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Andy Shaw – Money for Nothing and Your Property for Free

<Update>  Late 2008 / 2009 The strategy described in this book is very difficult to follow right now with mortgages being so difficult to get hold of (see my post about Commercial Loans)

What is the book about?

The book is about the property investment strategy that the author and his business partner have followed, apparently to great success. There are 2 basic principles that the author suggests:

- Buy property below market value to pull out your initial investment as quickly as possible

- Capital growth provides you with your personal ‘income’ (slowly, over the long term), rental income pays for the cost of the property

This is based on buying small properties (1 and 2 bed flats mostly though there are places where the author would suggest deviating from this advice if e.g. there is better local demand – at the right price level – for small houses instead).

What do I think of it?

This is a GREAT book.  I’ve read a lot and most of them aren’t like this.  It is full of very good advice and seems to provoke strong reactions (either good or bad) from its readers.

Only a few negatives

Firstly, let me get the bad points out of the way. The book is overly long (over 500 pages) and quite rambling. The author often strays from him point and the chapter titles are truly terrible and do not give you any idea what is contained in the pages. They are more a reflection of what the author was thinking at the time of writing. This is a shame because (as you’ll see in the positive section below) the book has a lot to offer and is quite useful to refer to later.

It’s a self published book and this is plainly obvious as soon as you start reading. Spelling and grammar are not the author’s strong points and it has not seen anything approaching an editorial review, or even a quick glance over by someone who passed GCSE English.

Lots of Positives

OK I’m done with the bad points, most of which are quite minor. Onto the good points, and there’s lots of it. This book is absolutely amazing! Lots of authors and speakers talk about being ‘transformational’ or making ‘transformational change’ happen in your life. Most of that stuff is well intention and is directed at empowering YOU to make a change for yourself. Well this book is the real deal. YES you have to take action! YES you have to go out and do something for yourself! (and it can be scary, believe me). But this book really can deliver that transformation for you if you just follow the advice (or so the author believes). It’s almost as if, because it’s self-published, because it’s really badly written, because it’s difficult to follow, because of all these things you really get to feel what the author is trying to tell you

Conclusion

Despite it’s faults this is an excellent book and I highly recommend it.

I defy anyone to read this book and NOT get excited about property investment.

Click here to check out the book www.propertyinvestmentsecrets.co.uk/book/