What are the best books or resources to learn about real estate development from scratch?

I've been a commercial real estate broker for 5 years now and have ventured into a handful of business partnerships - some have worked and some have nearly ruined me. What I find, on a surface level, is that you must absolutely share the same VALUES and MISSION as your potential partner. Having even stake in the game also helps, as it avoids one partner eventually grabbing "the upper hand". If you are not bringing cash or equity to the table, be prepared to demonstrate how your hard work can be translated into $ value. If you have more detailed scenarios or questions, feel free to bounce them off me at anytime. Cheers! -S.

Of course and have in the past.. With FB's Open graph search you can laser target buyers and weed out tire kickers.. This is a no brainer :)

I've been investing in residential and commercial real estate for over 10yrs and have learned from a lot of decisions along the way. Certainly depends on the type of property, type of investment, and structure of the transaction. For example the answer would be very different between a SFR and a 200 unit apartment complex. I always start with the macro - what is driving people to rent property in that part of the city. Will the reasons people are renting there continue to support future rentals and future rental increases (jobs, development rules, pricing, etc.) If I like what I see for that city and that part of the city from a macro perspective, I look at the economics of the property itself (price per unit in relation to deferred maintenance, does the NOI pencil out to what I need it to be, is there upside in rents or utility bill backs or appreciation, am I buying at a discount due to deferred maintenance or lease risks, etc.) Then I look at the structure of the deal itself - if I am leading the investment and have LPs, what is the rate of return for everyone involved. What is the holding period, plan to sell vs. 1031 exchange, etc. Some of the areas where there can be difficulty is on deferred maintenance that a seller is unwilling to compensate you for (negotiation techniques are your friend here). Issues with the leases (some might be easy to overcome and others may not be). Financing (will a bank want to own that type of property in that city).

Commercial real estate is completely different animal than residential. Loop.net is a popular site where you can review commercial deals. Outside of that you need to find pocket listings and build relationships with brokers and Realtors that list commercial properties. You can also go to http://www.Listsource.com and pull criteria to send out a mailer to a very targeted list of owners.

I co-founded and owned what became the 13th largest Century 21 franchise in the USA. I did the majority of the training. We hired hundreds of new and experienced agents each year maintaining an average active agent count of around 95 in our single office. Here is some of the advice I gave each prospective or new recruit. 1. Make sure you have a cash reserve to cover your personal and real estate business overhead for 3-6 months. 2. Treat your real estate business like you are in business for yourself even though you are not by yourself. Sound business principles still apply. 3. Networking and relationship nurturing are the keys to the kingdom. Prospect, prospect, prospect. (The agents that were proactively prospecting for clients were three to four times more successful than the ones that merely placed ads and waited for the phone to ring.) 4. Avoid the busy-work-trap. That is, do all the non-income producing work during non-prime time hours. If you can be prospecting, showing property or writing contracts, do it. Don't organize your desk, configure your CRM, write your ads, etc., in lieu of the activities that will earn your income. This happens more frequently than you might think. 5. Ignore the naysayers. My best agents earned between $250,000 and $500,000 regardless of the housing market or economy. Ironically, some of them were "intentional" naysayers. It was part of their strategy to discourage the new people. 6. Become a student of the business. Attend every conference available. Read every book. Listen to the CD's/DVD's on how to master the art of selling real estate (to borrow a title from Tom Hopkins). I've traveled the country training real estate agents & brokers. Give me a call if you have any further questions or would like a coach to accelerate your learning curve and success rate. All the best! Kevin McCarthy