Table of Contents
To my daughter
BREANA JEWEL GRAZIOSI
whose birth coincided with the completion of this book.
Your birth was the greatest gift I could have ever received
and I now know that you will be the inspiration
for my greatest accomplishments.
INTRODUCTION
When this book was first released, the country was not in a recession. In fact, it wasnt until shortly after I released this book that we first began to feel the effects of what has become a devastating housing crisis. In the months since, we have seen the failure of the subprime mortgage industry, the collapse of major banks, and a record number of foreclosures. As you know, this has left hundreds of thousands of Americans suffering, perhaps even you. Yet even in this tragic economy, there is a glimmer of hope, an incredible opportunity for the average Joe to create an amazing income, even to become a real estate millionaire! So if youve ever dreamed that you and your family could become financially independent, investing in real estate right now could be your answer.
Its true! Making money from real estate isnt just for other people; its for you!
Im Dean Graziosi, and for more than twenty years Ive been investing in and generating millions of dollars from real estate. In that time, the single most important lesson Ive learned, and the one that most real estate experts never tell you, is that you can make money in any real estate market. Sure, some market types are easier than others, but after you learn my easy techniques for understanding real estate cycles, youll learn what thousands of other self-made real estate millionaires and I have learnedthere is a fortune to be made whether the real estate market in your area is booming, flat, or falling. Even better, you dont need a lot of money or experience to get started.
To date, hundreds of thousands have read this book. The majority of them had no previous experience, and the number of success stories I have received has been nothing short of exhilarating for me! Why? Because it is proof to me that real estate investing is easier than you think, and this book will show you what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.
Critics assert that its easy for anyone to make money when market prices are skyrocketing. They say, Even a dunce could make a fortune buying a piece of property, cleaning it up with new carpets, landscaping, or paint, and selling it a short time later at a huge profit (a technique known as a fix and flip). Easy... tell that to the thousands of investors who in 20072009 lost the homes they purchased when the market was skyrocketing. Few things are truly easy when youre uninformed.
On the other hand, experts have been screaming, Stay out of the market now; who knows when well see the bottom, while informed investors are doing the exact opposite. If youre armed with the right knowledge, now is the time to buy foreclosures and distressed properties for pennies on the dollar. You can make money either by reselling them or by renting them to cover your costs, holding on to them until the market goes up again and selling them at a big profit.
The key is knowing what to buy and how. You can always make money in real estate by identifying the current real estate cycle and then applying the proper moneymaking strategy to maximize your profits within that cycle. I promise that this is a hundred times easier than you could ever imagine, and in these pages, Ill be with you every step of the way to show you exactly what to do.
Everything I teach in this book comes from my own experience. If you Google my name, you will surely find a few negative comments about me, about this book, about stuff I never even was associated with. But heres the truth. Ive made a fortune from real estate. Im still actively doing real estate transactions and have been, nonstop, for more than twenty years. As I write this, I have between twenty-five and thirty deals in the works. You can see a dozen or so of my actual deals, with an explanation of what I did, at . In fact, since I first released this book I have developed some new and unique methods for finding and buying foreclosures that will work in any market cycle, and I have revised and added new, cutting-edge information to both Chapter 16 and 17 to share those methods with you.
You may also hear that this book offers little hard information on real investing and is more of a motivational book. Perhaps that is just due to the way I think. Most people who have wanted to be real estate investors have read one or more books on techniques, taken classes, gone to seminars, and know a ton... but they never get their educated self up to do anything. My philosophy is about taking action. Hundreds of my readers, armed with this book alone, have gone out and made tens of thousands of dollars on their very first deal. They have even done it in this economy, while the critics complain that it cant be done, that the techniques wont work now, and every other excuse under the sun. You can see proof that they are wrong here: www.deansmedia.com.
This book is not an exhaustive dissertation on investing. However, without the information I have put in these pages, I never would have succeeded as I have. This book is me downloading to you the knowledge and capabilities I have gained, and that have given me success... success that you can replicate. Since the publishing of this book, I have been asked to write dozens of articles for well-known real estate teachers, national and international publications, even a chapter for Robert Kiyosakis .
There you will also be able to access my past free monthly training calls, as well as take part in future calls, all of which I provide as a service to my readers. I truly want you to succeed!
Now its important for me to be transparent with you and admit that I havent always done well in my investing. Ive failed miserably (a number of times). But most of the time Ive done well, and that is why Ive made a fortune. If my methods can work for me, they can work for anyone, including you.
I say that because Im nobody special. I never went any further than high school, Im terrible at learning in a classroom setting, and Ive read only a handful of books (almost as many as Ive written). Even though I was never the best student, I became good at two things: making money in real estate by thinking outside the box, and teaching others how to make money in real estate by following my simple steps.
I wasnt born rich and I didnt get the best education. As a kid, I wore hand-me-downs, grew up in the only trailer park in town, and lived with my mom, who worked two jobs just to make about $90 a week. Kids made fun of my moms car because it was so junky, and because of that I made her drop me off a few blocks from school just to avoid the teasing.
I hated watching my mom work so hard for other people and get nothing from it, but I was fortunate enough to discover something at an early age. If I wanted something, I had to take action. Not just talk about it, not just dream about it, but do something to get it.
So I want you to think of this book as your action plan for success and the tool for you to gain financial independence.
What does financial independence mean to you?
I bet it means less about having a big stack of cash in your pocket, and more about having control over your life. Maybe you want to provide better things for your family, have a nest egg for retirement, reduce stress, or have more time to explore your own creativity. Financial independence allows you to take charge of your destiny and become the person you were meant to be.
