This book provides concise, to the point, explanations of important formulas that are critical in deciding important real estate investment decisions. The author masterfully takes you through each formula, providing you with simple examples,and demonstrates how these formulas are interconnected,and or utilized by themselves, in determing whether an income producing property meets an investors criteria. The first part of the book takes you through an example of the decisions and formulas that experienced real estate investors go through in determining real estate investment decisions using most of the key formulas. The second part of the book summarizes each formula, providing basic, easy to understand examples, allowing the reader to jump around and choose which formulas they want to focus on. Present Value, GRM, NOI, Cap Rates, Taxable Income, Cash on Cash Returns, DCF, Net Present Value, IRR, Debt Coverage Ratio and Depreciation calculations are but a few of the important concepts that are discussed in this book. For me it tied up a lot of loose ends and showed me how these formulas are interconnected and are great tools in analyzing commercial real estate. A definite must have for any serious real estate investor.

I purchased this book as a gift and have not finished reading it yet myself but have heard many good things and so far has been great!

My Life & 1,000 Houses: Failing Forward to Financial Freedom

Good Book! Knowing your numbers is a must but don't forget...trusting your gut is just as important.

MS

An excellent resource for those interested in evaluating real estate investments from a mathematical standpoint.

This is the best book on the market covering real estate finance. Gallinelli teaches you how to 'run the numbers' with a fair amount of good humor and practicality. He never talks down to the reader, nor does he assume that the reader is a rocket scientist. Indeed, most readers, especially those who cringe at math, will come to see how easy the financial figuring side really is after reading this book.

This is the book to read BEFORE you read all those other formula-laden tomes. After reading this book, I now have a much better understanding of REIT financial statements. If you are serious about real estate investment, start with this book first. In it, you will learn the four principal ways money is made in real estate, how to convert features of a property such as location and size into cash flow, how to comparison shop between different properties, and most important, the key questions to ask when presented with all of those rosy financial statements for properties. He also takes you through a very thorough and comprehensive explanation of cash flow, the time value of money and internal rate of return- all of which are important and inter-locking aspects dealing with the proper valuation of commercial real estate.

Once you are done with this little gem of a book, consider picking up a copy of his other book on financing commercial real estate purchases. In my opinion, that one is somewhat better than this one in one key respect: in that book, he not only imparts a sound investment approach to purchasing commercial real estate for the novice investor, he also gave a clear and crucial warning about the dangers of 'no-money-down' investing. I believe that both books are a good form of positive reinforcement.

I used to work for a commercial real estate brokerage firm. When I first started, I could not believe how clueless some of the brokers and owners of income-producing properties were about cash flow. Most of the mom and pop owners of real estate do not even understand what a cap rate is. If you are serious about real estate, you must read this book and memorize everything in it. The book is written in simple English that anyone can understand. Paying $16 for a book that can save you thousands of dollars in mistakes seems like a deal to me.

- Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

Rarely does a real estate book get into the business and financial evaluation of real estate. Instead they talk about techniques at best or imposible to believe real estate "war stories" at worst. This a great primer for properly understanding cash flow and rate of return...the true bottom line.

I have encountered may property owners who are actually losing money by focusing on the wrong metrics or no metrics at all. They think they are making money, while actually lowering their long term net worth. The author does try to pitch his programs to readers and visitors to his website, but the book does a good enough job explaining how to do your own calculations.

The first part of the book builds up your understanding of financial concepts from the basics to the advanced. The second part is more a reference index to each concept or measure described in the first section with examples and commentary.

For everyone even THINKING about RE investment - from an agent's perspective to that of the investor, it is required reading. I've been back to it 20 times and 99% of the time, the answer I was looking for was there.

In all my years of using financial analysis tools, teaching them to audiences all across the country, and educating students at my top-ranked College of Commerce, I've never encountered anything as clear and well written as Frank Gallineli's book. "What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow...and 36 Other Key Financial Measures" is, I promise you, an absolutely painless and positively interesting way to learn these important concepts. This slim volume manages to bridge the gap between sophisticated investors with a need to brush up on some financial tools, to complete novices with no finance or business background. All readers will find the book useful, straightforward, and full of helpful explanations that are thorough but never condescending. If you are a student in one of the finance fields, you need this book to keep on your desk from now through graduation and beyond. Anyone else, whether broker, investor, loan officer or business person, should also keep this book near at hand for easy reference. Because of the very modest price, I recommend you buy two copies--one to keep, and one to re-sell to the person who will inevitably want to "borrow" your copy and never return it.

O. William Evans, J.D.
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Alabama Center for Real Estate
The University of Alabama
127 Bidgood Hall
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487

Why did I not come across this wealth of information before? Anyway, this is an indispensable aid to any RE numbers cruncher, do the maths, due diligence...whatever. When is the latest edition to the other book coming out? Can't wait.

This book is an essential for anyone new, or seasoned, in real estate. You won't find a better summation of how to cast you due dillegence net around any real estate you might want to buy. The style is easy to comprehend, just try reading up on internal rates of return in most of those other books out there! This book is a keeper for doing the numbers in real estate.

I have recommended to all of my friends to read the following books in order to shortcut the process and learn what they need to know. I told them this is what I would do if I did it over again. (I have my CCIM, Masters of RE from CU, ULI Development Certificate, NAIOP courses) But in all those, this would be most beneficial and starting here would help in short-cutting the process:

1) What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow - Gallinelli

2) Insider Secrets to Financing Your Real Estate Investments: What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Finding and Financing Your Next Deal - Gallinelli

3) Professional Real Estate Development - 2nd Edition - Peiser

4) Principles of Real Estate Syndication - Friedman

5) Confessions of a Real Estate Entrepreneur - Randel

I have read several other real estate books, but they tend to go way off course. This one tells you practical knowledge shoring up the base/foundation in order to understand more complex issues, but at the end of the day, simplisity will win out.

I think I have probably told at least 10 friends to read these books and they should be part of their "Library" as this will get them where they need to go and understand without practical experience.

I wouldn't recommend it if I didn't think it wasn't great.

I have no relation or affiliation to Frank G, just have read so many books, would like to shortcut the process for other people eager to get there and I love to read other people's reviews on Amazon so I know which ones are useful.

Hope this helps