PEOPLE OUTSIDE THE REAL ESTATE MARKETPLACE OFTEN look with a shade of envy at the investor who holds half a dozen income-producing properties and calculates his or her net worth in the millions. "Boy! She's lucky!" they say. Or "Man! Everything he touches turns to gold." And it's true--sometimes there is a stroke of good luck or even a hint of the Midas touch in a person's real estate investment story. But it's never the whole story.

Success in any field is usually the result of talent and experience, not to mention hard work. The enabling power behind talent and experience, however, is the mastery of certain concepts and strategies essential to working in that particular ...