John T. Reed the Anti-Guru, Guru

John T. Reed has an interesting website and real estate investing career. Reed is the author of numerous books on real estate investing, all of which are available only by ordering from his website. One of the more interesting pages on his sprawling, mostly text website is his opinion page on real estate gurus in which he skewers the vast majority of them. He uses relentless logic and evidence gathering to produce sometimes banal, at other times surprising details on many real estate investing gurus. Whether you agree or disagree with him, think he is a crank, overly critical, obsessive, or has scrupulous integrity, his points are thought-provoking.

TW: Small-Scale Property Management Software

Tech Watch has an article on rental property management software from Quicken: Quicken Rental Property Manager, launched earlier this year, offers a simplified and relatively inexpensive alternative to full-scale property management solutions. This program for Windows PCs�which offers a bare-bones approach to property management for tracking the income, expenses, and all the tax-related activity�is the first of its kind to meet the needs of small-scale property management at an affordable price. (The software is available in CD-ROM or via an online download for $99.99.) �It�s designed for those who handle from one to 10 properties, but it can support as many as 50 rental units,� says Andrew Reback, Intuit group product manager for Quicken Rental Property Manager…’ Other ‘sophisticated’ (and more expensive) solutions mentioned in the article are: Yardi System Inc. Residential Property Management, W.G. Software Inc. Tenant File, and MRI Residential