Every so often, Realtor.org publishes this list with the help of Amazon.com. It's the top selling books on Amazon in the real estate category. It's always good to know what your peers are reading. This is an time to concentrate on the essentials of our business. Surely education is on our list of priorities, right?

I find it interesting how old some of these top titles are. Some of them have been on the shelves for many years. I remember reading #10, What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know about Cash Flow... And 36 Other Key Financial Measures, several years ago. In the business of real estate, time is always of the essence, but some content never goes out of style. This is one of the classics in my opinion. I'm surprised sometimes how many of us are not privy to the real definition of NOI (Net Operating Income), for example. The very basics of real estate investing are here. It teaches you how to competently analyze properties on a cursory level. It also gives you all the tools necessary to go as deep as you want. What I like even more about this book is how it offers free downloads of some very simple but effective tools you can use to analyze different opportunities automatically.
 
Another on this list I can personally vouch for is The ABC's of Real Estate Investing. I haven't made up my mind quite yet how I feel about Kiyosaki himself, the creator of the Rich Dad franchise. But the content he and his team have produced has definitely been helpful and motivational to millions on a consistent basis. And I've found his team of advisors, who also write books for the Rich Dad library, are top notch. This book is no exception. What I found most interesting about this particular piece was that Ken McElroy, the author, takes the mysticism out of investing in property nationally and even globally. It's a step I haven't yet taken myself, but in reading the book, I learned that I do indeed have the tools to buy and manage property in other states and other countries. It's a step that intimidates many investors, but McElroy drops the bomb on how simple it really is. There's no magic, just math and step-by-step instructions.

The next on my list is SHIFT. It's gotta be. As soon as I finish The Lexus and the Olive Tree (a great book on globalization by Thomas Friedman). I've loved Gary Keller and company's Millionaire series. You know the red book and the blue book. We've all learned great principles from them so far. I have a copy of Flip, but I haven't read it yet. I'm not really considering a flip anytime soon? However, SHIFT couldn't be more timely. I was invited to the launch thing they did in Chicago but I wasn't able to attend. I heard the event went down really well.

It's weird how impossible it is to calculate the actual return on investment when it comes to reading good books. How much money have I made from what I learned in The Millionaire Real Estate Investor? And how much will I continue to make for the whole of my career? It's impossible to calculate. But when you compare it to any other investment, the ROI's gotta be good! And what's more, the return is always positive. Knowledge gained and applied through reading never results in a loss. If investing without risk exists, it exists in books. Anyway, here's the list:

1. The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It , By Robert J. Shiller

2. The Subprime Solution: How Today's Global Financial Crisis Happened, and What to Do about It (Kindle Edition) , By Robert J. Shiller

3. Rich Dad's Advisors®: The ABC's of Real Estate Investing: The Secrets of Finding Hidden Profits Most Investors Miss (Rich Dad's Advisors) , By Ken McElroy

4. The Pre-Foreclosure Property Investor's Kit: How to Make Money Buying Distressed Real Estate -- Before the Public Auction , By Thomas Lucier

5. Home Buying For Dummies, 3rd edition , By Eric Tyson and Ray Brown

6. Real Estate Investing for Dummies , By Eric Tyson and Robert S. Griswold

7. Real Estate Finance & Investments (Real Estate Finance and Investments) , By William B Brueggeman and Jeffrey Fisher

8. SHIFT: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times , By Gary Keller, Dave Jenks, and Jay Papasan

9. Financial Shock: A 360º Look at the Subprime Mortgage Implosion, and How to Avoid the Next Financial Crisis , By Mark Zandi

10. What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know about Cash Flow... And 36 Other Key Financial Measures , By Frank Gallinelli