As I have written many times before, I hate Donald Trump. But as I discussed in my review of Trump Style Negotiation, his unfortunate status as the most prominent figure in real estate has attracted some great collaborators for his books. A book with Trump's name on it sells better than a book by someone nobody's heard of and, consequently, some of the best real estate minds you've never heard of have lent their work to Trump's name.

Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received is a perfect example of this. Basically, this book contains 100 short essays written by some of the most successful real estate people in the world, all sharing the best piece of advice about the business that they ever received.

Happily, the book is free of get-rich-quick charlatans like Robert Kiyosaki, and includes passages from the likes of Barbara Corcoran, Robert Boykin, and Steve Bollenbach. If you've never heard of these people, that's the point: they're real real estate tycoons who've focused on creating wealth and value rather than ego trips, unlike the man whose visage appears on the cover.

True: a lot of the advice is trite and obvious. But it's a book that you can't read without learning something, which is more than can be said for most investing-related books.

If you're more interested in stocks than real estate, check out Liz Claman's very similar book The Best Investment Advice I Ever Received: Priceless Wisdom from Warren Buffett, Jim Cramer, Suze Orman, Steve Forbes, and Dozens of Other Top Financial Experts.

It's a buyer's market, they say. You can get a house for a really low amount of money, they say. In fact, they say, it's a wonderful time to purchase a home.

(Who are they? I'm not sure, actually. But I know that they say this sort of thing a lot, and besides, it's a useful device we writers employ when we don't quite know how to begin writing.)

Anyway, I've been wondering -- with banks tightening their policies for lending and being reluctant to give anyone a loan, is it really a buyer's market if people aren't given home loans so they can buy?

Ernestine Crews is the founder and president of eCrews Enterprises, which is what she calls a wealth building academy and opened last month. And Crews, who hosts "The Road to Wealth and the Guide to Financial Freedom" on KLSX-FM in Los Angeles, says, "The easy lending with low FICO scores -- the party is over. If you don't have prestige 700-plus credit, you're going to have a difficult time."

Well, sure, tell me something I don't know.

But then she did.

Recently, Bournemouth became the first English city to get a new form of super-fast internet. While that's great news for the 88,000 homes and businesses that will get new 100 Mbps connections, the real news is how they're going to get it. H2O Networks Ltd, the company that's funding the project, will be bringing the internet cable through Bournemouth's sewer system.

While I appreciate the humorous potential that a sewer-borne internet system offers, the truth of the matter is that this is an amazingly brilliant idea. Having spent years dealing with incredibly slow dial-up connections, I finally sprung for a cable connection when it came to my neighborhood. In addition to the considerable monthly cost, I also had to pay to have the cable laid across my (landlord's) lawn. Now that I live in the big city, I don't have to shell out cash to have cable laid, but my area of the Bronx only has one internet service provider, which means that I'm stuck with paying the monopoly rate for my internet.

Mortgage expert David Reed invites Walletpop readers to ask him questions about real estate financing. leave your questions in the comment section of this post.

Rates over the past few months have been volatile, to say the least. I recall one day where mortgage rates on a 30-year fixed rate loan went up nearly 1/2% in one day. That's a rare occurrence, but not unheard of. Rates can move throughout the day based upon a variety of economic or political factors but the fact that they do move requires a portion of prudence when it comes to qualifying.

Realtors, lenders, even your beer buddies acknowledge the importance of getting pre-approved by a lender before you go shopping for a home. When you do so you can shop in confidence. That is unless you were pushing debt ratios to begin with while mortgage rates hovered near 5 1/2%, like they did last March. Now, rates are closer to 6% and if you got pre-approved for a home loan a couple of months ago and are still shopping you might want to contact your lender and make sure you can still qualify.

This is especially true for those who might have been pre-approved for a mortgage to buy a brand new house but the builder isn't finished with your new abode. A lot can happen over several weeks, shoot, a lot can happen in the course of a business day. If you're pre-approved, it pays to contact your lender to find out how high rates can go and still keep your pre-approval. If you make an offer on a house and rates have gone up, you might be in for a sad surprise.

Real estate finance expert David Reed is president of CD REED Mortgage Bankers in Austin, TX and author of Mortgage Confidential: What You Need to Know That Your Lender Won't Tell You and Mortgages 101: Quick Answers to over 250 Critical Questions About Your Home Loan.

The Real Estate Adviser on Bankrate.com has answered an important question from a reader: Does a registered sex offender living in your neighborhood affect your home's value? The unfortunate answer is "yes."

One study found that a sex offender within one-tenth of a mile of your home makes your house sell for about 17% less than comparable homes without a sex offender in the neighborhood. If a sex offender is within two-tenths or three-tenths of a mile from your home, expect a 9% to 10% lower sales price. A separate study found that homes within one-tenth of a mile of a sex offender only sold for 4% less than comparable homes.

Even though there is a range of numbers presented, it's clear that the presence of a registered sex offender in your neighborhood will have an impact on the sale price of your home. It's no wonder. What parent would buy a house in close proximity to a registered sex offender? For most parents, that's too big a risk to take when you know your child will want to play outside during summer.

This is a good time to remind buyers to check registries to see if a sex offender is living in the neighborhood you're considering. If you can't locate a registry, check with the local police station for guidance on sex offender registration. You want to make an informed choice before you buy a home for your family.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

When I was about 10 years old, I went to an abandoned property auction at a local self-storage place with my mother. We thought it would be a fun end to a long day of yard-saling. It was anything but. It was cold and rainy, and it was one of the more depressing experiences I've ever had. An old and sickly auctioneer went from unit to unit, auctioning off the contents by the lot, with no time for any kind of inspection. People bid $10 or $15 for a chance to acquire someone's property because they couldn't pay the $50 a month to keep it. Notably, a large collection of Jackson 5/Michael Jackson memorabilia went to auction after the family failed to pay its storage bill.

With foreclosures hitting record rates around the country, many former homeowners are packing their life's accumulations into storage units. But the financial woes that made it impossible for them to keep their homes are making it tough for them to keep their stuff in storage.

According to a self-storage center manager quoted in a New York Times piece, an increasing number of people are also trying to (illegally) live in their storage units.

Last weekend, my wife and I went to Roosevelt Island, which we had never visited before. While checking out the ruins of a former smallpox hospital and the gorgeous cherry blossoms that line the shore, we also happened to look over at the U.N. headquarters. We were horrified to discover just how dingy and nasty the structures were. While the U.N. has always been a little strange looking, it was starting to get downright grubby. The beautiful blue Secretariat tower looked grayish, and the General Assembly building, which was once gleaming white, now resembled a scuffed sneaker.

Apparently, the interior is also showing its age. Constructed in the early 1950's, the buildings have exposed asbestos insulation, dripping pipes, leaks, and lead paint. Although the U.N. is on international territory, and is thus not required to comply with New York City safety codes, it racked up an amazing 866 violations during a courtesy inspection last year. After years of spirited debate, the headquarters has finally been scheduled to undergo a massive, $1.9 billion renovation, which is expected to take five years.

Rather than find short-term housing elsewhere, the United Nations has decided to construct a gargantuan pre-fab building on the North Lawn of the complex. Ultimately, the U.N. hopes to return the North Lawn to its current, empty, state, so the new home has been designed to be "intentionally ugly," in the same style as "a Costco or a Wal-Mart." The cost of dismantling the eyesore has been factored into the overall project budget. Hopefully, this will ensure that the temporary building will be just that: temporary.

Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and all-around cheapskate. Having spent much of his childhood in "temporary" classrooms constructed from trailers, he hails the U.N.'s decision.

As the old joke goes, the three most important things in real estate are location, location, location. That having been said, with the plummeting real estate market, it might be time for some intrepid would-be homeowners to start thinking outside of the box, so to speak. With that in mind, here is a list of five abandoned places that are in in need of loving residents and an influx of dough. If you move quickly, you might just be able to make one of these undervalued wonders into your next home sweet home!

Bethlehem Steel: Once one of the largest steel mills in the United States, the Bethlehem Steel Mill in Lackawanna, New York is located just outside of Buffalo. Although attempts have been made to reopen it, turn it into a museum, or use it for wind farming, it has been abandoned since it closed in 1995. While this might not be your ideal vision of the perfect home, the "architectural details" include massive coke ovens, pipes, furnaces, and other remnants of its industrial past. For the modern minimalist decorator, it's a dream come true!

North Brother Island: Rich with history, North Brother Island has been the home of a hospital, veteran's housing complex, and drug treatment center. Most interestingly, this 13-acre island housed Typhoid Mary for over 20 years. It even features in New York's second-worst tragedy, the destruction of the General Slocum, a steamboat disaster that claimed over 1,000 lives. Located in the East River, North Brother is mere miles from the bustling heart of New York City, yet is totally abandoned. In addition to being highly-valuable, albeit overrun, real estate, North Brother Island has an Island of Dr. Moreau quality that will delight the mad scientists and feral survivalists in your family.

Today a fellow blogger pointed me to this blog post, which basically shows a 50% price cut for homes in a California neighborhood. One home was sold for $855,000 in April 2006, and now two houses down, a similar one was listed for sale at $400,000 in April 2008.

The writer of the blog says, "Mr. Bernanke, that'll be $455,000 to keep the poor folks at 4565 Casa Nova from foreclosing, thank you very much kind sir."

But whose fault is it really, that there is such a disparity in home prices over two years? What if the real value of each home always was in the $400,000 range? Doesn't that just mean that the buyer from 2006 was stupid and overpaid for his home? Why do we automatically assume that it is the fault of the government that someone's house isn't valued high enough?

There is still talk of a second economic stimulus package from our federal government, this time it may be focused on helping homeowners in danger of foreclosure. Those in favor of it say it's necessary because foreclosure negatively affects children. I don't disagree that a child can be upset when he or she has to move out of their home. The child may have to change schools, may have to make new friends, and may lose connections made with neighborhood kids.

What I think is more upsetting, however, is having parents who put the child in such a situation. Parents should be parents. The government should not have to be the parents... the government should not be bailing out homeowners who got in over their heads. Parents should be making a conscious decision to put their child's needs first, and that includes offering the child a stable home life and place to live.

Let's face it: The answer to the problem is not to have Uncle Sam come to the rescue of people who bought more house than they could afford. The real answer is to have them dig themselves out of their problems, and hopefully learn an important lesson. Our government can't bail out every problem. And it certainly isn't fair to make taxpayers foot the bill for those who are in foreclosure.

Tracy L. Coenen, CPA, MBA, CFE performs fraud examinations and financial investigations for her company Sequence Inc. Forensic Accounting, and is the author of Essentials of Corporate Fraud.

The housing market was given a huge boost in recent years by lax lending standards that enabled a ton of people to buy houses that they never should have been able to using gimmicky mortgages. The result has been record foreclosures, and lot of people who pursued the American Dream are regretting it. Now they're back to renting and a lot of people witnessing the carnage are wondering: Is homeownership really worth it?

In a column in Parade, Mike Hammer lists 4 "great reasons to rent": renting can save money, homeowners' tax deductions are overstated, there are more options available to renters, and renting gives you flexibility. Hammer writes:

According to popular myth, renters are just throwing their money away. But the reality is that when you buy a home, you're paying for closing fees, mortgage interest, property taxes, private homeowners' insurance and maintenance -- costs that return nothing on your investment.

Back in October, The Federal Reserve released a startling -- and widely ignored -- study showing that a large chunk of recent home buyers know almost nothing about their mortgages. Here are some findings from the Fed's survey:

• 25% could not identify the APR on their mortgages.
• 25% didn't know how much they spent on settlement charges.
  
• 50% didn't even know much the loan was for.
  
• Two-thirds were unaware of any prepayment penalties.
  
• 75% did not recognize that the loans included charges for optional credit insurance.

Major, major props to Forbes' Josh Zumbrun for digging this up. Zumbrun adds that "It's a point you don't hear much about. Yes, lenders maliciously tricked borrowers, and yes, frenzied speculators bought houses they knew they could not afford. But it's just as true that a lot of well-intentioned people simply signed mortgages they did not understand."

We have already covered recession proof jobs and recession proof demographics, but now you can find recession proof cities to live in. Forbes has compiled a listing of the top ten cities to weather out a recession in. The study looked at 50 different metro areas in the U.S. and based the ranking on many factors including unemployment data, non farm job growth and median home prices. Forbes didn't just look at static data to determine these top cities, they also looked at projections based on a November 2007 study regarding metro areas and the current economy adding more value to the list overall.

Just because these ten cities from San Jose to Raleigh are predicted to weather a recession well, doesn't mean you should call up U-Haul and plan you move just yet. If you are already settled down in a city with a job and your house isn't going into foreclosure anytime soon the move may be more trouble than it is worth. On the other hand if you are looking for a fresh start or you just graduated these cities might be the best places to focus your search for a slice of the American dream.

If we were going to pick up and head to any of these metro areas to get through the recession it would definitely be San Antonio. Not only is it a spectacular city, the housing market is doing well and it has good employment numbers. The biggest downside to picking up and moving to a recession proof city is that you will likely be paying more for a house in the strong local market and taking a hit trying to unload your current home in small-town USA.

More and more, home sellers are using non-traditional real estate service companies to sell their homes, and I wonder if this says something about the future of real estate agents.

Up until several years ago, a home seller had to list their home with an agent if they wanted their property to be a part of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). And most sellers wanted to be a part of MLS because that's how the majority of homes were advertised and sold.

But now there are discount brokers and real estate service companies that offer home sellers the opportunity to be a part of MLS at a much lower cost. Many are featuring "a la carte" pricing, so sellers can pay for exactly which services they want, but often save significant money when compared to traditional real estate agent commissions.

Try to hold back your tears. The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription required) that "Faced with sinking property prices and heavy legal fines, he has abandoned a multimillion-dollar home in suburban Los Angeles and let it lapse into foreclosure."

It seems that the deflation of the steroid-enhanced housing market is hurting baseball's most infamous drug abuser.

The decline and fall of Jose Canseco has been pretty remarkable to watch, and the players whom he accused of steroid use in his bestselling -- and heinously bad -- books have to be looking on with more than a little bit of schadenfreude.

For a great look at everything that is wrong with Canseco, check out this wonderful piece from DeadSpin.

For more on celebrity foreclosures, check out this awesome blog. Here's the foreclosure listing for Michael Jackson's ranch.