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Nothing Down for Women: The Smart Woman's Quick-Start Guide to Real Estate Investing
Have you ever dreamed about changing your life and working for yourself -- finding financial freedom and loving what you do? Real estate investing is a great way for women to work for themselves and achieve life-transforming financial success. But how can you get into it with your busy life? If you worry that you wouldn't possibly have the time to learn the ins and outs -- maybe you're working crazy hours, or a working mother juggling kids and a career -- then Nothing Down for Women is for you. This remarkably fast and easy read is written especially for busy women on the go. Broken down into short chapters, each of which can be fully digested in just five minutes, Nothing Down for Women gives you incredibly simple steps that will get you started in real estate investing -- whether full-time or on the side -- and on the road to remarkable financial success in just days. All-time bestselling real estate author Robert G. Allen, who wrote Nothing Down -- the most successful book ever written on real estate investing -- teams up with Karen Nelson Bell, one of Allen's most successful proteges, to show you the way. When Nelson Bell started using Allen's methods, she made her first million in less than six months. Now she teaches seminars herself. Combining her insider's secrets about how women can play to their strengths in the real estate market with Allen's proven strategies for success, they tell you everything you need to know about how
480 pages, Hardcover
First published January 9, 2007
About the author
Robert G. Allen
100 books133 followersRobert G. Allen's first book, the colossal #1 New York Times bestseller, Nothing Down: How to Buy Real Estate with Little or No Money Down, is the largest selling real estate investment book in history, and established "Bob" as one of the most influential investment advisors of all time.
In his following bestsellers, Creating Wealth, The Challenge, and Multiple Streams of Income, he expanded on his highly profitable techniques and philosophy. Today there are thousands of millionaires who attribute their success to their contact with Bob.
He is a popular television and radio guest, appearing on hundreds of radio and television programs and podcasts. His books have over four million copies in print.
It is his purpose in life to help you achieve your dreams.
In his following bestsellers, Creating Wealth, The Challenge, and Multiple Streams of Income, he expanded on his highly profitable techniques and philosophy. Today there are thousands of millionaires who attribute their success to their contact with Bob.
He is a popular television and radio guest, appearing on hundreds of radio and television programs and podcasts. His books have over four million copies in print.
It is his purpose in life to help you achieve your dreams.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
June 8, 2016
Before reading this book, I had not read the original Nothing Down by Robert G. Allen, which is the book that inspired Nothing Down for Women. Therefore, Nothing Down for Women was sort of my primer to the concepts, other than just the very basics of real-estate investing. According to Bell, the book is written in very simple terms and is meant for beginners.
Because I haven't read Robert G. Allen's original Nothing Down, I cannot compare the two books at this time. Although this book is marketed toward women, it's really for anyone who is interested in the "Nothing Down" method of real-estate investing. I assume for marketing purposes and to differentiate the book, women are Bell's chosen niche.
In Nothing Down for Women: The Smart Woman's Quick-Start Guide to Real Estate Investing, Karen Nelson Bell discusses how she entered the Real-estate world. She offers a step-by-step guide for one to begin as a solid real-estate investor. The keyword here is BEGIN. Her story is interesting and a good one, as it is not one that was free of mistakes along the way. This, I feel, gives more insight from which readers can learn to not make the same mistakes. There are other parts of Nothing Down that spend a lot of time talking about the book itself as it discusses traits of women and how they differ from men. These points I found to be very cliche after a while.
The information is easy to understand and is designed to be consumed in small chunks that the author claims can be done in as little as five minutes. I like the format of delivering the info, then pulling out key terms, then offering a quiz and a course of action to round out the "lesson." It's almost like a textbook, but not necessarily dry and boring. It is complete with "homework," giving steps of actions to take after each lesson. I can appreciate that the book didn't just talk about doing something and just rely on inspiration to intrigue readers, but actually wanted to get them to move to action early on. Don't let the term homework sound intimidating, the action steps are all very simple and realistic, and I think that one is sure to benefit in some way by doing them.
One thing that really didn't sit well with me, and this also deals with the marketing of the book and the Nothing Down concept, is the fact that Bell tries to spin it in a way as if the most important aspect of the Nothing Down method is helping people in need. This is the point where you have to read between the lines and take it for what it really is. The real point of real-estate investing is to make money. That's why people do it. People don't get into real-estate for the sole purpose of helping others. The point is, Nothing Down, involves an important concept of always dealing with a "motivated seller." That's the term that is used "motivated." It puts a positive spin on basically taking advantage of individuals in bad situations. These sellers are not "motivated" but rather forced by circumstances to sell their property. Although you may be helping the seller in some way out of their situation, in the case of an individual and not a bank, you are still helping yourself more in a financial way, and they still take a loss. There's nothing wrong with the Nothing Down method, but don't try to spin it as some moral way of doing good for others, when there is huge financial benefit in it for you. I understand the marketing behind trying to spin it that way, but I just thought it was kind of corny.
This is a good starter book for learning the basics. I found it easy to understand. However, many of her scenarios and examples tend to be a bit glossed over. For example, she explains something such as how to get a one-hundred percent return on an investment, but assumes that you already have something like a $100,000 loan. Or she assumes that the value of the property you invest in will increase by ten percent in one year, which is not guaranteed to increase at all, let alone by ten percent, and in some cases property value could go down. So let's just say she paints some pretty rosy pictures, and details are left out in some of her example scenarios.
Surprisingly, the range of topics covered are pretty wide and thorough. She goes as far as offering suggested caller scripts when contacting potential sellers. She offers resources and good tips on how to find sellers or better yet, how to get them to find you. She discusses the professional people that you will need to have on your side as an investor and how you might go about contacting some of these people.
Another qualm that I do have with this book is that it seems that, at some point, there was a website to serve as a companion or resource to go along with this book. She tells readers to refer to the site several times for additional resources. That site, however, is no longer up and running; although, the book is still useful without it.
Later, near the end of the book, Bell has a section where she responds to nay-sayers of the "nothing down" strategy. She offers a fair rebuttal saying that instead of relying on the opinions of those who have never tried it or have been unsuccessful, she responds by encouraging readers to take action with the steps she has offered throughout the book and offer their own testimony as proof. She also responds to the claim that I pointed out earlier about "nothing-down" taking advantage of those down on their luck. She says it is a fair criticism, which I can appreciate the honesty of acknowledging how some can view the strategy in this way. But she re-states that her way is to "never harm another person" in a deal and encourages others to do the same.
I would recommend to anyone, men and women, who want to get started in real-estate investing. This is for beginners, or for those who are already investors who may just be interested in learning the Nothing-Down strategy. Nothing-Down refers to not using your own money, but money from other sources as funding. The book explains some ways to do so, but all the ways this can be done surely can't be covered in one book. I will keep this one for a while, as I refer back to it. The information is really good. I feel as if I know a decent amount about Nothing Down investing after reading, while I had very little knowledge about it before reading.
Because I haven't read Robert G. Allen's original Nothing Down, I cannot compare the two books at this time. Although this book is marketed toward women, it's really for anyone who is interested in the "Nothing Down" method of real-estate investing. I assume for marketing purposes and to differentiate the book, women are Bell's chosen niche.
In Nothing Down for Women: The Smart Woman's Quick-Start Guide to Real Estate Investing, Karen Nelson Bell discusses how she entered the Real-estate world. She offers a step-by-step guide for one to begin as a solid real-estate investor. The keyword here is BEGIN. Her story is interesting and a good one, as it is not one that was free of mistakes along the way. This, I feel, gives more insight from which readers can learn to not make the same mistakes. There are other parts of Nothing Down that spend a lot of time talking about the book itself as it discusses traits of women and how they differ from men. These points I found to be very cliche after a while.
The information is easy to understand and is designed to be consumed in small chunks that the author claims can be done in as little as five minutes. I like the format of delivering the info, then pulling out key terms, then offering a quiz and a course of action to round out the "lesson." It's almost like a textbook, but not necessarily dry and boring. It is complete with "homework," giving steps of actions to take after each lesson. I can appreciate that the book didn't just talk about doing something and just rely on inspiration to intrigue readers, but actually wanted to get them to move to action early on. Don't let the term homework sound intimidating, the action steps are all very simple and realistic, and I think that one is sure to benefit in some way by doing them.
One thing that really didn't sit well with me, and this also deals with the marketing of the book and the Nothing Down concept, is the fact that Bell tries to spin it in a way as if the most important aspect of the Nothing Down method is helping people in need. This is the point where you have to read between the lines and take it for what it really is. The real point of real-estate investing is to make money. That's why people do it. People don't get into real-estate for the sole purpose of helping others. The point is, Nothing Down, involves an important concept of always dealing with a "motivated seller." That's the term that is used "motivated." It puts a positive spin on basically taking advantage of individuals in bad situations. These sellers are not "motivated" but rather forced by circumstances to sell their property. Although you may be helping the seller in some way out of their situation, in the case of an individual and not a bank, you are still helping yourself more in a financial way, and they still take a loss. There's nothing wrong with the Nothing Down method, but don't try to spin it as some moral way of doing good for others, when there is huge financial benefit in it for you. I understand the marketing behind trying to spin it that way, but I just thought it was kind of corny.
This is a good starter book for learning the basics. I found it easy to understand. However, many of her scenarios and examples tend to be a bit glossed over. For example, she explains something such as how to get a one-hundred percent return on an investment, but assumes that you already have something like a $100,000 loan. Or she assumes that the value of the property you invest in will increase by ten percent in one year, which is not guaranteed to increase at all, let alone by ten percent, and in some cases property value could go down. So let's just say she paints some pretty rosy pictures, and details are left out in some of her example scenarios.
Surprisingly, the range of topics covered are pretty wide and thorough. She goes as far as offering suggested caller scripts when contacting potential sellers. She offers resources and good tips on how to find sellers or better yet, how to get them to find you. She discusses the professional people that you will need to have on your side as an investor and how you might go about contacting some of these people.
Another qualm that I do have with this book is that it seems that, at some point, there was a website to serve as a companion or resource to go along with this book. She tells readers to refer to the site several times for additional resources. That site, however, is no longer up and running; although, the book is still useful without it.
Later, near the end of the book, Bell has a section where she responds to nay-sayers of the "nothing down" strategy. She offers a fair rebuttal saying that instead of relying on the opinions of those who have never tried it or have been unsuccessful, she responds by encouraging readers to take action with the steps she has offered throughout the book and offer their own testimony as proof. She also responds to the claim that I pointed out earlier about "nothing-down" taking advantage of those down on their luck. She says it is a fair criticism, which I can appreciate the honesty of acknowledging how some can view the strategy in this way. But she re-states that her way is to "never harm another person" in a deal and encourages others to do the same.
I would recommend to anyone, men and women, who want to get started in real-estate investing. This is for beginners, or for those who are already investors who may just be interested in learning the Nothing-Down strategy. Nothing-Down refers to not using your own money, but money from other sources as funding. The book explains some ways to do so, but all the ways this can be done surely can't be covered in one book. I will keep this one for a while, as I refer back to it. The information is really good. I feel as if I know a decent amount about Nothing Down investing after reading, while I had very little knowledge about it before reading.
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