Trump and company.

Maverick Real Estate Investing: The Art of Buying and Selling Properties like Trump, Zell, Simon, and the World's Greatest Land Owners

BY STEVE BERGSMAN

John Wiley & Sons Hoboken, New Jersey 2004, 292 pages, $24.95, hardcover

MAVERICK REAL ESTATE INVESTING PROvides

an entertaining and informative foundation for someone interested in learning the art of real estate investing from some of the best in the business. The author, Steve Bergsman, a veteran real estate journalist, presents the 12 Golden Rules for success in real estate investing and then portrays some of the mavericks that embody them.

Some of these mavericks are very well known while others are less dominant figures in American popular culture. They include Donald Trump; Sam Zell; Eli Broad; Dick Dusseldorp; Gerald and Jeffrey Hines; Stuart Hornery; Bruce Karatz; John Kukral; James, Richard and Samuel LeFrak; Frank, Peter and Steven Lowy; Hamid Moghadam; Paul and Philip Reichmann; Doug and Walter Shorenstein; and David and Melvin Simon.

Written in an informal, conversational style, each chapter explains the art of the investment and how to avoid common, costly mistakes. As Bergsman states in the introduction, "Reading this book will not suddenly transform a Clark Kent of real estate investing into a land-owning superhero, but it will help you lessen the risks involved in buying and selling property."

Bergsman explains why this book may prove useful to many: "There are so many ways a real estate investment can go bad, especially if you don't know what you're doing."

His recounting of his own investment failure reminds the reader about the bottom line of real estate investing; Knowledge is power. It is not enough simply to have the resources to invest in real estate; it is also important and necessary to have the knowledge to reduce the risk of failure.

Bergsman stresses that, despite the monumental success of the mavericks featured in the book, real estate will always remain a gamble. It is up to the investor to boost the odds in his or her favor by adhering to the 12 Golden Rules, he notes.

Donald Trump, for example, is featured in the first chapter, entitled "Make a Good Deal." According to Bergsman, Trump is one of the most "successful real estate deal-makers of them all," and by following this first Golden Rule of making a good deal, Trump has built one of the most impressive real estate empires in the world.