Diary of a Real Estate Rookie: My Year of Flipping, Selling, and Rebuilding and What I Learned (The Hard Way!) »

The founding editor of the New York Post real estate section, Alison Rogers now works as a real estate agent and writes the weekly column “Diary of a Real Estate Rookie” for Inman News. She has written for Fortune Magazine, The New York Times, and Money Magazine, been published on Salon.com and in the New York Post, and spoken about real estate at the Brooklyn Real Estate Expo, the Harlem Home Fair, and the Learning Annex Real Estate Wealth Expo at the Javits Center.

With humor and grace—as well as an eye for the fabulous and outrageous—real estate rookie Alison Rogers offers an insider’s tale of the hottest real estate market in the country.

Expanding upon Rogers’ weekly national column in Inman News, Diary of a Real Estate Rookie chronicles a former real estate journalist’s wily adventures, from a gutsy attempt at starting a real estate business with only $16,000 to the (eventual) taste of sweet success. Along the way, Alison drolly relates her escapades, among them an attempt to flip abandoned shells in Newark and the rental of a Greenwich Village apartment to a famous movie star. Quirky and informative, Rookie offers real estate and financial advice in tandem with tales of suburban real estate agents, manicured New York trophy wives, and innocent ripe-for-the-plucking first-time buyers. Real estate rookies and seasoned vets alike will delight in Alison’s unique voice and perspective as she discovers her pathway out of corporate monotony to independent success in the real estate business.

Publishers Weekly

Rogers may be a real estate rookie, but her cheeky dedication "to Rupert Murdoch, whose refusal to pay me a decent wage launched me on the adventure of a lifetime" is the first clue that she's no newbie to writing. A founding editor of the New York Postreal estate section, Rogers is now a real estate agent and columnist who tells the story of her first year of business, and her first year of marriage, with a sharp wit and relaxed style that really sparkles. "It is a story of failure, and tears, and immense love," she says, adding, "Don't worry, there are some pretty tricked-out luxury condos along the way." That pretty much sums it up, but the book doesn't just rely on funny turns of phrase: it also provides plenty of working advice, including tips on handling lowball offers, staging the sale of a bohemian apartment and talking to your realtor. Those looking for some good information on the real estate industry in a book that doesn't feel like homework will be hard-pressed for a better choice. (June)

Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information

Introduction: (An Idea of What You're Getting Into)     1
Prologue: (In Which the Author Explains Her Midlife Crisis and Her Confidence That She Can Found a Business with {dollar}16,000)     5
New Jersey
Back to School: (A Harvard Grad Gets the Beginnings of a Real Estate Education)     13
Learning to Drive: (Where Our Heroine Gets Asked for Heroin)     17
The Sheriff's Sale: (How Foreclosures Really Work)     21
Going Broke: (Precious Little Work, Worth Precious Little)     27
Media Inc.: (My Rich Client with the Jaguar Shops for a Summer Home)     33
Cramped: (An Outline of My Predicament)     39
A Wreck of a House at Christmas: (What the Crack Addicts Left Behind)     43
A New Year's Wish: (Meditations on the Death of Two Jersey Cops)     47
The Lowball Offer: (Trying to Knock a Seller into Reality)     49
The Estate Section House: (Tricks to Keep from Overpaying)     55
The "Come to Jesus" Letter: (Sometimes You Just Have to Punch Somebody in the Nose)     59
Shadowing Mr. Success: (A Jersey Broker's Tricks of the Trade)     65
The End of Jersey: (Admitting That "Flipping" Has Been a Total Failure)     69
New York
Class, Again: (A Harvard-Educated Real Estate Agent Learns about UFOs)     75
Taking a Listing: (Things Every Smart SellerShould Know)     79
Staging the Bohemian Apartment: (Where to Put the Bong before the Open House)     83
Why Cheap Rentals Suck: (Meditations on Why Big-City Apartments Are Such a Rip-Off)     89
Breaking into a Suburban House: (That I Just Happened to Own)     93
Testing, Testing: (Do I Have the Personality of a Successful Agent?)     97
Clients, 90210: (Young Buyers and How to Be One)     101
Sellers Are Liars: (Some New Rules for Advertising)     107
Homeaphobia: (Buyers' Failure to Commit)     111
Freaking Out: (Maybe I'm a Little Stressed)     115
FSBO Chaos: (One Apartment, Three Prices)     119
Back to Work?: (In Which I Am Offered What Ten Years Ago Would Have Been My Dream Job)     125
Bored of the Boards: (What the Internet Can-and Can't-Do for You)     129
The Wedding Anniversary: (Meditations on Our First Year)     135
It Starts at {dollar}10,000 a Month: (The Business of Luxury Rentals)     137
Sneaker Technology: (My First Rental-A Celeb! It Looks Like I Might Just Make a Living at This)     143
The Golden Gate: (The Real Estate Conference/Vacation)     147
Coffee and Condos: (Great Customer Service Can't Be Faked)     151
Letting Go: (The Emotional Side of Selling a Home)     155
Sorry I Hid Your Underwear: (When Life in the Big City Gets Mischievous)     159
The Closing: (Wrapping Up the First Sale)     163
Out to Lunch: (Business Heats Up, at the Expense of a Friend)     167
The Deal That Wasn't: (Originally Titled "Jackpot!")     171
More Tips From the Front Porch
The Four Cs of Real Estate: (Learn Your Tradeoffs So You Can Shop Wisely)     177
How to Talk to Your Realtor: (Who Should, Preferably, Be Me)     185
Now This Is Living: (A Meditation on the {dollar}10 Million Home)     195
Constant Renovations: (A House Is a Series of Leaks Held Together by Gutters)     199
Credit Score Myths and Facts: (Surviving a Three-Year Fight with Citibank)     203
Home Comforts: (Secrets to Coziness That Should Be Revived)     207
Acknowledgments: (Thank You Thank You)