REALTORS® and association staff.
But, this digital collection offers something for every facet of life. NAR members have free access to 1,000 downloadable books, audio books, and videos on everything from managing a real estate career to learning Japanese … from practicing time management to practicing yoga … from using a digital camera to making real money in Second Life. Continue reading »
Let us know which of these books you would like to see featured next on The Weekly Book Scan. Or, use the comment section to recommend another book!
Here are the latest top selling books on real estate, according to Amazon.com:
1. Be a Real Estate Millionaire: Secret Strategies for Lifetime Wealth Today, By Dean Graziosi
2. Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life, By Donald Trump and Bill Zanker
3. The Pre-Foreclosure Property Investor’s Kit: How to Make Money Buying Distressed Real Estate — Before the Public Auction, By Thomas Lucier
4. Emerging Real Estate Markets: How to Find and Profit from Up-and-Coming Areas, By David Lindahl
5. The ABC’s of Real Estate Investing: The Secrets of Finding Hidden Profits Most Investors Miss (Rich Dad’s Advisors), By Ken McElroy
6. Home Buying For Dummies (3rd edition), By Eric Tyson and Ray Brown
7. 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
8. Flipping Houses For Dummies, By Ralph R. Roberts and Joe Kraynak
9. Rich Dad’s Real Estate Advantages: Tax and Legal Secrets of Successful Real Estate Investors , By Sharon L. Lechter and Garrett Sutton
10. Kaplan MCAT 2007-2008 Premier Program, Kaplan
Mortgage broker Bill Nazur and real estate investor Danielle Babb, authors of Finding Foreclosures (Entrepreneur Press, 2007), respond to your foreclosure questions.
Q: With foreclosures, which states are redemption states and which are nonredemption states?
A: Mortgage-Investments.com lists out, by state, whether it is judicial or nonjudicial, the number of process days, publication days, and redemption period. Otherwise, you can request the information from most title companies, or closing attorneys should be able to show you information for their respective state. Understand the redemption period better than any single piece of information in the foreclosure process. Worst case scenario: Your buyer purchases a property that the previous owner has a right to redeem six months, one year, or even two years later in certain circumstances. As an exercise, look at the Dakotas, New Mexico, and Tennesee for fun.
Q. How can real estate practitioners with little background in foreclosures find opportunities in this expanding market? Is there room for newcomers?
A: You will be very pleased to know that (unfortunately, or fortunately) there is plenty of foreclosure business to go around, so the opportunities are endless. There is plenty of room for newcomers to get into this market, though here comes the caveat: Most lenders, banks, and asset managers want to work with an agent that has at least 5 years of experience in the real estate field, preferably longer as foreclosures are extremely time intensive. This does not mean that you cannot break in with less experience, but you must know ahead of time that on-the-job training is very much frowned upon in this specific niche.
I’d recommend that you start building a real estate resume, outlining your successes in the market. Have you dealt with difficult buyers where you came up with a solution that required some creativity? Do you know REO terminology? Are you organized enough to manage multiple projects, meaning if tomorrow you received 10, 20, or 30 REO listings, that you would be able to
 Think and Grow Rich (Arc Manor, 2007)
 By Napoleon Hill
 — Courtland McPherson, Prudential Gammons Realty, Exeter, R.I.
 The Real Estate Agent’s Business Planning Guide (Dearborn Real Estate   Education, 1994)
 By Carla Cross
 — Helen Coen, ABR, Century 21, Carole White Associates, West     Roxbury, Mass.
  Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die (Random House,  2007)
 By Chip Heath and Dan Heath
 — Suzanne Karr, e-PRO®, Crye-Leike REALTORS®, Mount Juliet,   Tenn.
Tell us what you’re reading. Send an e-mail to bookblog@realtors.org that includes the title of the real estate book you’re reading and the author, along with your name, contact information, and your photo.
Here are the latest top selling books on real estate, according to Amazon.com:
1. Be a Real Estate Millionaire: Secret Strategies for Lifetime Wealth Today, By Dean Graziosi
2. The Pre-Foreclosure Property Investor’s Kit: How to Make Money Buying Distressed Real Estate Before the Public Auction, By Thomas Lucier
3. Rich Dad’s Advisors: The ABC’s of Real Estate Investing: The Secrets of Finding Hidden Profits Most Investors Miss, By Ken McElroy
4. The Foreclosures.com Guide to Making Huge Profits Investing in Pre-Foreclosures Without Selling Your Soul, By Alexis McGee
5. Flipping Confidential: The Secrets of Renovating Property for Profit in Any Market, By Kirsten Kemp
6. Real Estate Investing for Dummies, By Eric Tyson and Robert S. Griswold
7. Flipping Houses for Dummies, By Ralph R. Roberts and Joe Kraynak
8. Complete Guide to Real Estate Tax Liens and Foreclosure Deeds: Learn 7 Days (Investing Without Losing series), By Don Sausa
9. Rich Dad’s Real Estate Advantages: Tax and Legal Secrets of Successful Real Estate Investors, By Sharon L. Lechter and Garrett Sutton
10. Investing in Duplexes, Triplexes, and Quads: The Fastest and Safest Way to Real Estate Wealth, By Larry B. Loftis
  The Big House: A Century in the Life of an American
  Summer Home (Scribner, 2004)
  By George Howe Colt
  — Tammy Tanner, RE/MAX, Duluth, Ga.
  The Referral of a Lifetime: The Networking System that Produces Bottom-
  Line Results Every Day (Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2005)
  By Tim Templeton and Lynda Rutledge Stephenson
  — Doug Nunnally, ABR, CRS, FavoriteAgent.com, Fayetteville, N.C.
  Mainfest Your Destiny: The Nine Spiritual Principles for Getting
  Everything You Want (HarperTouch, 1999)
  By Wayne W. Dyer
  — Joan Wilson, Prudential California Realty, San Diego, Calif.
  The Millionaire Real Estate Agent: It’s Not About the
  Money … It’s About Being the Best You Can Be! (McGraw-Hill, 2004)
  By Gary Keller, Dave Jenks, and Jay Papasan
  — Barbara A. Berue, Keller Williams Main Line Realty, Bryn Mawr,
  Pa.
Tell us what you’re reading. Send an e-mail to bookblog@realtors.org that includes the title of the real estate book you’re reading and the author, along with your name, contact information, and your photo.
Feng Shui consultant Christine Ayres, co-author of Sell Your Home With Feng Shui: A Complete Guide to Staging Homes for Quick Sale in Any Market (AuthorHouse, 2007), responds to your questions.
Q: How can feng shui help you to sell a home faster than using other design principles?
A: The intention of staging with feng shui makes all the difference. The focus is on the buyer. We make the home more welcoming to the buyer walking in and through the space, rather than creating an environment that is necessarily comfortable for the seller. The emphasis is on form — not function — and we do not create any overwhelming décor. Another point of difference is that in using feng shui we also enhance important life areas that give the sale a boost such as wealth, career, and the fame/reputation guas of the house. We look at the house as an energetic container for a sale and stage accordingly.
Q: The National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents recently released a survey that found the majority of real estate practitioners say staging can distract buyers from seeing the defects and important aspects of a home. Do you think staging a home could be harmful to buyers?
A: I believe that proper staging emphasizes the selling points of the home. And it is important to remember that we are not selling furniture here, we are selling space. I think the “distraction” you mention can come when the house has been over-staged — that is too many pieces of décor and too many pieces of furniture. Then, we totally miss the dimensions, layout, and quality of the space as we are too busy looking at the décor.
Q: In following the bagua map, how can you best activate the buyer/wealth part of homes?
A: For the buyer gua, hang a wind chime up under the eaves on the front right corner of the house or place a flag on this corner of the home (especially good for cul-de-sac homes). If this front right corner happens to be the garage, a chime up inside the garage will also stir the energy to call in the buyer. For the wealth gua, think abundance. Expensive art, china, crystal,
Here are the latest top sellers on business and investing, according to Amazon.com:
1. The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, By Alan Greenspan
2. The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, By Nassim Nicholas Taleb
3. Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, By Bill Clinton
4. The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich , By Timothy Ferriss
5. Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Tomorrow’s Big Changes, By Mark Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne
6. Freakonomics [Revised and Expanded]: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, By Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
7. Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t, By Jim Collins
8. Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-by-Numbers Is the New Way to Be Smart, By Ian Ayres
9. Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, By David Allen
10. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, By Malcolm Gladwell
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