Book Review – “Fix Em Up Rent Em Out”

It’s not often that I get to read a book from cover to cover without being interrupted.  I guess that is just the nature of the retail business has me busy one moment and quite the next.  However, I just had the outstanding experience of reading a book that exemplifies the exact theme of this site.

The book that I am referring to is “Fix Em Up Rent Em Out” by Terry Sprouse.  As the name says it’s about learning to fix up properties with the intention of renting them and sometimes even selling them not only as away to make additional income, but as a hobby. 

The author Tery Sprouse wrote this book for the person with a limited amount of disposable income who wants to invest in real estate, but want to keep their 9-5 job.  He takes you through his experiences in real estate and really takes years off the learning curve.  Naturally since I am so into home repair I found those aspects of the book fascinating, getting to hear exactly how he approached each job even when he often had limited experience.  Of course the chapters of the book that talked about real estate as an investment were also very informative.

But this book is more than that, “Fix Em Up Rent Em Out” is about growing as a person while learning how to fix up properties which happens to be the exact same theme of this site.  The book is about life as much as it is home repair.  It’s about doing what you want in life and doing what you enjoy.  While the entire book was very well written and methodically went from chapter to chapter I especially could relate to chapter six, The Zen of Repairing Properties which talks about developing as a person by doing what you enjoy and living life on your own terms.

Terry really has a great philosophy on life!  In chapter 1 he talks about living life to the fullest and accomplishing in life the things that you really want to do.  He explains to you how to take your life in a direction that you want to go in even if what you want to do is not possible right now.  You really could get the feeling that he loves what he is doing and wants to share it with the world.

I recommend “Fix Em Up Rent Em Out” to anyone with an interest in home repair, but for anyone who has ever wanted to invest in real estate as a hobby and has never been quite sure how to go about doing so this book is a must read.  You can get a copy by simply following the link on the right side of this blog’s home page.