The HotPads Book Club, Real Estate Investing Edition

Despite vise-tight credit and sinking asset values, some people are still eager to get into amateur real estate speculation.  Probably the folks who find hijacking loads from Columbian drug cartels too safe a profession.

For those needing advice, hundreds of authors are willing to help them on their way.  A search on Amazon.com with the keywords "real estate investing" yields 331 results for books published in 2007 alone.  How can one know where to begin?  Here's a hint: It's probably wise to avoid any tome with the words "subprime", "flipping", "secrets" or "millionaire" in the title.  And if you are a self-described dummy, you may want to reconsider this course of action entirely.

Now for real advice worth the price, look for the Wall Street Journal's excellent Complete Real-Estate Invesing Guidebook by David Crook.  Crook provides a clear understanding of the ups and downs of real estate investing, with an emphasis on managing rental properties, not flipping homes.  And he does this with a nice sense of dry humor, which we can appreciate at HotPads.