I`d like to recommend a book about... baseball. It is called "Moneyball" and it is by Micheal Lewis. Why is this a worthwhile read? Because you will learn lessons about business and thinking differently that I have not seen elsewhere.
The author started researching for a book about the economic disparity between major league baseball teams (largely due to the size of the market the team was located in) but quickly realized there was an anomoly to the general perception that larger, well financed teams performed better that their small market cousins. This exception to the rule is the Oakland Athletics. The book came out a few years ago, but at the time Oakland had won more regular season games in the last three years than any other team except the New York Yankees that had won only a handfull more games. However, New York`s player payroll was more than four times that of the Athletics whose payroll ranked around 26th out of 30 teams. Since the book has come out the Athletics have continued to do well with a team of unknowns. How has this happened? Lewis writes about the general manager of the team, a colourful fellow named Billy Beane, and a unique way of looking at statistics that he came across and refined. In addition to this, Beane is very creative at trading and scouting, two often overlooked areas of professional sports.
So what does this have to do with investing in real estate? Nothing specifically, but by reading this book you will understand the value of looking at things differently. We all say this is a good idea and we like to think that we do it, but this book shows an extreme example of a situation where the underdog comes out on top strictly by relying on things that others (usually with alot more money) overlook. Isn`t that what we are trying to do?
If you don`t like baseball, don`t worry - it is written in a light, breezy style and should be enjoyable for even a non-fan. If you do read it let me know what you think.