My first book

Ha! Well, maybe. It's possible, right?

I mean, when I was in highschool I wanted to be a writer. But there was a healthy dose of practicality and a good salting of dreading poverty in my personal make-up. Here I was, good at math and science-y stuff, and somebody said "Engineers make good stable incomes!" so off I went. I mean, I could write on the side, but I certainly couldn't make engineering-type wages on the side!

12 years later and my sum total of writing happens in my blogs. Pft. I mean, that's cool and everything but it's not exactly soul-satisfying, you know? And somewhere in the last twelve years I've developed a fairly strong aversion to most fiction. Unless it is incredibly artistic and well-crafted, it just feels like junk food for the brain to me. And one thing I'm good at is self-assessment, and I know I will never be that writer. I'm not an artist, I'm a craftsman. There's a difference. So how can I write stories when my own writing makes me cringe?

Anyway, this post *IS* landlord-related, I promise. Rob has proposed that I write a book about our experiences in property investment. Obviously this would be a long-term project as how the hell can someone with 3 properties and 5 years experience write with authority?! So these are the chapters and title he's proposed:

Title: Minimum = Maximum Profit
"always put down min and eventually you have max"
chapter 1 - tell the story of the vision
chapter 2 - the research, the A word at the book store
chapter 2 - the first buy
chapter 3 - the change in plans
chapter 4 - the spreadsheet to buy or not to buy
chapter 5 - the circle of friends
chapter 6 - replacing people in the circle with better ones
chapter 7 - the long term spreadsheet
chapter 8 - min payments pay off
chapter 9 - max profits
chapter 10 - explaination of a hard road but acheiveable

Book 2 - Minimum costs = Maximum Tenants
chapter 1 - the beginning of the screening process
chapter 2 - the revising of application forms
chapter 3 - where to advertise
chapter 4 - advertise with the times
chapter 5 - etc
end of book - funny stories of your experiences

I think the end of book two would be fairly bulky.

Now obviously this is currently all a pipe dream, but I suppose it is possible. It would be a very personal type book, not dry and legal like most real-estate investment books. A lot of anecdotal information, directed at a Canadian audience, first-person-experience type information. A starter book for people who want to invest but think they can't/don't have the money/are afraid.