cover image The Challenge

The Challenge

Robert Allen. Simon & Schuster, $17.45 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-671-52618-4

In previous books (Nothing Down, Creating Wealth, Allen challenged readers to follow his own example: with little money of his own he became wealthy in real estate. Here he makes a bet with himself that he can train three persons, literally ""from the unemployment line,'' to acquire a residential property within 90 days and put $5000 cash in the bank. The result is an instruction course with suspenseful human interest as a young black unskilled worker, a minister's wife and a single parent in her 40s with no job prospects respond to the challenge. Allen advises them how to conquer fear and face risk, locate properties that have ``motivated sellers,'' negotiate terms through leveraged financing, close a contract and with money in hand enter into an achievement-minded way of life. Fortune Book Club main selection; BOMC alternate. (April 28)