Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments
This well-organized book shows what a typical life in real estate is like so that newcomers can decide whether the field is right for them. It also offers advice on how to grow real estate investments for people who are already in the industry. Poorvu includes a variety of real world stories about people and their career experiences to make for an interesting read with a practical edge.
Publishers Weekly
This new book by Bill Poorvu trumps any real estate book youve ever read.
James Grant, editor of Grants Interest Rate Observer
There are plenty of get rich quick in real estate books. This is not one of them.
Your guide, William Poorvu, is a lifelong real estate investor and consultant, and former head of the real estate program at Harvard Business School. Drawing on his personal experienceand hundreds of interviews with many of the most successful real estate investors and entrepreneursPoorvu illuminates every stage of your life in real estate: creating wealth, growing it, and
managing it successfully. He reveals the milestones, pitfalls, and rewards associated with real estate investing, offering powerful insight into the challenges and opportunities youll face as you start out...scale up...ride the industrys cyclical waves and then leverage, share, or pass along the wealth youve created.
This book contains dozens of real life personal stories, hands-on checklists, and questions to guide your decisions...and it delivers unparalleled insight into how the real estate industry
really works:
Be strategic: choose your best route into the business
Define your successful real estate career, and learn how to make it a reality
Build your foundation: your first job, your first deal
Spot a great opportunity to add value, and jump on it
Scale up: build and sustain your success
Hire a great team, manage them successfully, and find the capital you need to grow
Survive the downturns: be flexible and nimble
Recognize new realities, adapt to them, and uncover the opportunities they create
Take stock: make the most of your success
Balance your business, wealth, and family
Review
Synopsis
About the Author
William J. Poorvu managed the real estate program and taught real estate courses at Harvard Business School for 35 years. He has personally trained many of todays most successful leaders in the real estate industry. He is a successful real estate entrepreneur himself and also a professional investor, both on his own behalf and for various endowment boards on which he serves. He also authored The Real Estate Game: The Intelligent Guide to Decision-Making and Investment.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements viii
About the Author x
Introduction: The Many Paths to Success 1
PART I: Starting Out 7
Chapter 1: The Starting Line 9
Chapter 2: Finding a Focus 25
Chapter 3: Moguls in the Making 45
PART II: Scaling Up 59
Chapter 4: Five Good Questions 61
Chapter 5: Good Moves 77
Chapter 6: Grand Visions 101
PART III: Hedging Your Bets 123
Chapter 7: X Factors 125
Chapter 8: Broken-Field Running 141
Chapter 9: Moving the Fleet 165
PART IV: Taking Stock 193
Chapter 10: Your Business and You 195
Chapter 11: Your Business and Your Family 209
Chapter 12: Looking Forward, Looking Back 229
Index 249