How to Invest in Real Estate: Review (2026)

This is the book BiggerPockets wrote for the person who has decided to invest in real estate and has no idea which kind. It is a map, not a route — and judged as a map it is good, provided you understand that is all it is.

Snapshot	Details
Authors	Brandon Turner and Joshua Dorkin
Publisher	BiggerPockets Publishing
First published	2018
Purpose	Choosing a strategy, not executing one
Structural bias	Every strategy is presented by someone who does it

What it is for

The book surveys the main ways to make money in residential real estate — rentals, house hacking, flipping, wholesaling, BRRRR, small multifamily, notes, syndication as a passive investor — and for each explains roughly what it involves, what capital and time it needs, and what kind of person it suits.

That is genuinely useful, because the most expensive beginner mistake is not picking the wrong deal. It is spending two years half-committed to three strategies at once. A book that helps you eliminate four of seven options quickly has earned its price.

The authors are also honest that the strategies are not equivalent in difficulty. Wholesaling is presented as low capital and high effort with a real learning curve, not as the shortcut it is usually marketed as. Flipping is treated as a business rather than an investment.

The structural problem

Because the book covers many strategies drawing on many practitioners, each chapter is written by or around someone who has succeeded at that strategy. Nobody is arguing against their own lane. The result is that every option sounds workable, which is exactly the impression a beginner does not need.

The book will not tell you that in your market, at your capital level, three of these are not realistic. That judgement is left to you at precisely the point you are least equipped to make it.

Where it is thin

No depth anywhere. By construction. Each chapter is an overview, and you will need a dedicated book for whichever you choose. That is a fair trade, but it means this book has a short useful life — read it once, decide, move on.

Financing coverage is generic and pre-2022. Nothing on DSCR loans, which have become the default for investors beyond conventional limits, and the rate environment behind every example has changed.

Short-term rentals are underweighted. In 2018 they were a niche. They are now a major strategy with their own regulatory risk, and the book treats them lightly. Short-term rental regulations by state covers what a current reader needs.

The market has become less forgiving. Several strategies here were viable at 2018 prices and rates and are considerably narrower now, particularly the versions that depend on thin cash-flow margins.

Who should read it

• Anyone at the very start who cannot yet name which strategy they are pursuing.
• Investors doing one thing who wonder whether a different lane suits them better.
• People who have absorbed a lot of podcast content and want it organised.

Who should skip it

• If you already know your strategy. Buy the specific book instead. This one will tell you things you know about a strategy you chose, and things you do not need about six you did not.
• If you want tactics. There are none here.
• If you have read three BiggerPockets titles. The overlap is substantial.

What to read next

Pick by whichever chapter you finished thinking about:

• Rentals — The Book on Rental Property Investing
• House hacking — House hacking with an FHA loan
• BRRRR — BRRRR real estate investing guide
• Flipping — The Book on Flipping Houses
• Apartments — Financial Freedom With Real Estate Investing

Or start from Best real estate books for beginners, which sequences the whole shelf.

Final take

A good orientation book with a deliberately short shelf life. Read it in one sitting, use it to eliminate the strategies that do not fit your capital, market and temperament, then buy the specific book for the one that survives. Do not mistake having read it for knowing how to do any of this.

This review is part of the best real estate investing books library — 40+ titles ranked by the decision in front of you.