Untold Secrets – How the Real Estate Market Really Works By Kerry D. Bodily

Untold Secrets: How the Real Estate Market Really Works By Kerry D. Bodily, Gabriel Publications, 14340 Addison St., #101, Sherman Oaks, CA 91423, ISBN 160026011X , 978-1600260117 , $19.95, 160 Pages, 2006

Untold Secrets: How the Real Estate Market Really Works is Mr. Bodily’s companion book to his software system that prices and values all forms of real estate. His value model features utilizing today’s competition versus the existing model of using yesterday’s sold comparable properties. Written in an easy-to-understand style, lay people outside the industry can gleam important strategies to implement when purchasing or selling a home. The author’s trio of chapters on wearing a buyer’s, seller’s and agent’s hat places the reader in all three modes, that often are down-played by tunnel vision real estate transaction participants, are especially relevant.

Chapter titles include: History, Folklore, and Today’s Key Characters, Applying Common Sense and Exposing the Nonsense, Wearing the Buyer’s Hat, Wearing the Seller’s Hat, Wearing the Agent’s Hat, All properties Speak for Themselves, How Price and Value Really work, Measuring Emotions, Feelings, and Perceptions, Using the Rating System and worksheet, Finding the Competitors and Identifying the Factors, Assembling and Interpreting the Data, Raw Land, Apartments, Commercial, Farm and Ranch, and Recreational Properties, Quick, Down and Dirty Thoughts, Free and Other Stuff. Additional features are acknowledgements, preface, an introduction, epilogue, disclaimer, and an author biography.

Recommended for home buyers or sellers, agents, appraisers, brokers, educators and franchise managers in transitioning real estate markets. I found this book a good guide for real estate consumers to gain an overview of the residential real estate industry.