How Small Investors Can Get Started and Make It Big
by David Lindahl · Published by Wiley (2009)
There are a few moments in your career that you don't forget. Getting a call that Donald Trump personally selected you to write his commercial real estate book is one of them.
The Trump University series was designed to be the definitive collection of investing education — and Trump wanted the commercial real estate volume written by someone who had actually done it at scale. He chose me. I don't say that to brag. I say it because it tells you something about what this book is: practical, real, and written by someone who's done the deals.
Commercial real estate — office buildings, retail centers, industrial properties, self-storage — intimidates a lot of investors who are comfortable with residential. The scale feels different. The financing feels complicated. The analysis feels foreign.
This book fixes that. I wrote it to show any investor with multifamily experience how to cross over into commercial, or how to start in commercial if that's where they want to be. The principles aren't that different. The opportunities are bigger.
The key differences in how commercial properties are valued, financed, and operated — and why commercial can offer bigger returns than residential.
Office, retail, industrial, mixed-use, self-storage — each has different dynamics. You'll learn which types make sense for small investors getting started.
How commercial loans work, what lenders look for, and how to structure deals that make financial sense. Commercial financing is different from residential — I'll break it down simply.
Where to find commercial deals, how to analyze them using the right metrics (NOI, cap rates, DSCR), and how to spot value-add opportunities.
Commercial leases are more complex than residential — triple net, modified gross, full service. You'll understand the key terms and how they affect your returns.
You don't need to be a large institutional investor to play in commercial real estate. I'll show you the entry points and strategies that work at smaller scales.
David Lindahl has been investing in real estate since 1996, starting as a landscaper with no money and building a portfolio of 9,000+ apartment units and $240 million+ in real estate across 27 markets and 18 states.
In addition to multifamily, his portfolio has included commercial office, hotel, retail, and self-storage investments — which is exactly why Donald Trump tapped him to write this book. He founded RE Mentor in 2001, which became the #1 multifamily real estate education company in the U.S.
David has shared stages with Robert Kiyosaki, Tony Robbins, Kevin O'Leary, and Barbara Corcoran. He's been featured in Reader's Digest, Kiplinger, and AOL Real Estate. He's also an Iron Man triathlete.
More About David →Available in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook formats.
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