Fortunately for real estate investors everywhere, there are a lot of real estate titles that have some great information on real estate investing.  Unfortunately, there are also a lot of books on real estate out there by get-rich-quick schemers and authors who may have completed a small handful of transactions and now want to tell everyone else how it is done. Many of these books are little more than promotional fluff to get you to buy whatever "can't lose" investment system these fast-talkers and new-comers to the real estate world are shilling. It can be difficult to wade through all the snake oil and "too-dumb to know I was lucky" books to find quality information. Here at Memphis Invest we have done some of the work for you by selecting a few good books. Here are three real estate book recommendations, in no particular order, that can actually leave you smarter than they found you. 

In the recession, one of the economic sectors that suffered greatly was the housing market. Even today, the housing market has not recovered to its former level. However, there are some sectors that are experiencing great success.

If you haven't yet completed your 2011 tax returns, the time to start thinking about doing so is now. Even if you know your market and are confident in your success, if you are a cash flow real estate investor, then your tax return is likely to be much more complicated than the basic 1040 EZ form, but it isn't too difficult to do things right. Here are a few tips to get you started:

Cash Flow Real Estate Investor Tax Tips:

1. Keep all receipts.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) explains the most common problem with the tax returns of those who buy investment property: lack of documentation. According to one article, "individuals (or couples filing joint returns) tend to misreport their net income from rental real estate activities more frequently than other types of income." The most common issue is cash flow real estate investors who don't keep excellent track of their rental income and their property expenses. If you want to be certain to avoid these problems, keep all of your receipts together in a safe place.

Real estate is being added to the investment portfolios of Americans and more are looking for real estate to provide a passive income stream in their retirement years.  

Real estate investing sometimes gets a bad rap from investment advisers.  They often prefer REIT's and other supposed easier forms of investing in real estate because it's easy for them to track and control their clients portfolios.  I don't begrudge them for that attitude, I just think it short changes an investor and eliminates a very powerful source of income when investors will need it most...retirement.

In residential real estate investing, it is often the smallest details that make or break the profitability of an investment property.  For many of our clients these all important details fall on our shoulders as the property management company who oversees their properties and in some cases, their profitability.

For all of our investment real estate clients and even interested investors who have been asking for an easy way to see properties on the go, we are releasing the first version of our smart phone app.  Memphis real estate is hot and our new app is just one of the new ways we are developing for investors to stay on top of what's going on here at Memphis Invest...AND the download is F-R-E-E!

As I was reading a report last week on the status of real estate investing in different markets around the United States, one number kept jumping out at me - the percentage of real estate investors paying cash was huge!  In some markets around the country, real estate investors paying cash made up more than 75% of the transactions.  Since real estate is a hyper-local industry, with each individual market able to vary wildly from the next, keeping an eye on the trends of investors before making assumptions is a huge task.

It is funny sometimes to get the reactions of investors when they hear me talk about diversification in Memphis real estate because they are not used to hearing those terms come from real estate investing companies.  Maybe from professional stock brokers or stodgy old men in black suits discussing the economy in terms most of us would never use.  But in truth, diversification in your real estate portfolio is very important and can often mitigate the over all risk you take as an investor.