Ken McElroy's Story

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Ken McElroy is an expert in the investment and management of rental properties. He knows real estate and he understands the business principles that surround it. Since the mid '80s, Ken has been honing his skill and his perspective of what it takes to be successful as a property investor. As the owner, along with his partner, of many of the nation's most well-managed rental properties, Ken is always in motion. He's not a guy who sits still easily, and that's an understatement.

That's why, when Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame, asked Ken, who is one of his advisors, to put down on paper for a book his decades of knowledge about investment real estate, Ken realized if he was ever going to do it, he'd need some help. After an initial meeting with Ken, three truths became clear. First, Ken is a real estate genius. Second, he had developed a no-nonsense approach to evaluating a property's worth that anyone who wanted to be successful at this business needed to hear. And, third, he cared enough about others to feel a sense of purpose for writing this book.

Enter IMS. We got to know Ken. Then we helped him organize his thoughts and ideas. We helped him discover his true motivation, a motivation that is revealed throughout his book. And we helped put his knowledge, his techniques and his words—not ours—onto paper. The book, entitled, The ABC's of Real Estate Investing: The secret to finding hidden profits most investors miss, is a national Best Seller.

When Ken speaks of his first writing experience he actually calls it fun. "We had a great time at every meeting. It never felt like work. Or at least not the kind of work that I thought it would be." Ken and IMS worked collaboratively, with Ken talking and educating and IMS listening, asking questions and composing.

"Why wouldn't you want to consider a property that is severely run down? It seems it would have the most upside potential." Ken had a good reason. "What's really involved in a thorough property inspection?" Ken ran down a list. Those were the kinds of questions we asked, along with more routine ones like, "Why would anyone care about this?"

IMS stayed naïve on the subject of real estate investing purposely because we knew most of the readers of this book will be just like us. We put our hearts into theirs to feel their hopes and their dreams of financial freedom. We empathized with their fears and their apprehensions about making the leap and committing their life savings. This became part of the book's higher purpose: that an investor making the right decision could mean the path to financial freedom; and that uninformed decisions could just as easily lead to disaster. Ken's mission with the book was to help people make the best decisions possible.

If the task of writing went smoothly, the task of publishing went smoothly, too. According to the editor at Time-Warner, "This manuscript was the cleanest one I have ever received." That means fewer rewrites, less cost and faster turnaround to release in bookstores.

The acceptance and readership of the book is outstanding. If you ask Ken, he'd say the process and the product were well worth the effort even if the book didn't make the bestseller list. "This book will help people be smarter, see things clearer and buy property the right way." In fact, Ken, who truly is a real estate tycoon in the best sense of the word, has several more books "in him" as he says. "For me, my career continues to be my path to freedom: to spend time with my kids. To travel. And to have fun in my everyday work. I've achieved all that, and it feels good. But if I can do the same for others, that's the ultimate.

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