Chavis Bryan M - Buy it, rent it, profit!: make money as a landlord in any real estate market

How You Can Become Wealthy as a Landlord

The Game of Monopoly and Its Hidden Secrets for Real Estate Riches

And the Ten Most Common Pitfalls to Avoid

The SEOTA Method of Evaluating Properties

Mastering the Art of Negotiation

Getting the Right Financing

The Fundamentals of Foreclosures

Attracting the Right Tenants

Understanding the Basic Components of a Lease

The Most Common Tenant Issues and How to Solve Them

Ending the Lease Term

Tenant and Building Maintenance in the Long Term

A Legal Perspective

Building Your Real Estate Empire

I would like to acknowledge my family and friends for their continued support. I would also like to thank my eleventh-grade special education teacher, Jack Long, who if he knew today that I was an author would be one of the few people that would not be surprised. Thanks to all those who supported me early on, those people who sowed seeds of knowledge and wisdom in me, people like attorney John McMillan, Keller Williams owners Nikki and Gary Ubaldini, attorney Steve Riley, guidance counselor Barry Silber, certified mortgage specialist Sean Arnold, Andrew Wright, my good friends and former leasing agent Jane and Chuck Hutek, and my aunt Charmaine Rivers. Thanks to the Starbucks team at the Fidelity store where I wrote most of this book.

I would like to acknowledge those persons and organizations that helped me shape my career, such as the Bay Area Apartment Association headed up by Nena Gang. Thank you to the National Apartment Association for the education and training I received in the multifamily industry.

I would also like to thank those who opened doors that were once shut to me. Thank you, Winky Wright; Anwar S. Richardson; Chucky Atkins; and most of all, thank you, Gary Sheffield.

To all those who did not believe in me, and for those who said that investing in me was a waste of time and good resourcesthank you for giving me what I needed most, the drive to succeed.

I thank Marley for teaching me so much about patience.

I thank my father, LeRoy Chavis Sr., for giving me my spirit of entrepreneurship. I thank my mother, June Chavis, for giving me my faith. I thank my brother, LeRoy Chavis Jr., for always being proud of me and encouraging me.

And last but not least, thank you God for making me different, disability and all. Like my mother always told me, God made us all special. God dont make junk. Thank you for giving me the wisdom and understanding to live each day as if it were my last, because I know one of them will be.

W e are all looking for ways to get wealthy. Some people might not state this so bluntly, but lets face itwe all crave the security that money can bring. But its important to note that wealth doesnt have to mean greed. Wealth can buy you more time off to spend with your family, good education for your children, better health care, and the freedom to live the life you want to live.

Wealth to me means freedom. I want to have enough money to take time off to travel with my wife. I want to be able to help my parents live out their retirement years in comfort. And I want to give back to my community, particularly to help at-risk children have opportunities to make something out of their lives. All this takes time and money. Money buys me this time, and it provides me with these things that are so important to me.

The bookstore shelves are lined with titles that promise to reveal the secrets to success. I was once one of those staring at a wall of titles and wondering which one would help get me to the place I wanted to be. If youre anything like me, youve probably already learned what makes the millionaire next door tick and how to think and grow rich. These are great motivational booksthey help you figure out what path you want to take toward building your own life of financial security and freedom. But if youve picked up this book, you probably want something morespecific advice on how to build that wealth through one of the smartest methods around: real estate.

Ive been working in the apartment industry, where I received my Certified Apartment Manager (CAM) designation, for more than a dozen years, first as a manager of large rental complexes and later as an owner. Ive worked on every type of propertyfrom single-family homes to 1,000-unit apartment buildings, and just about everything in between. Several years ago, I decided to put all the advice, systems, and best practices Ive developed over the years into a book and seminar series called The Landlord Academy (www.thelandlordacademy.com). Ive trained tens of thousands of would-be rental property owners, some of whom have gone on to be property moguls in their own right.

But in order to be successful, you dont have to have 100 unitsa single-family home or a duplex is just as viable for your first move as a rental investor. And, as Ill show you, its a heck of a lot safer to hang on to property for the long term than to try to work the market with risky fix-it-and-flip-it schemes. The beauty of rental investing is that you can choose the steps you want to take and decide when you are ready to take them. The key, of course, is performing your SEOTA (my own method for evaluating the right rental properties, which youll learn in this book) and allowing this process to help you choose wisely. Ill give you all the tools, checklists, and operating systems you will need to make that first choice with confidence. That is my commitment to you. Read on to learn how Mitchell and Thelma, two of my Landlord Academy success-story clients, put these systems into practice.