Top 26 Best Commercial Real Estate Books Updated 09 /2023

One of the best ways to learn about investing in commercial real estate is to read books about it.

During the first few years of my job, I read every commercial real estate book I could get my hands on.

Every now and then, I've been asked to put together a list of my favorite commercial real estate books. So I did, and here it is:

These books are full of information from people who have worked in commercial real estate for a long time: brokers, investors, syndicators, and developers. If you go to class, you'll not only learn how to invest in real estate, but you'll also learn what not to do, which is often just as important.

So, if you want to learn more about commercial real estate investing, here are the 10 books you need to read:

Crushing It in Apartments and Commercial Real Estate: How a Small Investor Can Make It Big

by brian murray

Crushing It In Apartments and Commercial Real Estate is a great book for people who are just starting out in commercial real estate investment. Brian Murray did a great job of writing it. His start was not in the industry. He bought commercial real estate as a way to make extra money, not as a way to make more money. This book is one of the first that I recommend to people who are just starting out in commercial real estate investing because Murray gives real-world advice. In this class, you'll learn how to find commercial properties, get a basic idea of how to finance your deal, and how to start and grow as a one-man business.

"How a Small Investor Can Make It" by Brian Murray: Crushing it in Apartments and Commercial Real Estate: How a Small Investor Can Make It by Brian Murray

Crushing It In Apartments and Commercial Real Estate is a great book for people who are just starting out in commercial real estate investment. Brian Murray did a great job of writing it. His start was not in the industry. He bought commercial real estate as a way to make extra money, not as a way to make more money.

This book is one of the first that I recommend to people who are just starting out in commercial real estate investing because Murray gives real-world advice. In this class, you'll learn how to find commercial properties, get a basic idea of how to finance your deal, and how to start and grow as a one-man business.

how to Succeed in Commercial Real Estate

by john l. bowman

How to Succeed in Commercial Real Estate was the first commercial real estate book I read when I started out as a broker. It helped me learn a lot about how to be a good commercial real estate broker. Bowman's book talks about how to lease and sell commercial property, how to handle negotiations, and what kinds of commercial real estate there are.

Commercial real estate brokerage isn't going to be the best path for most commercial real estate investors, but having a good understanding of how brokerage works will help you better manage your leasing, acquisition, and disposition teams. Using this book, you'll be able to understand the different types of leases and commercial contracts, as well as how to deal with commercial brokers. It also talks about things like appraisal and zoning.

The Book on Rental Property Investing: How to Create Wealth and Passive Income Through Intelligent Buy & Hold Real Estate Investing!

by brandon turner

For real estate investors, BiggerPockets is probably the best place to go for help. Turner's book is mostly for people who want to invest in residential real estate, but many of the principles he talks about can also be used when investing in commercial real estate.

In The Book on Rental Property Investing, you'll learn how to start making money through real estate. You'll learn how to do things like buy a house, rent it out, and rent it back. Turner tells you about how he finds and analyzes deals, how you can build a team to help you find and buy more properties, and how you can make sure your money is safe.

Best Ever Apartment Syndication Book

by joe fairless & theo hicks

I found Joe Fairless and Theo Hicks on their podcast, the Best Real Estate Investing Advice Ever Show. I first found them there. Putting together money from private investors so you can take down bigger apartment complexes than you could on your own is what they're all about.

Book: The duo gives advice on how to find apartment deals, get money, and run a successful multifamily real estate business in their book. Their step-by-step guide is great for both experienced commercial real estate investors and people who are just getting started. It's good for both. He went from making $30,000 per year to owning more than $572,000,000 worth of multifamily real estate. Many novice real estate investors can relate to this.

The How to Add Value Handbook for Commercial Real Estate: Generate More Income from Your Investment Property

by brian hennessey

When you invest in commercial real estate, value-add is one of the most common ways to improve your investment and make more money. Brian Hennessey walks you through a lot of different ways to improve your investment and make more money.

There are a lot of important things to know about commercial real estate in this handbook. You'll learn how to price your rental properties, find better tenants, hire property managers, and set up your lease rates. One of the things I like best about Hennessey's book is that he gives examples of letters of intent, lease forms, and tenant applications that you can use.

If you want to learn how to raise the value of your commercial real estate, this is the book for you.

The Millionaire Real Estate Investor

by Gary Keller with dave jenks and jay papasan

There was a real estate company called Keller Williams founded by Gary Keller. He is now a billionaire because of his investments in real estate. Keller and his co-authors do a great job of explaining how to invest in commercial real estate.

Think big when it comes to building your real estate empire. You need to believe you can do it and think bigger. When you read The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, you'll learn about how to set the right mindset, how to set up your own investment criteria, and how to build the best team possible to help make this dream come true.

A lot of millionaire real estate investors were interviewed by the authors of this book. They give you the strategies they used to become rich in real estate.

 

Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time

by jeff speck

Walkable City is my favorite commercial real estate book, hands down. Even though it's not a book about real estate investing, I think it's the best one out there.

Jeff Speck is a city planner who has looked into how important smart growth and sustainable design are in cities. In fact, these are the things that make a city thrive or die.

Speck says that the most important thing for a city to be sustainable is how easy it is to get around. Walkability makes cities more attractive places to live and good places for businesses to grow. It's time to go on a journey through urban planning and design. Speck shares his inspiring vision for how living in the city can save not only our country, but the whole world.

What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow... And 36 Other Key Financial Measures

by frank gallinelli 

It's very important to have cash flow in real estate, and Frank Gallinelli gives you a step-by-step guide to making money from your home. Learn how to do math and underwrite deals so you can figure out how much a property is worth, as well as whether or not the deal is right for you and your investment needs.

This book has a lot of examples of real estate investments, and it talks more about the technical side of real estate investing than most commercial real estate books talk about. You'll learn how to do math for these deals, like Discounted Cash Flow Rates, Net Present Values, Cap Rates, IRRs, and how to figure out how much cash you'll get back.

The Real Estate Game: The Intelligent Guide to Decision Making and Investment

by william j. poorvu with jeffrey l. cruikshank

The Real Estate Game is one of the commercial real estate books on this list that may be the most in-depth guide to investing in real estate that you can find. William Poorvu is a professor at Harvard Business School. He is an Adjunct Professor in Entrepreneurship, Emeritus, and he also teaches there.

Poorvu talks about how people, property, capital markets, and the outside world all play a role in and shape real estate deals, all while comparing investing to a game. You can use Poorvu's "back-of-the envelope" method to figure out how much money a deal makes.

Raising Private Capital: Building Your Real Estate Empire Using Other People's Money

by Matt faircloth

In order to take your real estate investing to the next level, you'll likely need to raise money. Matt Faircloth's book, Raising Private Capital, gives you a plan for how to do that, so you can do it.

How to find people who are willing to put money into a deal and build your empire without having to spend all of your money It's true that raising money for your investments means you won't own as much of the deal. But wouldn't you rather have 10% of ten deals than 100% of one deal?

In this book, you're given a detailed plan for how to get, secure, and protect private money for your projects. As a bonus, you'll learn how to structure your deals with debt and equity so that you can get high-quality investors to buy into them.

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