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

Chapter titles include: History, Folklore and Key People of the Day, Apply Common Sense and Expose the Nonsense, Wear the Buyer’s Hat, Wear the Seller’s Hat, Wear the Agent’s Hat, All Properties Speak for Itself How Price and Value Really Work Measuring Emotions, Feelings, and Perceptions Using Scoring System and Worksheet Searching for Competitors and Identifying Factors Gathering and Interpreting Data Raw Land Apartments Properties commercials, Farm and Ranch and Arcade, Fast Thoughts, Down and Dirty, Free and other stuff. Additional features are acknowledgments, a preface, an introduction, an afterword, a 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.