Diary of a Real Estate Rookie: My Year of Flipping, Selling, and Rebuilding - and What I Learned
Product Description
With humor and grace—as well as an eye for the fabulous and outrageous—real estate rookie Alison Rogers offers an insider’s tale of the hottest real estate market in the country.
Expanding upon Rogers’ weekly national column in Inman News, Diary of a Real Estate Rookie chronicles a former real estate journalist’s wily adventures, from a gutsy attempt at starting a real estate business with only $16,000 to the (eventual) taste of sweet success. Along the way, Alison drolly relates her escapades, among them an attempt to flip abandoned shells in Newark and the rental of a Greenwich Village apartment to a famous movie star. Quirky and informative, Rookie offers real estate and financial advice in tandem with tales of suburban real estate agents, manicured New York trophy wives, and innocent ripe-for-the-plucking first-time buyers. Real estate rookies and seasoned vets alike will delight in Alison’s unique voice and perspective as she discovers her pathway out of corporate monotony to independent success in the real estate business.
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am a huge fan of Alison Rogers’ writing about real estate specifically & about life generally! Am very excited to hear that there is now a book out because her incisive insightfulness via weekly “op eds” in the NY Post Real Estate section (which she created!) are receding into distant memory.
Rogers has really influenced the industry — look how the real estate writing in the NY Times changed after she vamped up the coverage at the Post!!!! — and more importantly, she is that rare contemporary breed — a truly honestly gifted thinker and writer. grab it, regardless of whether you frequent open houses as a hobby.
Rating: 5 / 5
Diary of a Real Estate Rookie: My Year of Flipping, Selling, and Rebuilding - and What I Learned
Alison Rogers is a real estate journalist, owns two houses, and has real estate connections. So it’s a disappointment to read this book and realize that there is no information in this book that was new to me, and all of the personal stories, while not poorly written, just kept me thinking, “How dumb is this person, anyway?”
The book consists of short, 3-page essays that are generally organized by timeframe. The author says she rewrote nearly half of the book when making her previously-written essays into a book, but the essays still sound like they were written separately and so do not necessarily continue thoughts/plots/ideas from the previous essays.
The author mentions that she gets a job offer for $150,000 during the course of the year, and has left a nearly $100,000 job to go through this year of real estate. However, she never seems completely committed to her real estate year. Instead, her work comes off as something done as a lark, something to give her material for her columns.
The author does not flip any houses at all. She spends months attempting to find a property to flip, then gives up.
Presumably, she does sell some real estate in this year, but I was unclear on what she actually sold. Because the essays jump around a bit, I wasn’t sure whether the “Persephone” (seller) in one essay was the same person as “P.” in another essay, or was “P.” actually Patty (buyer) from another essay?
She shows up late to closings, late to showings, and doesn’t remember to make promotional materials for her first listing until 5 minutes before the appointment. Okay, you had a week before your first showing…and it didn’t occur to you to make up a flyer or get some business cards printed up?!?
Despite how this book is marketed, and what the author thinks she has included in the content, don’t go into the book thinking you’ll get helpful advice about flipping, selling, buying, or rebuilding (I don’t remember anything in the book at all about rebuilding). This book should really be titled:
Essays From a Real Estate Dabbler: My Year of Showing Up Late, Sitting Around, and Recommending Books Which Amazon Reviewers Mostly Hate
Rating: 2 / 5
Diary of a Real Estate Rookie: My Year of Flipping, Selling, and Rebuilding - and What I Learned
I read this book on a 5 hour plane ride and it kept me entertained; I am also a longtime real estate investor and “flipper” (who occasionally covers these stories) and appreciated its breezy writing and information. And I had hoped to pass it on to a longtime friend who I’ve been encouraging to invest in real estate (rental or flipped property). However, I have to admit that at the end I felt a bit letdown. I felt there was too much New York property mentioned. I guess I was hoping to learn about more practical “flipping” and “selling” real estate information across the U.S., with more before and after info and prices, etc. Don’t get me wrong, it was a good read, witty and informative, of a real estate rookie’s first year. . .
Rating: 4 / 5
Diary of a Real Estate Rookie: My Year of Flipping, Selling, and Rebuilding - and What I Learned
I read this book on a short plane flight and was dismayed when the plane landed–I wanted to finish the book! Diary of a Real Estate Rookie is an engaging and witty story, with useful insights about real estate throughout.
I should mention that I picked the book up because I know the author. But I should also mention that I have no special interest in real estate. I think those two facts balance out enough that I can objectively say this is a super book.
Ali mentions casually somewhere in the book that she’s a summa cum laude graduate of Harvard, but doesn’t elaborate on what that means. Our graduating class had about 1600 people in it, and I believe 7 (or was it 9?) graduated summa. This is one smart woman. She uses that intelligence to notice things. Things not just about how real estate works, but about how everyone involved feels in the process. And how those feelings and social relations shape the business. This leads to not just an insightful book, but also a witty and readable story. The book is also a fun slice of New York City life, though its real estate lessons are more broadly applicable.
Rating: 5 / 5
Diary of a Real Estate Rookie: My Year of Flipping, Selling, and Rebuilding - and What I Learned
I was really excited to get this book after reading some of the reviews and thought it would be a valuable read for the beginning flipper. After reading over half the book and coming to realize that there hadn’t been a flip and there was never going to be a flip I gave up on this book. The entire first half of the book was spent searching for a house to flip but never actually finding one. There were a few valuable pieces of advice but nothing that I hadn’t already read in other books. If you’re a beginning flipper and are expecting an informative book to help teach you what to do and what not to do then keep looking, this book isn’t it.
Rating: 1 / 5
Diary of a Real Estate Rookie: My Year of Flipping, Selling, and Rebuilding - and What I Learned