whats the oldest book on real estate investing you know of??

[natedog]

Thanks all, got a copy of Fred Johnsons 1970 and 1980 realestate books on the way to me, cant wait to give em a read, thanks for your inputs guys I love on line shopping!!!!!

 

[TheBacon]

No doubt there's some good advice on money and property in the bible somewhere try Proverbs (ps that's not an endorsement of that work of historical fiction )

Hmph. Would you suggest the DaVinci Code instead?

What about the Doomsday Book?
If we can describe it, we can control it, tax it, plunder it....

TheBacon

 

[quintets]

I found William Nickerson's "How I Turned $1,000 into $1 Million in Real Estate in My Spare Time" (1959) in my local library. Since it's so old, Amazon only lists collectibles starting at $40USD. Decent quality books were even more expensive, so I went for the free option.

It's one of the books that made me think, "Hey, I can do this!".

Cool.

Jireh

 

[Les]

I found William Nickerson's "How I Turned $1,000 into $1 Million in Real Estate in My Spare Time" (1959) in my local library

Wasn't that Geoff Doidge's "hot button" book? (One of the Reno Kings)

Might have to join the local Library methinks.....

Rgeards,

 

[blondie]

Not the oldest but William Nickerson had an updated edition titled "How I Turned $1,000 into Three Million in Real Estate--- in My Spare Time" published in 1969.
SBN 671-20125-5. Mine cost $8.70 on 15/1/70. If only-----
blondie

 

[knightm]

(ps that's not an endorsement of that work of historical fiction )

Cheers
N.

I think if proverbs was published on its own today it would be placed in the motivational/personal growth section (which are classed as non-fiction)

 

[geoffw]

Thanks all, got a copy of Fred Johnsons 1970 and 1980 realestate books on the way to me, cant wait to give em a read, thanks for your inputs guys I love on line shopping!!!!!

Did you ever get those books? What were they like?

 

[natedog]

Hey Geoff,
I did indeed. The earlier one was basically a how to manual for property development which was very detailed. It focused on larger developments such as blocks of rental flats.

the second one was more buy and hold forever, refinance and do it again.

All of his future predictions in both books seem to have become a reality, regarding tax laws, (this was pre capital works deductions) and property prices in general,

i might have a reread and get back to you all about some of the more interesting comments he made and how they relate today, it will probably promote discussion

Cheers ,Nathan

 

[Peter Parker]

The other week I discovered, in an out of the way arcade in Frankston, a Rotary Club secondhand bookshop. It had an excellent selection of investing books priced around $2 ea.

It confirmed my theory that 'right wing self-help / business types' (eg Rotary Clubs and the Salvos) often have better investing book collections than other more 'left-wing' churches and charities.

Unfortunately (for others) I relieved them of the oldest RE book there - Fred Johnson & Brendan Whiting's 'New Ways to Real Estate Wealth', written in 1973.

They started writing in the '60s but this book was intended to be a more basic guide. Nevertheless there was a considerable amount of material on developing flats (as was huge in the late '60s).

The book was excellent and I don't think there's much in subsequent RE books that Johnson and Whiting hadn't picked up back then.

Overall their approach was pretty sound. Their main deficiency is that they were a bit blase about the possibility of the market crashing (which happened in 1975, particularly for city offices).

Maybe there's a tendency for investing books to be written at the end of a long boom, or at least that's when sales peak, as Joe Public sees people around him making money?

 

[tess85]

What's the oldest thread on SS that you know of to have been bumped up recently? This one... 6 year gap between natedog and Spiderman's post...!

Fascinating topic though!