Recommended Reading: Two Years to a Million in Real Estate by Matthew Martinez

As a real estate investor, you are never quite finished learning. Every deal comes with it’s own unique challenges, making it ever more important to constantly stay up to date with the latest trends and information. Part of this effort includes reading real estate related books. Most investors will say that the book that got them into real estate in the first place was Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. While this was a great book that did open up my eyes to the power of wealth building and entrepreneurship, it wasn’t until I read Two Years to a Million in Real Estate by Matthew Martinez that I realized the power of real estate as a wealth-building, financial freedom giving vehicle.

I first picked this book up in late-2008 when the economy had essentially plummeted into what we all know as The Great Recession. I had just started working at Yahoo!, fresh out of college when I experienced my first “lay off.” While I myself was not laid off, seeing most of my coworkers being let go was a reality check for me, in that my world seemed a lot less “stable” than I’d expected as a young professional. This book came to me at the right time, and I identified with the author because he too had worked for a major tech company, Lycos.com, during the initial Dot Com Boom/Bust of the early 2000s. He documented his journey to replace his salary over the course of 2 years by investing in income producing property, after being exposed to the instability of working as an employee in a major corporation. Although it took me a lot longer to achieve the financial freedom that Matt received after 2 years, I was also able to acquire enough properties to replace my salary at Yahoo! and quit shortly thereafter. This book gave me the drive to be able to escape a life of hard work with small reward and a high degree of instability, to one with the potential to build real wealth. I recommend this book to any newbie investor looking to get into the rental business.

Today, Matthew Martinez is a full-time investor and commercial broker who happens to live in my home town of Miami, FL. His company, Beacon Hill Property Group, works with a number of well-known commercial clients and is constantly brokering deals throughout S. Florida.