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 lists and values ​​all forms of real estate. His value model presents current competitor usage versus existing model usage of comparable properties sold yesterday. Written in an easy-to-understand style, laypeople outside the industry can glimpse important strategies to implement when buying or selling a home. The author’s trio of chapters on wearing the buyer, seller, and agent hat places the reader where all three modes, often downplayed by tunnel-vision participants in real estate transactions, are especially relevant.

Chapter titles include: History, Folklore, and Key Figures Today, Applying Common Sense and Exposing 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 Competitors and Identifying Factors, Collecting and Interpreting Data, Raw Land, Apartments, Commercial , Farm and Ranch, and Recreational Properties, Quick, Depressed and Dirty Thoughts, Free and Other Stuff. Additional features are acknowledgments, 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 to be a good guide for real estate consumers to get an overview of the residential real estate industry.