10 Minute ReadHey guys, welcome back to the channel – I’ve read a fair few books on property investment in the UK, by arming yourself with the right knowledge and understanding of property you’ll be able to kickstart your property investing career with the best possible chances.
Today I’m going to share with you what I would crown my top 5 property investment books to read when you’re getting started and give you a quick synopsis of the key points each book teaches. I’ve put amazon links in the description to all 5 books so you can check them out and put them on your wish list.
There’s actually, a lot of rubbish books out there that end up being sales funnels onto property training courses. So I’ve sorted monkeys from the barrel to give you some inspiration on the best books that you can read today. I’ve categorised these into 3 generes – Finance, Property and Business Mindset.
Rich Dad Poor Dad
By Robert Kiyosaki
The Book in 3 Sentences
- Rich Dad Poor Dad is about Roberty Kiyosaki and his two dads – his real father (poor dad, well educated and working in the corporate world for someone else) and the father of his best friend (rich dad) – both fathers had very different views of the world and they shaped his thoughts about money and investing.
- You don’t need to earn lots or have a high income to be rich. Wealth is about how long you can last if that income stopped. EG. a high paid corporate person on 6 figures won’t last long if they have a huge mortgage, expensive car and high outgoings.
- Rich people buy assets, not liabilities. They use the income from their assets to fund their liabilities.
Impressions
The book is incredibly eye opening. To some, this may be obvious and the teaching around how to manage your assets and liabilities may be simple knowledge. But to those (and me) who didn’t really think this way before without realising… it’s mind blowing but so obvious at the same time.
The teachings around understanding how to invest your money into assets which fund your lifestyle have changed how I think forever.
Rather than saying ‘I cant afford this’ the question should be ‘how can I afford this?’ and rich people find a way to make it happen.
Who Should Read It?
Anyone who is interested in personal finance and building wealth. The book doesn’t teach you how to become rich in terms of strategies – it focuses purely on the financial, tax and business side and regardless of what you do to make money – it teaches how you should be operating to manage that money and build your wealth that way – through assets.
How the Book Changed Me
- The rich don’t work for money – Rich people don’t work by the hour or for someone else. They build a system or a process and hire people to manage that process for them. That’s what a business is and that’s how you become rich.
- The power of corporations – In my 9-5, most of my money is taxed and money is given to the government before it gets to me – I only get what’s left. If you operate within a corporation or a business then you can buy everything you need first, and only THEN does the rest go to the tax man. This means you can lower the amount of tax you spend thus requiring less money to aquire the same amount of wealth.
1 Awesome Quote
So many people say, ‘Oh, I’m not interested in money.’ Yet they’ll work at a job for eight hours a day. People that think that a job makes you secure are lying to themselves.
Robert Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad
Beginners Guide to Property Investing
By Rob Dix
The Book in 3 Sentences
- Rob Dix, the author of the book is a well respected name in the property industry, he runs The Property Hub which is one of the UK’s most popular podcasts as well as having his own personal blog that covers popular property investing topics. The book explores the strategies, process and building of a long term property portfolio.
- Over the last 20 years, more than a million brits have made life changing profits from buy to let. But as prices keep rising and the tax landscape changes, investors need to get smarter in order to success.
- It starts by demonstrating with real life examples a range of strategies suited to achieve different investment goals. Only then does it take you step by step through every aspect of researching, financing, buying and managing investment property.
Impressions
This was the very first property book that I read and a great one to start with, it’s a very honest and real view of the property investing world and doesn’t beat around the bush when exploring the available strategies, understanding the process of finance, deciding where to buy, finding and assessing deals as well as really going to town on the buying process and even refurbing a property.
Rob opens your eyes and gives you the clarity on getting started whilst not ignoring the realities like tax and end-game strategies for when you’re ready to retire.
Who Should Read It?
Anyone who is new to property should give this a read, if you’re a complete beginner and you get to the end of this book you’ll probably already know more than half the people out there who are amateurs in the property world. It’s a realistic but inspirational book to give you a crash course in property. There’s also lots of extra download-able goodies you can get by signing up to the mailing list in the book.
1 Awesome Quote
It’s far from game over, but the game is changing for the better. The unwary and underprepared will be squeezed from the market, leaving educated, strategic investors to have their best decade yet.
How To Be a Landlord
By Rob Dix
The Book in 3 Sentences
- Take a property, throw in a tenant and watch the money roll in. This seemingly simple forumla has attracted nearly two million people in the UK to become landlords, but the reality is a whole lot more complicated.
- If you miss or forget to provide a certain piece of paper, you might be unable to evict a tenant even if they stop paying their rent?
- The book is simple and entertaining and covers important steps like preparing the property to let, advertising for tenants, conducting viewings, doing all the paperwork, managing the tenancy and dealing with any difficult situations that may arise.
Impressions
I actually listened to this book on holiday as an audiobook and really need to buy it in paper form so I can take notes – it was incredibly useful and really went through how to set yourself up for success when preparing a property. Finding the right tenants and property vetting them as well as dealing with common maintenance issues and problems that might arise.
It’s a very simple and entertaining book written by Rob that covers everything involved in letting and managing a property whether you’re an accidental landlord or an enthusiastic investor.
Even if you plan to have managing agent, sometimes they’re not the best so being clued up on the right processes can ensure you stay a legitimate and proper landlord as well as having the comfort your managing agent is doing their job right.
Who Should Read It?
This book is great for brand new investors, be it intentional or accidental through inheritance – who are looking for information on what documents you should have, what safety certificates you need, what checks you should be doing if you plan to manage and let the property yourself.
Atomic Habits
By James Clear
The Book in 3 Sentences
- An atomic habit is a regular practice or routine that is not only small and easy to do but is also the source of incredible power; a component of the system of compound growth.
- Bad habits repeat themselves again and again not because you don’t want to change, but because you have the wrong system for change.
- Changes that seem small and unimportant at first will compound into remarkable results if you’re willing to stick with them for years.
Impressions
This for me was a completely life changing book, goal setting is huge in the property industry and I always see a lot of investors on instagram creating vision boards, and setting quarterly goals as well as 3 and 5 year goals, which is all great but the book teaches that setting a goal doesn’t guarantee success. Every candidate wants the job, every olympian wants the gold medal, so it’s not goals that set us apart.
The book taught me that by making small improvements every day, over time compounding takes over and if you focus on getting 1% better every day, you’ll end up 37x better by the end of the year.
Meeting any goal is actually because of the systems and processes you build in place to get there, by ensuring you have good habits and follow the right process, that’s how you meet your goals.
Who Should Read It?
If you’re a big goal setter – you should read this book as it will definitely reframe your thinking on what it takes to hit goals by forming great habits. The best way to form a good habit is not focus on goals but focus on your systems instead.
1 Awesome Quote
Time magnifies the margin between success and failure. It will multiply whatever you feed it. Good habits make time your ally. Bad habits make time your enemy.
The Four Hour Work Week
By Tim Ferris
The Book in 3 Sentences- Be effective, not efficient
- Validate all of your business ideas
- Charge a premium to make your life easier
Impressions
Tim Ferris who wrote the book has gone on to create a podcast and create a great public brand for himself. In the book he covers a lot about the 80/20 rule or known as the pareto principle which means that 80% of the consequences or impact come from 20% of the causes.
If you’ve got a youtube video, about 80% of your subscribers, views and watch time will likely come from 20% of your videos for example. He teaches that by focusing your time on the 20% that this will pay dividends.
Tim also advocates outsourcing your business to free up your time, using virtual assistants. The book does talk a lot about travelling abroad and being a digital nomad which is great but what i took from the book was more about hiring virtual staff to outsource the unimportant tasks in my business.
He also covers pricing your products and that you should always focus on quality, not quantity. For example if you sell a bottle of whatever for $10, to make $4000 a month you’d need 400 sales. Where as if you charges $40 a bottle, you only have to make 100 sales, thus less effort and the hardest part of making a sale is moving people from not giving you money, to giving you money and the amount is very vegotiable once they’ve made the decision to purchase from you.
Who Should Read It?
Great for people who are looking to start a business and use today’s digital tech to their advantage, especially for people who are keen to understand a bit more about virtual assistants and how they could help in your business.
1 Awesome Quote
Doing something unimportant well, does not make it important.
Free Goal Setting Guide
Are you struggling to find focus in your property business? Do you have a clear, tangible and measurable plan of action? Download this free handy goal setting guide that explores wherey you are today, your financial literal and north star lateral goals – and what you need to do to bridge that gap to meet your goals.
