Summary: A common question from our readers is, “What books did you read to get started on your real estate investing journey?” In this post, we cover our favorite books to jump-start your real estate investing journey! We discuss the reasons why they were so valuable for jump starting our journey to financial freedom.
[Disclaimer: We are not accountants, lawyers or financial advisors, so please consult your own team of professionals about the topics covered in this article.]
You’ve been thinking about investing in real estate for years but just don’t know where to start.
Well, how about starting with a good book? Or several?
Many of our readers ask what books we read to jump-start our real estate investing journey.
The following books are the ACTUAL books we read early on in our journey. They were instrumental in helping us semi-retire from medicine!
This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, we will earn a commission at no additional cost to you. Please do not spend any money on these products unless you feel you need them or that they will help you achieve your goals.
Rich Dad, Poor Dad
Robert Kiyosaki
This is where we generally tell our friends to start their journey. This book isn’t about teaching you how to invest. Instead, it’s about getting you in the right mindset for investing and giving you a simple framework for achieving financial freedom: start collecting assets and get rid of liabilities.
We loved this book so much, it was the inspiration for the name of our podcast: Rich Doc Poor Doc.
The Millionaire Real Estate Investor
Gary Keller
While there are a lot of great real estate investing books out there, this is the one that we recommend for learning the nuts and bolts of real estate investing.
What we love about this book is that it’s based on interviews with over 100 successful real estate investors, rather than a person writing about their own personal investing experience.
Through reading this book, you will learn that there are lots of different ways to be successful with real estate investing. You get to choose the model that works best for you.
The Book on Tax Strategies for the Savvy Real Estate Investor
Amanda Han and Matt MacFarland
One of the main reasons to go into real estate investing is for the tax benefits. According to this book, the average person spends the first five months of the year working for the government. Using the strategies outlined in this book, we’ve personally decreased that number down to two months.
Amanda and Matt have a second book in their series called Advanced Tax Strategies, which is a great book to read once you’ve gotten those first few properties under your belt.
Tax Free Wealth
Tom Wheelwright
Another tax book? Yep. We love them.
While we always say, “don’t let the tax tail wag the dog,” (i.e., don’t make investment decisions for tax reasons), if you can combine good investment decisions with tax savings, you can grow your wealth that much faster.
This book by Tom Wheelwright is packed with great ideas for lowering your taxes. More importantly, he teaches you to not be afraid of taking advantage of the tax code to grow your wealth. Ultimately, fear is what stops many people from taking action.
The One Thing
Gary Keller
This is another book by Gary Keller, but this one isn’t specific to real estate. This book actually was instrumental in growing our Semi-Retired MD business as well as our real estate portfolio.
This book teaches you the importance of focus. When we have so many different priorities pulling us in multiple directions many of us get flustered. You will realize that it’s difficult to make progress if you are juggling too many priorities. You have to focus on one thing at a time. Get that one thing done before moving on to the next.
We have summarized our favorite books to jump-start your real estate investing journey. If you can keep doing “the one thing,” you’ll be well on your way to building your real estate empire!
