The Encyclopedia of Commercial Real Estate Advice: How to Add Value When Buying, Selling, Repositioning, Developing, Financing, and Managing

I had a hard time putting this book down as it is such a good read. I own 5 residential rental properties as well as a commercial building, and have wanted to expand my commercial real estate portfolio for a long time. After reading Terry Painter's book I now feel I am armed with the knowledge to start making offers on apartment buildings. I have been analyzing a lot of properties lately based on what I have learned from this book, and feel confident removing the fluff which the listing agents are often selling. I keep running into real estate terms that I would like to learn more about, like - internal rate of return (IRR). All I have to do is look it up in the book's index and not only do I get the definition, but also practical advice on how to apply the concept. The author talks about commercial real estate being a business. For anyone interested in learning this business, this book is a godsend!

Any investor of Real Estate - novice or experienced - needs this book. It is more than just an encyclopedia of commercial real estate investing, it is packed full of useable, common sense and easy to understand strategies and tips on how to successfully find, analyze, negotiate and finance your next commercial property. There are tools, links, money saving tips and sophisticated techniques to not just acquire but manage and lease your properties. The book is well laid out with a huge index of topics - saving you time and energy when you need quick answers. And it is very well written with personal insights from the author who has closed over four billion dollars in commercial loans. Again, if you are interested in commercial real estate, you need this book!

Nice book

Terry's book has become an invaluable resource for me. The lessons in it are practical and I've used some of those lessons to solve real-life commercial development problems. In addition to that - I reached out to Terry for some niche-level advice and he responded; thoughtfully and thoroughly. Anyone who is in commercial real estate would benefit from keeping a copy of this Encyclopedia on their desk.

Realtors take notice!! Terry Painter's book is a must for realtors, whether they are commercial or residential. It will aid in answering clients questions, such as a 1031 exchange, or how to get started, and the many pitfalls on the way and how to avoid them. This book is packed with easy-to-read (think taking a dry and complicated topics) and making it comprehensive for anyone to understand. As I read through the book, I would think of a question, and Terry would immediately answer the question, as if he were reading my mind, or refer to where it could be found. Written in a conversational tone, with many real life anecdotes, very complex information is broken down and formatted for easy reading. I really cannot say enough about this book, it is my new handbook for anything real estate.

This book is a great read, and very informative for real estate investors; whether beginner real estate investors or advanced. There are outstanding tips and information for avoiding mistakes and pitfalls as buyers; especially during the due diligence phase of a real estate transaction. The book is loaded with time saving and money savings tips, has smart strategies from preparing your offer to purchase to repositioning a property, from student housing to senior housing (and everything in between), and many more constructive real estate concepts and ideas; like examining your break even ratio, understanding cap rates and your buyer's pro forma to evaluate if the real estate is worth buying in the first place, and so much more. A must read and a must have for anyone looking to be in commercial real estate (even works great for examining smaller residential type real estate investment multifamily transactions - 4 units and below), or who already is in commercial real estate. A real wealth of real estate information. Don't get into another real estate investment transaction, or getting into your first investment real estate transaction, without first reading Terry Painter's The Encyclopedia of Commercial Real Estate Advice.

This book is truly groundbreaking. Having been a real estate investor, developer, speculator and landlord over the past 35 years I can truly appreciate the honesty and the breadth of material covered in this masterpiece. There is no sell angle. No seminar to enroll in and to pay for. Just sound, up to date, in depth information on every vital commercial real estate topic. Skillfully assembled and eloquently shared. I particularly liked the chapters that cover Property Development. Nowhere have I seen a step by step guide to this otherwise overwhelmingly complicated and detailed sector of real estate investing. The topics covered and the process roadmap is truly a gift to any novice investor considering this path, as well as to seasoned developers wanting to further hone their skills or to troubleshoot their shortcomings. Brilliant! Apart from being loaded with information, I really appreciated the many money saving tips and the case studies. This really brought the book alive for me and made it a good read. Loved the solid index covering every real estate term out there…and the spreadsheets. Highly recommended.

Great book from the perspective and experience of the guy who is responsible for you getting the loan. Terry Painter provides the insight that comes with 100’s of loans on commercial property. He shows what works and examples of when things don’t. As a developer, the check lists, loan types, repositioning methods, examples of success are really well put together. This is 400+ pages but reads really well since I can identity and related to all the information he has. He even goes into types of property, apartments, self storage, retail. This is really a great foundation resource that any developer should have. I even know one of the developers in the book- Roy Carver.