How to Invest in Real Estate: The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Getting Started

Dorkin and Turner, cohosts of the BiggerPockets real estate investing podcast, offer up confused if high-energy advice in this brand extension project. Real estate is the best way to “build wealth and passive income,” the authors state; the trick is finding the right way to get started. Successful investors themselves, they fill out the bulk of the text with detailed rundowns of their podcast episodes; since their most likely audience will consist of existing fans of the podcast and site, these summaries may strike readers as more repetitive than useful. The authors cover some of the essentials, like finding deals and financing, but seem unclear on whether they want to push a self-help philosophy or provide concrete information, and end up underdelivering on both. Their encouraging approach and cheeky tone (chapters have titles like “Boring Financial Crap That Will Save Your Life”) are likely to satisfy existing BiggerPockets fans, but the sometimes-awkward writing (“There is an enormous elephant lying directly in the path ahead of you, and this elephant is called ‘real estate’ ”) and all-over-the-place advice is less likely to win them new ones. (Oct.)