Recommended books on Real Estate Development

[Sean Dezoysa]

Hi;

know RE Development can not be fully understood from a book. But what books do you think are helpful for learning about the field? I am open to good books on any kind of development.

Thanks

[Adrian G.]

Originally posted by Sean D:

Hi;

know RE Development can not be fully understood from a book. But what books do you think are helpful for learning about the field? I am open to good books on any kind of development.

Thanks

Sean,
Check out ULI's bookstore, they have a TON of books on every area of real estate. I have purchased some myself on development and its well WORTH every penny......Especially since there not cheap.

[Steve Wilcox]

are you talking about commercial, residential, spec building new homes, or major planned developments?
You need to understand the construction portion, the capital, and the zoning regs in your town. I think that most good developers have almost the same knowledge of zoning laws that an attorney might have.
Developing is a real team sport, contractors, gc, trades, zoning attorneys, capital management, sales people, leasing agents, ect.

Look on amazon for recent publications as laws and regs change frequently, however understand that they will all be very broad, and will more than likely not be able to address items specific to your area of the country.

[Adrian G.]

Originally posted by Sean D:

Hi;

know RE Development can not be fully understood from a book. But what books do you think are helpful for learning about the field? I am open to good books on any kind of development.

Thanks

Sean,
Check out ULI's bookstore, they have a TON of books on every area of real estate. I have purchased some myself on development and its well WORTH every penny......Especially since there not cheap.

[Kyle Zaylor]

Hey Sean D I'm a huge fan of these books:

What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow…and 36 Other Key Financial Measures by Frank Gallinelli (Frank is also on the BP forum)

and

The Real Estate Game: The Intelligent Guide to Decision-making and Investment by William J. Poorvu

For text books, this book is one of the best:

Real Estate Finance and Investments by William Brueggeman and Jeffrey Fisher

Adrian also made a great point about checking out the ULI bookstore.

[J Scott]

Here's my "required reading" for development texts:

http://www.amazon.com/Real-Estate-Development-Principles-Process/dp/0874209714/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

It's is a textbook (took me months to get through), and is written like a textbook...if you're looking for light reading or informal disucssion, this probably isn't the book for you... :)

[Frank Gallinelli]

Hey @Kyle_Zaylor -- Thanks for the kind words about my book. I always wanted to rich and famous, but happy to settle for just famous ;)

And btw, I also recommend the Brueggeman and Fisher book to my students -- pretty much the classic r.e. finance text

--Frank

[Bryan Hancock]

J Scott

Thanks....on my required reading list now!

Frank Gallinelli

I enjoyed your book as well. I read it many years ago and it formed the basis for the initial incarnation of our apartment model listed on the BP downloads top 10 list ;-)

[Roc P.]

Good stuff everyone, buying your book Frank, looking forward to it. Roc

[Douglas Dowell]

I also recommend Intent to Prosper by R Kymn Harp that is an epic read about due diligence.

The ULI books are the gold standard to me as well.

[Victor Belman]

You will find tons of book on real estate in the market. Want to basic or everything related to real estate like construction, taxation etc.?

[Sean Dezoysa]

hi,any and all recommendations on development related books are appreciated in this thread, thanks.

[Danny Day]

Good thread, buying all the books in here

[Derek Carroll]

this is an older book but one of the best

http://www.amazon.com/Real-Estate-Development-Workbook-Manual/dp/0735544360

im a commercial mortgage banker, reference this alot and hear that some of my longtime developer clients still pull it off the shelf.

[Yossi F.]

All,

"Confessions of a Real Estate Entrepreneur: What It Takes to Win in High-Stakes Commercial Real Estate" was a good book. It was a very easy read.

[Account Closed]

Originally posted by @Danny Day:

Good thread, buying all the books in here

Thanks for this suggestion! I found a copy of this book for six bucks for a used copy even though it retails for hundreds of dollars!

[Elliot Grochal]

Got one more to add, as I am reading it now and it is great! I like this one because it shows that developers can have very good intentions not only for their profits but the public too. Also great to see how they deal not just with pro formas but with all the other entities of the business from architects to marketing teams.  How Real Estate Developers Think: Design, Profits, and Community

[Manny Cirino]

@sean d check out the following link to Handbook of Construction Contract Vol. 1 (plans, specs, builds) its good simple start to grasp the concept. It provides several examples of analyses, forms, build prints, applications. it provides a good explination if the process and what to expect.

https://books.google.com/books?id=bwtGbOM8C9YC&pg=PA50&dq=spec+build&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSy8730_PNAhXEdh4KHdAZDmYQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=spec%20build&f=false