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eather you are a real estate investor, real estate agent, real estate developer, real estate appraiser, or any other part of the real estate industry. You need textbooks from the experts to guide you through the foundational material. Much like school, where you are starting with understanding the vocabulary, definitions, concepts of the trade. This list of the best textbooks on real estate will help you develop an impactful mind on the real estate industry.
Best Textbooks on Real Estate: THE LIST
1. Practical Guide to Real Estate Taxation |
2. Modern Real Estate Practice |
3. Essential of Real Estate Law |
4. Investment Analysis for Real Estate Decisions |
5. Property Management and Managing |
6. Essential of Real Estate Finance |
7. Fundamentals of Real Estate Appraisal |
8. Real Estate Math Demystified |
9. Everyday Ethics in Real Estate |
10. The Miracle Morning for Real Estate Agents |
11. Mastering Real Estate Principles |
12. Real Estate Finance & Investments |
13. Essentials of Real Estate Economics |
14. Real Estate Transactions, Finance, and Development |
15. Will, Trusts, and Estate Administration |
16. 21 Things I Wish My Broker Had Told Me |
17. Real Estate Principles |
18. Foundations of Real Estate Financing Modeling |
19. Real Estate Brokerage |
20. Foreclosures, Short Sales, REOs, and Auctions |
1. Practical Guide to Real Estate Taxation | By David F. Windish
Practical Guide to Real Estate Taxation is CCH’s highly successful practical guide to the federal tax consequences of real estate ownership, operations, and activities. This updated Seventh Edition is the most accessible and affordable reference available for all tax, real estate, and investment professionals who need to know the tax ramifications and underpinnings of real estate investment. Recent regulations, tax rates, and rulings are reflected throughout, along with other developments impacting the taxation of real estate. Practical Guide to Real Estate Taxation begins by analyzing the tax basis of real estate and then offers a comprehensive discussion of the forms of ownership with comparative benefits and pitfalls of the differing types. Mortgages, at-risk rules, interest, and other financial issues are thoroughly covered. Activities involved once ownership is established are then discussed, including rental/leasing arrangements, tenant’s rent deduction, landlord’s income, lease acquisition and cancellation, leasehold improvements, and investment credit considerations. The book thoroughly examines the actual operation of real estate, including coverage of operating expenses and taxes, mixed-use residences, startup expenses, and real estate taxes, plus guidance on additions and improvements, depreciation, development, and related issues. An in-depth focus on passive activity loss rules is included, as well as a separate section analyzing homeowner issues. Finally, the disposition of real estate is covered, along with a special discussion dealing with securitized real estate investments.
2. Modern Real Estate Practice | By Fillmore W. Galaty (Author), Wellington J. Allaway (Author), Robert C. Kyle (Author), Martha R. Williams
Modern Real Estate Practice has trained more than 3 million professionals since 1959. Updated to reflect current legislation and market information, and to include the newest forms and web resources, this text and its ancillary products will provide you with the best foundation possible to launch your real estate career. Each unit includes an overview of contents that highlights the topic and explains how it relates real estate law, regulations, and principles to the practice of real estate. Additionally, the included QBank gives you the ability to create customized tests from hundreds of questions.
3. Essentials of Real Estate Law | By Steven A. McCloskey and Ann Cantrell
REAL ESTATE LAW FOR LEGAL PROFESSIONALS is an accessible, complete, and easy-to-understand introduction to the principles of real estate law. Using actual cases and examples — many drawn from the author’s extensive experience as a real estate attorney and instructor — it covers all the concepts and issues that paralegals and real estate professionals should understand. Areas of coverage include estates in land, concurrent ownership, landlord-tenant law, rights, duties, restrictions, transfers, real estate sales, lending, title searches, closings, deeds, mortgages, promissory notes, condos, coops, homeowner associations, and real estate development and investment. Each area is first introduced with a high-level overview that sets the stage for the deeper coverage that follows. Effective learning is promoted through chapter outlines, actual and hypothetical cases, definitions of key terms, review and critical thinking questions, and other pedagogical features.
4. Investment Analysis for Real Estate Decisions, Comprehensive Guide on Real Estate Investing | By Bennie D. Waller Jr. (Author), Phillip T. Kolbe (Author), Gaylon E. Greer (Author)
This text provides one of the most thorough analyses of contemporary real estate available on the market. Apply mathematical principles including probability, risk analysis, value relationships, and market efficiency to make informed decisions when leveraging investments. Coupled with the companion text, Real Estate Finance, this textbook provides an unparalleled breadth of real estate knowledge to ensure you stay ahead of the variables of the market.
Features:
- This book has been designed to be used in tandem with Real Estate Finance, another textbook written by the same authors
- An ongoing case study, expanded and enhanced for this edition, allows you to apply new skills as you learn them to a life-like investment scenario
- Review questions ensure you have retained and understood the material in each unit
- Discussion questions allow you to synthesize the information in each unit and use it in new ways
- End-of-unit problems enhanced and expanded for this edition, provide an opportunity to work through large-scale simulations and math exercises
- Appendices provide a closer look at challenging topics, including financial mathematics, financial calculators, and like-kind exchanges
- Internet references direct you to the best online resources for investment tools and information
- Publisher: Dearborn Real Estate Education
5. Property Management and Managing | By Robert C. Kyle (Editor), Marie S. Spodek (Editor), Floyd M. Baird (Editor)
This edition offers the most current and thorough introduction and overview of the property management profession available on the market today. This practical discussion explores daily issues facing practitioners, such as maintenance, accounting, administrative, and legal activities. It also has up-to-date content on federal regulations, such as civil rights, fair housing, ADA issues, and environmental concerns. The flexible format provides you with case studies, sample forms, and review questions to enhance your understanding of property management concepts.
Features:
- Updated examples and case studies relevant to today’s real estate market that illustrate key points and concepts
- Each unit includes a summary of important points and review questions with answer rationales.
- It contains information on managing tenant relationships, generating operation and financial reports, running a successful property management office, advertising methods, and the importance of social media
- The updated text reflects current laws, legal cases, and case studies pertaining to current market conditions
- Publisher: Dearborn Real Estate Education
6. Essentials of Real Estate Finance | By DREI Doris Barrell, GRI
This dynamic textbook combines solid concepts of real estate finance, but it also gives you a solid foundation for a career in real estate. Essentials of Real Estate Finance can help you professionally advise clients and help prospective buyers understand what options are available. In this text, you will learn about monetary systems, primary and secondary money markets, and sources of mortgage loans. You will also learn about federal government programs, loan applications, processes and procedures, closing costs, alternative financial instruments, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, the Community Reinvestment Act, and the state housing agency.
Features:
- Given the complexities and options involved in finance, this book breaks down the process into an easily readable text
- Answer keys with rationales provide a full understanding of fundamental concepts
- Unit summaries and review questions reinforce key concepts and terms
- Key real estate finance terms are highlighted and clearly defined throughout each unit
- Publisher: Dearborn Real Estate Education
7. Fundamentals of Real Estate Appraisal | By Jr. Ventolo, William L. (Author), Martha R. Williams (Author)
Fundamentals of Real Estate Appraisal is a classic text in the field, first published in 1975 and still updated by the original authors. The latest edition of this best-selling text provides a strong foundation for understanding the modern real estate appraisal market.
New discussion includes the modern appraisal office, gross living area, the division of outdoor spaces, the concept of curb appeal, interior house design, landscaping plans, Historical Landmark Designation, retrospective value, and financial calculators.
Key Features:
- Includes learning objectives and unit review questions.
- Covers the basic principles and procedures requirements of the Appraiser Qualifications Board.
- Binding: Paperback
- Publisher: Dearborn
8. Real Estate Math Demystified | By Steven Mooney
Real estate math ESSENTIALS that really ADD up!
Interested in becoming a real estate agent but you’re not a math whiz? Are you a real estate investor looking for investment analysis techniques? No problem! Understand and handle real estate transactions and analysis with confidence using this well-organized guide. Real Estate Math Demystified will provide you with the knowledge to analyze real estate from a variety of perspectives, including that of the buyer, seller, lender, and appraiser.
You’ll start with an overview of basic math principles to refresh your memory and improve your overall math proficiency. More challenging material will help you obtain your broker’s license and prepare for actual real estate practice and investment. Other topics covered include commissions, mortgages, calculations, appreciation and depreciation, property taxes, appraisal methods, and much more.
This fast and easy guide offers:
- An explanation of the importance and use of Time Value of Money
- Exercises for calculating mortgage payments
- Various methods for appraising property
- Breakdowns of closing statements from purchase/sale transactions
- Discussions of various lease scenarios and rent types
- Real estate investment and cash flow analysis
- Drawings and tables to enhance understanding of required real estate math calculations
Simple enough for a beginner, but challenging enough for a more advanced student, this book is your shortcut to success in the lucrative field of real estate.
9. Everyday Ethics in Real Estate | By SDearborn Real Estate Educ (Author)
The fourth in a series of ethics courses, this title reflects the latest information from the Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice of the National Association of REALTORS (NAR). This title meets NAR’s requirements for new members to complete ethics training and continuing members to complete quadrennial ethics training.
10. The Miracle Morning for Real Estate Agents | By Hal Elrod, Michael J. Maher, Michael Reese, and Jay Kinder
This powerful review guide offers the latest and most comprehensive information available to help you prepare for the Pearson VUE real estate licensing exam. Based on the latest Pearson VUE content outline, this text features over 1,000 exam-style review questions, including five review exams, for countless hours of drill and practice exam preparation.
11. Mastering Real Estate Principles | By Gerald R. Cortesi
Carefully Developed to Assist Learning and Retention of Real Estate Principles
Mastering Real Estate Principles, 7th Edition features review exercises and more than 500 review questions with rationales so you can test your knowledge, monitor your progress, and identify areas that need additional work. The outline format will make it easy to master the basics necessary to pass your real estate licensing exam.
Topics Covered:
Introduction to Real Estate
Real Estate Law
Real Estate Ownership
Transferring Real Estate
Real Estate Brokerage
Real Estate Valuation
Real Estate Finance
Property Management
Tax Advantages of Home Ownership
Real Estate Investmentseer in real estate.
12. Real Estate Finance & Investments | By William Brueggeman, Jeffrey Fisher
The Fifteenth Edition of Real Estate Finance and Investments prepares students to understand the risks and rewards associated with investing in and financing both residential and commercial real estate. Concepts and techniques included in the chapters and problem sets are used in many careers related to real estate. The material in this edition is also relevant to individuals who want to better understand real estate for their own personal investment and financing decisions.
13. Essentials of Real Estate Economics | By Richard Betts and Monte Cicino
This practical-approach book is intended for real estate students who have little or no background in formal economics. It presents complex topics in a simple manner to provide the basics of real estate economics. It starts with the big picture and then narrows in on city patterns and growth, markets for various property types, governmental impacts, newest tax laws, zoning, and anticipating change. Highlights of this edition include: – Streamlined topics and combined chapters for easier comprehension – Added discussion on essential topics such as supply and demand, inflation, and business cycles – Updated regulations to reflect the newest tax law changes, especially on capital gains rates – Restructured chapter on anticipating a change to look at short-term and long-term outlooks.
14. Real Estate Transactions, Finance, and Development | By George Lefcoe
This book focuses on the purchase, sale, financing, and development of real estate and the significance of legal rules and institutions at various stages of these transactions. Arranged in clearly labeled, self-contained chapters, it allows maximum flexibility for professors to tailor assignments to the needs of various courses, such as:
An introductory Transactions or Conveyancing course, covering the work of real estate brokers, purchase and sale contracts, deeds and closings, recording acts, titles insurance, and realty contract remedies;
- A Mortgage Law course, with emphasis on loan fundamentals and practical aspects of dealing with defaults, foreclosures, bankruptcy, and workouts; and
Advanced courses in selected topics concerning realty development and finance, including financing development, construction contracts, mechanics’ liens, development profitability, real estate offerings as securities, public/private partnerships, land use settlements, federal income taxation of real estate, commercial leasing, and leases as financing instruments.
15. Will, Trusts, and Estate Administration | By Jennifer Montante
Wills, Trusts, and Estate Administration for Paralegals provide a comprehensive overview of estate planning and probate in a manner that is straightforward and easy to read and understand. Instructor resources include an Instructor’s Manual, PowerPoint lecture slides, and Test Bank, while a book companion site offers study resources for students.
Teaching and Learning Experience:
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Includes frequent hypotheticals to illustrate key concepts and features.
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“The Hypothetical Family” is a running example introduced in Chapter 1 and continued throughout each chapter to exemplify a fictional, but life-like, estate planning, and probate scenario.
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Drafting assignments are provided in each chapter, as well as the forms for every assignment.
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Covers all of the major topics, including ethical considerations, and offers solid review and application of concepts
16. 21 Things I Wish My Broker Had Told Me: Practical Advice for New Real Estate Professionals | By Frank Cook
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In the second edition of this best-selling book, Frank Cook provides even more hands-on advice from top-producing real estate professionals to help new agents get their start, or maintain, a successful career in real estate. The second edition offers practical tips for fast-tracking your first transaction, developing a marketing strategy, successfully dealing with competitors, and much more.
Highlights:
Interviews and real-life insights from the real estate industry’s most successful and top-producing brokers and agents. Revised and updated technology chapter offers a jargon-free explanation of the hi-tech options available today. The new appendix outlines the nearly 200 elements of a real estate transaction in a quick, at-a-glance checklist. New end-of-chapter tips offer practical, take-away advice and highlight key concepts.
17. Real Estate Principles | By David Ling and Wayne Archer
Real Estate Principles: A Value Approach demonstrates how value is central to virtually all real estate decision-making. Students using Ling and Archer should finish the course with a value-oriented framework and a set of valuation and decision making tools that can be applied in a variety of real-world situations. The key to making sound investment decision is to understand how property values are created, maintained, increased or destroyed.
Since the launch of Real Estate Principles: A Value Approach, significant and lasting changes have come upon the world of real estate. This is very true in real estate finance and capital sources where most of the traditional lenders have been transformed or displaced, giving way to a radically different set of players in mortgage finance. There has been change with profound and far-reaching implications in a world where it is understandable that property values can go down as well as up. This realization will color every aspect of real estate investment, finance and transactions for the foreseeable future.
18. Foundations of Real Estate Financing Modeling | By Roger Staiger
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE BOOKS BY THE MOTLEY FOOL
Foundations of Real Estate Financial Modelling, Second Edition is specifically designed to provide the scalable basis of pro forma modeling for real estate projects. The book introduces students and professionals to the basics of real estate finance theory prior to providing a step-by-step guide for financial real estate model construction using Excel. The book introduces an innovative new financial metric, P(Gain), which quantifies the probability of a Return of Capital and answers the most basic question for investing, “What is the probability I get my money back?”
This new second edition has been fully revised and expanded. The book is separated into three functional units: (1) Real Estate Valuation Basics, Theory, and Skills, (2) Real Estate Pro Forma Modelling, (3) Real Estate Pro Forma (Enhancements). New and enhanced Chapters cover:
- Interest rates
- Amortization
- Single- and multi-family unit
- Development module
- Rent roll module
- Waterfall (equity bifurcation)
- Hotel, retail/office, and townhouse.
In addition, this new edition includes problem sets and solutions at the end of each chapter as well as case studies underpinning the chapter topics. Further chapters are dedicated to risk quantification and include scenario, stochastic and Monte Carlo simulations, equity waterfalls, and adding U.S. GAAP financial statements to existing real estate pro forma models.
This book is the ideal textbook for a Real Estate Finance class, providing the theoretical basis of real estate finance as well as valuable modeling skills for the workplace. This book provides individuals with step-by-step instructions on how to construct a real estate financial model starting with a new spreadsheet. The resultant model is portable, scalable, and modular. A companion website provides the pro forma models to readers as a reference for their own constructed models.
19. REAL ESTATE BROKERAGE| by Laurel D. McAdams and Joan M. Sobeck
The most comprehensive real estate brokerage title available offers an applications-oriented approach to becoming more effective managers, leaders, and communicators. This edition reflects innovation, which is most apparent in digital media and all the associated tactics and risks (including Internet security and identity theft), as well as the influence of generational diversity in contemporary business practices.
This practical guide also highlights new trends in professional development, including formal mentoring and cross-training programs, and developments in civil procedures, including RESPA, antitrust, and employment law issues. This textbook is a complete “how-to” for starting and maintaining a real estate brokerage business. Features:
- Comprehensive coverage of contemporary business topics provides the solid topical background needed to pass the real estate licensing exam and maintain all aspects of a real estate brokerage business
- Publisher: Dearborn Real Estate Education
21. Foreclosures, Short Sales, Reos, and Auctions (Tools for success in today's market) | By Ted Highland (Author), Sandy Williams
The book summarizes the many options available to sell & purchase distressed housing. It is primarily geared for real estate professionals, & serves as an introductory course. Topics Include: Chapter 1: Foreclosures—An Introduction Chapter 2: Identifying the Short Sale Property Chapter 3: Marketing the Short Sale Listing Chapter 4: Short Sale Contracts Chapter 5: Making the Sale with Loss Mitigation Departments Chapter 6: Who to Contact? Asset Management Departments Chapter 7: Purchasing Lender Owned (REO) Properties Chapter 8: Broker Auction Procedures Chapter 9: Client Auction Procedures
Final Thoughts on the Best Textbooks on Real Estate Agents
Real estate textbooks are the industry standards for those who desire to dive deep into the field to gain a thorough understanding of all sorts of real estate concepts; foreclosures, short sales, development, brokerage, financing, real estate principles, wills, trusts, other legal concepts, transactions, economics, and many other concepts of the industry.
Happy reading!
Do you want to learn more about the “Best Textbooks on Real Estate Agents,” Check out the Best Textbooks on Real Estate.
Also, check out the Best Books on Real Estate Sales, Best Books on Real Estate Agents, Best Books on Wholesaling Real Estate, or the Best Books on Real Estate Agents.

Meet Maurice, a staff editor at Bigger Investing. He’s an accomplished entrepreneur who owns multiple successful websites and a thriving merch shop. When he’s not busy with work, Maurice indulges in his passion for kayaking, climbing, and his family. As a savvy investor, Maurice loves putting his money to work and seeking out new opportunities. With his expertise and passion for finance, he’s dedicated to helping readers achieve their financial goals through Bigger Investing.