Rating: 
Summary: Fluff Marketed Under the "Rich Dad . . . Poor Dad" Umbrella
Review: Robert Kiyosaki wrote the outstanding book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad", and I applaud him for it. This book can help make a major transformation in one's view of money and their life. - - - Unfortunately there seems little more to add. In the desire to cash in on the success of Rich Dad, there have been numerous books slapped together under the same marketing umbrella and these are lacking in thought or originality. (The exact same material and diagrams seem to make their way into the various books.) Here is another lightweight example. - - Some may say that you have to "read between the lines" to get the "deeper meaning" of this book. Well, it has also been said that one can find "deep meaning" in reading just about anything, - - including the phone book if one really wants to do so. - - - The best lesson from this book and the others sold after Rich Dad is that when you come up with something hot - - - you better jump on it and ride it for all its worth ("ride your winners"). This book is directed toward the naive amateurs who hope for quick & easy answers, and lack the knowledge/experience necessary to judge what is fluff and what is substantial. These will all find their way in the used book stores in a few years. - - -
Rating: 
Summary: Hardly a marketing pitch - Valuable information
Review: I can't quite understand the number of reviewers criticising this book - unless they are saying they are incapable of reading between the lines.
The examples in this book are SOMEWHAT glorified without appropriate qualifying statements, however at no stage does the author present them as anything other than what is POSSIBLE. The examples are in fact normally based on his best deals (and I assure the sceptics that they are really not particularly inprobable given his experience and number of properties traded).
Those complaining that the book is not enough "HOW TO" obviously didn't read the first couple of pages where he specifically states it is not intended as such as there are plenty of other books on the subject.So what's in it for you? Well, it is a great starting point to get your thinking going without having to absorb masses of new information.
It is inspiring without being motivational in nature.
And to someone who has not understood real estate or investments in general before it could in fact be a real eye-opener and change your thinking forever. This is not an exceptional book but I think it was worth the Aus$20 I paid for it. However Australian readers should definately check out 2 other books I have discovered as more in the 4 or 5 star category: 1 Wealth Magic by Peter Spann - Some amazing wealth secrets/ideas in the guise of a local success story. Read this for a conceptual understanding of wealth and success. 2 Investing in Residential Property by Peter Waxman - academic treatment of the subject and a veritable tome at 500 pages. Read this for the specifics of the property market from every angle you can think of plus detailed analysi (sp?) of Australian demographics. p.s. I wonder how many of the critics are as successful themselves as the author?
Rating: 
Summary: This is how to get rich in America (WORLD)
Review: This is my 4th Rich Dad book and I belive the most important. More people have become wealthy through real estate than any other or all other investments combined and that incudes the stock market.I also recommend Rich Dads Guide to investing and the 16% Solution.CAUTION: There are some people here pushing websites that are run by essentially shills for RTK's competitors and/or amateur-Pirate type operators. IF I gave OR offered you a dollar bill, which would you prefer; an original printed by the US government or a illegal, counterfeit copy?RTK and his series of books are the best. His authors are people who are successful, not wannabe real estate investors who haven't even bought their own property.
Rating: 
Summary: Not all that it is cracked up to be.
Review: This book is comparable to the Dummy's books. It really doesn't offer any real estate advice that any other book couldn't have given. It was relitively boring.
Rating:
Summary: Value investing has nothing to do with real-estate
Review: I need to respond to the reader from Topeka, KS below who is afraid to put his name next to his review. Real-estate investing is complex, but not impossible to understand. Frequently, it has little to do with property appreciation, and everything to do with leverage. There are individuals in Chicago who know nothing about real estate who are buying property for no money down and "flipping" this property 8-10 months later for a 30% profit. They are the lucky souls who will eventually get burned when the market cools or even crashes in some areas. If Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac start tightening the screws... "Value Investing" is a term most commonly associated with individuals such as Benjamin Graham and John Burr Williams, and it applies to securities analysis. People who don't know what they are talking about tend to throw this term around in regards to real estate. Do the math. The less you put down, the more you risk if the property loses value and you have to sell. The less you put down, the less equity you have in the property. Less equity to borrow against in an emergency. The more you leverage, the greater your debt load. Rent the place out? Great until someone stops paying his rent and you have to go through an eviction proceeding which can cost you tens of thousands of dollars. A gas station opens up across the street? -your property loses 20% of its value overnight. The risks are real. The real-estate boom has turned everyone into an "expert", just like the dot com bubble turned every investor into Peter Lynch. I can't wait until reality hits. Flexibility -this is the correct spelling, and no, real-estate is not a flexible investment.
Rating:
Summary: Oh my God...
Review: This book is not worth the air it displaces. De Roos clearly has never done a single one of the deals he describes, if he had he would have been writing from a cozy corner cell in prison. Someone clever enough to fleece the public with trash like this definitely wouldn't be caught dead trying to pull off the high-risk and illegal schemes he suggests. And why would a beginner (who clearly is the target audience for this book) want to invest in real estate in *other countries* and *multiply* expenses and the complexity of the deals? Don't waste your perfectly good money on this dime-store charlatan. Instead, begin your real-estate investment career by becoming intimately familiar with the law of real property, tax, and contracts. If you can't master basic concepts of US statutory and case law you certainly cannot master the quantitative and strategic aspects of profitable and legal real estate investment. ...
Rating:
Summary: Why-To, Not How-To of Real Estate
Review: Great 1st book on real estate. On the 1st line of chapter 1, Dolf says this is NOT a "How-To" book, but more of a why-to book. Very easy to read.
Rating:
Summary: Great guide for the gullible
Review: Why did so many reviewers rate this book so poorly? The book succeeds in exactly what it was intended to do. It has sold a jillion copies to the gullible "investing" wannabes who wish to believe that they can make big bucks in real estate without money, credit, effort, or intelligence. Anyone who really wanted to find out what it takes to realistically buy, own, and manage property would have read Gary Eldred, John Reed, Leigh Robinson, or William Nickerson. So, why complain when Rich Dad hands you cotton candy? Should you have expected anything more?
Rating:
Summary: NOT BAD BUT NOT REALLY GOOD EITHER
Review: This is my first review of anything so please bear with me. I own 12 dbles, a condo (which I'm selling)--I also have a partner and we have a triplex and a big old house we're converting to a dble. I'm telling you this is establish myself. I expect to have a net worth topping a million within 3 years. I read this book over the weekend. After getting by some of the 'strange' things (like painting the roof--I guess this is big in Europe) I felt that this was a ok book. The biggest thing I took exception to was buying property in several different countries. I prefer that my property be within 100 miles or so. And I don't agree with using a management compay--I've had too many problems with that in the past. But this book was ONLY ok. It left out too many needed facts - like how to find a good partner. My biggest 'gripe' is it was light on the how to invest in other countries. I felt if the author was going to 'push' owing property in mulitple areas then there should have been alot more detail about the laws, etc that would be needed to do so.
Rating:
Summary: Good theme, short on details
Review: The reviewer below, Colin Higgins (March 25, 2002) seems to know as little about real estate investing as he does about spelling. He needs to read Eldred's Value Investing in Real Estate. Because Higgins has fallen into the fatal (but common) trap of equating real estate returns with rates of appreciation. On one point, though, Higgins is right. You should never buy property just because you see prices going up. But that's what "Valuing Investing" adresses: How to select properties that will yield extraordinary returns. And that's why I only give "Real Estate Riches" three stars. The authors simply fail to give readers enough details to evaluate and select their properties. So, read it to get a general picture, but make sure you read more substantive books ( not the get rich quick type) before you take the plunge. Real estate is your most certain way to wealth--when you choose your investments wisely and don't merely run with the herd.
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