Book excerpt: From the BusinessWeek bestselling author of Investing in Fixer-Uppers--a plan for building a real estate empire with little or no money down " Fixer Jay" DeCima, the acknowledged king of fixer-uppers, delivers a much-anticipated guide to realizing financial independence through real estate investing. Written in DeCima's trademark folksy style, Start Small, Profit Big in Real Estate provides a complete two-year plan for making it big in real estate starting with little or no money of your own. You'll learn how to: Scout out properties with the highest return Calculate the payoff versus the effort involved in any real estate investment Find motivated sellers who will finance your properties Use leveraging and compounding to utmost advantage Negotiate with sellers and win every time Make big bucks with rental properties