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Real Estate Finance and Investments: Risks and Opportunities
Based on his Wharton classes, this book reflects Dr. Linneman’s frustration with texts that concentrate excessively on theoretical detail and literature, while ignoring important aspects of financial decision making. This book attempts to balance the “real world” aspects of real estate finance without compromising key theoretical underpinnings. It covers the basic mathematics of real estate finance and investments, while stressing the ambiguity of decision making. It is an exploration of the key concepts of real estate finance and investment strategy. It is not a mere formulaic analysis of numbers designed to give you “the answer” to any and all real estate investment decisions. Instead, the book is designed to help you understand that there is no singular or simplistic answer to any real estate finance problem. Rather, real estate finance is fundamentally driven by judgment and experience, with an eye to the numbers. The goal is to help you evaluate the risks and opportunities of real estate assets and investments, and will hopefully help you embark upon the long and unending road of strengthening your judgment.
The formulas and templates found in the book are intended to help its reader assemble and organize information. Understanding and mastering the tools included in the book is the beginning of real estate finance. This book focuses on what to do after you have mastered the basic financial tools. Just as knowing how to use a hammer and saw is not the same as building a wonderful building that will last the ages, knowing how to build a financial model and calculating the internal rate of return for a spreadsheet is not the same as making a profitable real estate investment. Judgment comes one mistake at a time.
The new Edition 3.1 includes updated discussions about CMBS, real estate cycles, corporate real estate, the use of leverage, and development. In addition, the text includes 21 of Dr. Linneman’s articles on capital markets, real estate pricing, real estate cycles, private equity funds, REITs, and corporate real estate. These articles serve to enhance the text by providing additional depth of analysis.
The book has been adopted by more than 95 colleges and universities, including Wharton, The University of Chicago, Notre Dame, Columbia, Yale, New York University, University of California – Berkeley, University of California – Los Angeles, Brigham Young, DePaul, Duke, Villanova, Ohio State and many others. In addition, numerous companies have adopted the book for training and reference for their personnel, including Morgan Stanley, Tishman Speyer, Freddie Mac, Lubert-Adler, Welsh Property Trust, M3 Capital Partners, Stoltz USA, J. E. Robert Companies and others.
The formulas and templates found in the book are intended to help its reader assemble and organize information. Understanding and mastering the tools included in the book is the beginning of real estate finance. This book focuses on what to do after you have mastered the basic financial tools. Just as knowing how to use a hammer and saw is not the same as building a wonderful building that will last the ages, knowing how to build a financial model and calculating the internal rate of return for a spreadsheet is not the same as making a profitable real estate investment. Judgment comes one mistake at a time.
The new Edition 3.1 includes updated discussions about CMBS, real estate cycles, corporate real estate, the use of leverage, and development. In addition, the text includes 21 of Dr. Linneman’s articles on capital markets, real estate pricing, real estate cycles, private equity funds, REITs, and corporate real estate. These articles serve to enhance the text by providing additional depth of analysis.
The book has been adopted by more than 95 colleges and universities, including Wharton, The University of Chicago, Notre Dame, Columbia, Yale, New York University, University of California – Berkeley, University of California – Los Angeles, Brigham Young, DePaul, Duke, Villanova, Ohio State and many others. In addition, numerous companies have adopted the book for training and reference for their personnel, including Morgan Stanley, Tishman Speyer, Freddie Mac, Lubert-Adler, Welsh Property Trust, M3 Capital Partners, Stoltz USA, J. E. Robert Companies and others.
498 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
37 people are currently reading
733 people want to read
About the author
Peter Linneman
6 books10 followersDr. Peter Linneman is the principal of Linneman Associates and also serves as the Albert Sussman Professor of Real Estate, Finance, and Public Policy at the Wharton School of Business, the University of Pennsylvania. A member of Wharton's faculty since 1979, he served as the founding chairman of Wharton's Real Estate Department, and was the Director of Wharton's Zell-Lurie Real Estate Center for 13 years. He is the founding co-editor of The Wharton Real Estate Review. His teaching and research focuses on real estate and investment strategies, mergers and acquisitions, and international markets. He has published over 60 articles during his career.
Dr. Linneman is widely recognized as one of the leading strategic thinkers in the real estate industry, and was recently named one of the 25 most influential people in real estate by Realtor Magazine. He is a highly sought-after speaker, appearing as the keynote speaker at numerous major industry conferences. He is also a co-coordinator/sponsor/moderator (with Sam Zell) of the prestigious industry roundtable, The Marshall Bennett Classic.
Dr. Linneman holds both Masters and Doctorate degrees in economics from the University of Chicago. For more than 25 years he has provided strategic and financial advice to leading corporations, including: American Asset Corp, Sunbelt Management, Lubert-Adler Realty Funds, Paramount Group, General Electric and IBM.
Dr. Linneman is the founder and Principal of the American Growth Land Fund, a $100 million investment vehicle that invests in long term land developments in high growth areas of the US. In addition, he is a partner in Gerber-Taylor Realty Fund III, a real estate fund-of-funds. His quarterly research publication, Linneman Letter, claims more than 120 leading real estate firms as subscribers. This publication is widely read throughout the real estate industry, and is viewed as a major thought leader in the business.
His book, Real Estate Finance and Investments: Risks and Opportunities , has been adopted at leading universities including Yale, Johns Hopkins, USC, Brown, Columbia, and Wharton. It has quickly become the leading reference source for those interested in real estate finance and investment and was recently translated into Japanese.
Dr. Linneman has also been actively involved in corporate governance, strategy, and operation. During a one-year leave from Wharton he served as Senior Managing Director of Equity International Properties, a global real estate investment firm. He also served as Vice Chairman of Amerimar Realty, and was Chairman of the Board of Rockefeller Center Properties. In this latter capacity he led the process of foreclosing on its Japanese owners and the successful sale of Rockefeller Center. He also has, and continues to, serve on the board of Directors of numerous NYSE and private companies.
Dr. Linneman is an avid jogger, scuba diver, and basketball player. Married for over 30 years, he has no children.
Dr. Linneman is widely recognized as one of the leading strategic thinkers in the real estate industry, and was recently named one of the 25 most influential people in real estate by Realtor Magazine. He is a highly sought-after speaker, appearing as the keynote speaker at numerous major industry conferences. He is also a co-coordinator/sponsor/moderator (with Sam Zell) of the prestigious industry roundtable, The Marshall Bennett Classic.
Dr. Linneman holds both Masters and Doctorate degrees in economics from the University of Chicago. For more than 25 years he has provided strategic and financial advice to leading corporations, including: American Asset Corp, Sunbelt Management, Lubert-Adler Realty Funds, Paramount Group, General Electric and IBM.
Dr. Linneman is the founder and Principal of the American Growth Land Fund, a $100 million investment vehicle that invests in long term land developments in high growth areas of the US. In addition, he is a partner in Gerber-Taylor Realty Fund III, a real estate fund-of-funds. His quarterly research publication, Linneman Letter, claims more than 120 leading real estate firms as subscribers. This publication is widely read throughout the real estate industry, and is viewed as a major thought leader in the business.
His book, Real Estate Finance and Investments: Risks and Opportunities , has been adopted at leading universities including Yale, Johns Hopkins, USC, Brown, Columbia, and Wharton. It has quickly become the leading reference source for those interested in real estate finance and investment and was recently translated into Japanese.
Dr. Linneman has also been actively involved in corporate governance, strategy, and operation. During a one-year leave from Wharton he served as Senior Managing Director of Equity International Properties, a global real estate investment firm. He also served as Vice Chairman of Amerimar Realty, and was Chairman of the Board of Rockefeller Center Properties. In this latter capacity he led the process of foreclosing on its Japanese owners and the successful sale of Rockefeller Center. He also has, and continues to, serve on the board of Directors of numerous NYSE and private companies.
Dr. Linneman is an avid jogger, scuba diver, and basketball player. Married for over 30 years, he has no children.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
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June 22, 2025You bet I’m including this since I had to read it for MBA class and it took time from reading other books
December 5, 2025
The Skinny: Very informative and clear, albeit overhyped, real estate textbook.
The Good: Very well written in a clear manner, perfect for students and beginners. Covers a wide range of topics with just enough detail to get the reader up and going. Dr. Linneman is highly experienced and that emanates from the pages.
The Bad: Book is a bit overhyped given it's status in the community and higher price point. Should not be considered a Bible of real estate by any means. Also not super well reviewed for organization. Lots of mislabeling of charts and such.
The Good: Very well written in a clear manner, perfect for students and beginners. Covers a wide range of topics with just enough detail to get the reader up and going. Dr. Linneman is highly experienced and that emanates from the pages.
The Bad: Book is a bit overhyped given it's status in the community and higher price point. Should not be considered a Bible of real estate by any means. Also not super well reviewed for organization. Lots of mislabeling of charts and such.
January 17, 2022
This is a fantastic read for any aspiring commercial real estate professional. Most academic books can be very dry but the textbook has a lot of Peter's personality in the book which makes it seamless to read.
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March 21, 2025schoollll
August 7, 2012
Peter Linneman is the top Commercial real estate structured finance academic in the US. I recently watched a conference on real estate mergers in NYC, and he was one of the best professional speakers I have ever heard on Commercial real estate law practice. Commercial Real Estate Finance & Fund Investments, reads like he speaks. A brilliant and witty set of lectures, all encapsulated in this book. Linneman is not only a topflight academic, but has substantial direct involvement in the Commercial real estate and managed fund business. This very much shows in the book, which takes the most abstract scholarly knowledge and makes it easy to understand through examples of crystalline clarity. It is a godsend to those who work in Commercial real estate sector that someone as smart as Linneman would take the time to write this awesome textbook, which not only must be the best textbook on real estate structured finance and or CRE Funds, one of the best textbooks of any kind I have ever read.
There are only opportunitities, and no risks in buying and reading this super text book, check it out!
jimbo
There are only opportunitities, and no risks in buying and reading this super text book, check it out!
jimbo
January 14, 2017
This book is basically just his edited class notes. A lot of text and his own opinion but not enough "science" and "facts" compared to other books. There's a reason why other textbooks are much more famous and widely-adopted than this one. Do not waste your time or money on this textbook!
April 6, 2015
What a heavy book. Extremely well written and very detailed. I liked the 2nd edition so much that I purchased the 3rd edition as well.
November 18, 2018
A must read for anyone in commercial real estate.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews