The Missing Keys to Thriving in Any Real Estate Market by Eddie Godshalk

About the Author:

Eddie Godshalk bought his first investment houses in 1987, where he was a licensed agent in the Eastern U.S. From those humble beginnings, Eddie has gained more than 20 years of real estate investment, business development and mortgage experience. Recently, Eddie gained praise for his ability to help average investors generate exceptional wealth using his revolutionary Home Value Predictor web-based real estate system.

Eddie received his MBA from San Francisco State University (SFSU) with a focus on building automated valuation models (AVM’s) and real estate finance. Using the Home Value Predictor technology, Eddie has purchased numerous properties with little money down, netting greater than two thousand percent return on equity investment per property.

After collecting more than four years’ worth of micro block data, Eddie and a team of SFSU and Berkeley PhD’s tested and back-tested algorithms. After testing more than eight mapping software applications, from Open Source to ESRI, the latest public version of Home Value Predictor was launched in mid 2009.

Eddie is committed to bringing the most accurate, reliable and relevant information to the real estate market Home Value Predictor is poised to redefine the way we think of real estate in the 21st century.

Visit his website at http://www.homevaluepredictor.com/


About the Book:

“The Missing Keys to Thriving in Any Real Estate Market - How to Create Wealth in Any Community Using Street Analysis Technology"

It is risk reduction blueprint for Investors and Real Estate professionals who want to be experts in their local market and make more sales. Readers will learn how to and where to get current accurate info and not be mislead by the media and create wealth using break-through mapping technology.

The housing crisis and financial crisis was caused by a lack of current local information. Just ask your broker or banker, what was the job growth or migration in my Zip Code (or any Zip Code) last month or quarter, and see what they say. More importantly, ask them how will these variables, or any other micro-market variable, affect price changes in the future. And see what they say.

I am a leading authority on current, local real estate info. And author of “The Missing Keys to Thriving in Any Real Estate Market”. My competition is Case-Shiller, which you can buy for a min of $250 for a few counties at Economy.com. And only covers macro markets, which has HUGE errors at the micro-market and block level. Consumers, investors, and bankers, all can benefit with current local information and forecasts, and thus, make more profits.

With the assistance of PhD’s from UC Berkeley and others, Home Value Predictor has developed Future Value changes, on over 350,000 micro-markets, forecasting out as long as 24 months, with confidence levels. We expect to launch in Aug.

To find out more go to http://www.homevaluepredictor.com/

I was lucky enough to get the author to agree to an interview. This is what he had to say:

Could you please tell us a little about your book?

“The Missing Keys to Thriving in Any Real Estate Market - How to Create Wealth in Any Community Using Street Analysis Technology" It is risk reduction blueprint for Investors and Real Estate professionals who want to be experts in there local market and make more sales. Readers will learn how to and where to get current accurate info and not be mislead by the media and create wealth using break-through mapping technology.

Did something specific happen to prompt you to write this book?

In the 1980’s I perceived myself as being in a situation of medium to high distress, or which I could not leave or change. So I decided to study every book and every guru in real estate to establish my financial security so I could affect change. In the 1990’s, after accumulating enough wealth and liquid assets to “retire” I found out that an attorney embezzled my funds which led to the loss of everything, and many losses and pain of my employees. From hear I evolved and was lead to getting my MBA at SFSU with a focus on Automatic Valuation Models. But just having an accurate predictive model, and list of potential listing, does not answer the basic questions or risk and returns. Thus I have been passionate about developing an accurate prediction model and bringing current local information to everyone, so that no one else has to go through the pain that I or my fellow investors have.

Who or what is the inspiration behind this book?

Besides the above, after searching and buying data from various vendors and having software developers write programs to capture information, I realized that some of the valuable and pertinent information is not available to Realtors or consumers. And as a salesperson (I am a licensed real estate agent), if you are going to be good in sales, you have to know your product, which for a Realtor, is knowing real estate. But ask any real estate professional any basic info that is not related to sales information, and see what they say. Ask them what was the latest job growth, migration, business growth, disposable income, or practically any local variable that will influence the future of real estate in any area, and see what they say. Ask them any economic or demographic variable that will influence prices in the future for a Census Block Group, Census Track, or Zip Code, and see what they say. And all these variables are way to many to put into any book, so I have been invested in developing my web site www.HomeValuePredictor.com which has as this information, so any Realtor can be a local expert, and anyone can make smart real estate decisions.

What cause are you most passionate about and why?

Besides the history of my past, mentioned above, what drives me is knowing what I know, and knowing that very few, even smart economists and real estate “gurus” do not know what I know. And lately there have been a lot of new real estate sites, like www.Zillow.com and www.Trulia.com and www.RealtyTrac.com which provide some information to customers and people on the Internet, but they do not provide the most valuable current local information. This is darn surprising to me. In general the current Internet sites and portals just recycle the same old, same old, information from the limited MLS and title information, adding nothing really new of value. I know, with www.HomeValuePredictor.com and getting the word out, a lot more people can be helped, and make smarter real estate decisions.

Who has influenced you throughout your career as a writer?

As someone who has been involved fairly heavily in real estate, and real estate investments, initially I studied the courses of many of the top real estate gurus of the time, such as: Robert G. Allen, Jack Miller, Bob Bruss, Jimmy Napier, and Bill Nickerson. But I noticed that all these “gurus” as does all academic courses in economics and valuation have very little information at the local level. So not only are the gurus missing current local information in there teaching, but so is all real estate classes and all classes taught by universities and schools. Thus my influence still boils back to finding a way to better deliver this local information and help others make smart real estate decisions.

Do you have any advice for writers or readers?

Once you understand what is missing and what is possible, never making a decision where capital is at risk, without current local information. As long as you understand why things have not worked in the past, and what is missing, you will win. And if you have something is working, stick to it, but keep in mind, as more and more people have access to the Internet, and more and more people are hungry for the right information, things will change. My hope is that with my book and www.HomeValuePredictor.com things will change a lot for the better.

What do you feel sets this book apart from others in the same genre?

Well I emailed one of the co-authors and teachers at the seminars of Robert Kiyosaki, Ken McElroy, and he said “The timing is good for this book; the professional investor is most active when the market is down.” And I would add, that in these times, having current local information, is even more critical, since no longer can an investor or homeowner simply “luck out” and assume or just guess that their investment will go up in value. I also talked to the author of The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate Investing, and Spencer Strauss did not even know what a Census Block Group was, nor know how to find local information. I find this sort of funny and interesting.

You know the scenario – you’re stuck on an island. What book would you bring with you and why?

Well, I cannot honestly say I would bring my book, unless I could leverage it with some island beauty or something. I would probably bring one of my favorite books from graduate school, David Macaulay’s book titled The Way Things Work, since I may have to build things, and David’s book in a good explanation, with cool pictures and how to build some basic inventions. It is instructive and entertaining, and a good resource.