Terry Painter is a member of the Forbes Real Estate Council and is a contributing writer for Forbes Online Magazine. He is the founder of Apartment Loan Store and Business Loan Store – commercial mortgage banking firms that have closed over four billion dollars in commercial loans since 1997. Terry has personally closed hundreds of commercial real estate loans representing just about every type of commercial real estate. As a top producer for Lasalle Bank and Lehman Brothers, he is known for his real estate investment consultations and tactics. For 18 years Terry has spoken nationally to commercial real estate investor groups, real estate brokers, and banks about commercial real estate investing and lending. His book “The Encyclopedia of Commercial Real Estate Advice: How to Add Value When Buying, Selling, Repositioning, Developing, Financing, and Managing” covers everything anyone would ever need to know on the subject from A to Z.

“The Encyclopedia of Commercial Real Estate Advice” begins with a Foreword from Peter Harris, who has worked with Terry Painter in the past and is the author of “Commercial Real Estate Investing For Dummies.” He explains that this book “is a serious, bottom-line book about making and modeling sound business decisions around buying and selling a commercial property.” In the Introduction, the author similarly states that it is full of advice on how to make the right decisions and avoid the setbacks that come with getting invested in commercial real estate, but mostly, it will save the reader time and money. It is divided into eight parts: Smart Strategies for Buying, Smart Strategies for Buyer Due Diligence, Smart Strategies for Raising Investors, Smart Strategies for Sellers, Smart Strategies for Repositioning, Smart Strategies for Developing, Smart Strategies for Financing, and Smart Strategies for Managing and Leasing. Each one starts with informative chapters and is followed by an encyclopedia that contains individual topics pertaining to the subject discussed. These encyclopedia topics serve as future refence material and commercial real estate terms that are in italics are included in this section. Throughout the chapters, there are 136 Time and Money Savings Tips and an Index at the end.

The world of commercial real estate investing can be complicated but Terry Painter does an excellent job of breaking down the subject into chapters and sections that anyone can understand. The result is exactly what the name implies: an encyclopedia of commercial real estate advice. It reads like a textbook and the chapters are divided by topic so that it also serves as a future refence guide. Overall, the language is down to earth, he uses the newly coined term “coronavirus recession” when discussing recessions, and he makes the subject matter easy to comprehend without sounding condescending or patronizing. At the beginning of each chapter, he describes the topics he will be covering and what the reader can expect. Highlights include Chapter 1: Who Are You When Buying a Commercial Property?, section: ‘The lowest-risk property types to choose’ where he lists the major commercial property types in the order of their level of risk during a recession which includes: mobile home parks, senior housing, and medical office buildings; and Chapter 12: Smart Strategies for Managing and Leasing which has important sections on ‘Eleven Ways Property Managers Can Rip You Off’ (and how to remedy each situation) and ‘Seven Essential Property Management Skills’ among those being customer service, problem solving, and negotiating. He makes it a point to stress that “nothing is truly recession-proof” but includes the 10 best recession proofing strategies on page 31. It is a gem among real estate business books. “The Encyclopedia of Commercial Real Estate Advice” is an impressive collection of commercial real estate advice and a must-read for investors of any level. It is recommended for readers who are genuinely interested in commercial real estate investing and need more information as well as those who do not know where to start or how the process works.

“The silver lining for commercial real estate buyers is that recessions turn seller’s markets into buyer’s markets and bring prices down…”

*The author received a copy of this book for an honest review. The views and opinions expressed here belong solely to her.