Though it débuted three years ago, Jeff K. Johnson’s self-published book, “Cash Flow Forever – The Real Secrets of Real Estate Investing” has been garnering noteworthy attention just in the last year or so.

Much of that, says the 61-year-old president of Black Commercial Inc., of Spokane, has to do with the fact that he and staff at affiliate NAI Black, the Spokane-based commercial real estate brokerage and property management company, have made a more concerted effort to promote the book.

The promotional effort received a boost in March 2015 when Kirkus Reviews magazine gave a favorable review of Johnson’s work. 

Writes Kirkus, “This debut guide’s promissory title may smack of get-rich-quick innuendo, but it instead takes a straightforward, low-key approach to real estate investing.”

“In another chapter,” Kirkus goes on to say, “Johnson takes direct aim at people who pitch the notion of buying property with little or no money down: ‘Nothing-down deals give an investor a larger monthly payment—and big headaches—if everything doesn’t go exactly as planned,’ he counsels.”

The book was first listed on Amazon.com for purchase in early 2013. It’s available in paperback form and also electronically and as an audiobook. Amazon lists the paperback for $16.95, an electronic version for $6.99, and the audiobook for $24.99.

The book to date has sold nearly 4,000 copies in paper and electronic form, says Johnson, who declines to reveal revenues generated by the book.

“I would describe my book revenues as modest but growing,” he says.

Johnson says there were 900 electronic downloads of the book during the first quarter of 2016. Since Kirkus Reviews’ report on it last year, the book has been averaging roughly 100 sales per month, he says.

Exposure from the book last year also led to a multimillion dollar project for his partners and NAI Black. Johnson says promoting Black Commercial and NAI Black also were motivating factors for writing the book.

He says his desire to write a book stemmed from the fact that for nearly the last 40 years he has been asked frequently for real estate investment advice. A licensed Realtor who has worked in the real estate profession since 1975, he now specializes in the sale, leasing and development of office buildings.

Johnson says his goal was to write a book that was simple and easy to read.

“The title might be a little misleading because it’s not a get-rich-quick book,” he says, adding that that’s the overriding theme of most real estate books. He also says most real estate books are so overly technical that readers often get lost.

“I felt there was a need for a book that was very practical and easy for anybody to pick up,” Johnson says.

Through his mentors, the real estate philosophy he has learned and refined is this, “Buy or build a good building, treat your tenants as valued customers, take good care of your building, use your cash flow to pay your mortgage off, and then you have cash flow forever,” he says. “It’s not a buy-and-flip scenario.”

Johnson’s online resume says much of his work through the years has included helping Fortune 500 companies with purchasing and selling corporate real estate. Johnson is also a managing partner in numerous real estate investment partnerships, the online resume says.

Johnson says he’s currently working on another book he hopes to self-publish next year specifically about how to lease, buy, or develop office buildings.

Of his current piece, he says, “This book has proven to be the best business card I could hand somebody. If I don’t sell any books, it’s still been a home run.”

A group of local real estate investors approached Johnson about an investment opportunity after reading the book. That contact led to Johnson helping Black Commercial develop a $3.4 million office building now under construction at 5901 N. Mayfair on Spokane’s North Side. 

Half of the 10,000-square-foot building will be occupied by Spokane Occupational Therapy, which is relocating from its current North Side site at 111 E. Central. NAI Black is seeking tenants for the remaining space. Bernardo|Wills Architects PC is the project architect, Johnson says. The building is scheduled to be completed later this year.

Separately, Johnson and Jeff McCloskey, owner of McCloskey Construction Inc., are developing a $7.2 million, 72-unit apartment complex in Cheney at 1030 W. First. The complex is slated to have 18 studio units with 500 square feet of space, 18 one-bedroom units with 672 square feet of space, and 36 two-bedroom apartments with 928 square feet or 1,044 square feet of space.

Johnson says that project has a total of 17 partners with a financial stake in the apartment complex. Since 1980, Johnson says he has established more than 50 such partnerships in Spokane and the greater Inland Northwest.

He says the biggest key to his success as a real estate investor has been to search actively for other successful investors to learn from.

“I’ve had quite a few good mentors, but my first mentor, Frank Takes, made me get a spiral notebook and told me to write everything I learned,” says Johnson, who at the time was working as a janitor in his home state of Iowa. “I’ve been writing ideas and thoughts down for 40 years.”

Johnson says over the years he has frequently been asked for advice. Finally, almost a decade ago, he gathered all his notes and begin writing the book.

Johnson wrote a lot of the book during the country’s economic recession. He thinks the financial advice he’s acquired through the years is fundamentally sound regardless of economic conditions.

As the real estate industry recovered, though, Johnson says he had less time to promote the book.

But with a combination of the positive public feedback generated from Kirkus Reviews, and a rebounding economy, Johnson suddenly is receiving more speaking-engagement requests from real estate investors here and across the region.

He had a reading at Auntie’s Bookstore downtown in March, and spoke before the Financial Planners Association of Spokane in May. He also has been asked to speak before a group of Spokane-based residential real estate agents representing an organization called the Young Professionals Network, and a Portland-based group of commercial real estate professionals has contacted him about speaking there later this year, he says.

Although he touched on it in his book, Johnson says that he has been impressing upon audiences the idea that real estate investing is “scalable,” meaning in this context that it can be suitable for properties of different size and scale.

He often cites the example a friend of his named Chris whose parents purchased and paid off two residences in Port Townsend when they were younger.

“Now their adult children rent these two homes. In Port Townsend, they probably get $1,200 to $1,500 per month. That money now contributes substantially to the cost of Chris’s mom’s long-term care in a retirement home,” Johnson says.

At the high end, Johnson says he has a client who generates monthly revenue of $50,000 per month from his portfolio of properties.

“He has a very comfortable retirement through many years of acquiring and paying off his real estate,” Johnson says.

He says there are a variety of different ways to get involved as a real estate investor. There’s the route of buying a rental home and soliciting for tenants.

“That is not for everybody because it takes time and effort,” he says. “You can be a silent partner and put funds in.”

Johnson says when he and his business partners began real estate investing they were of the mindset that they didn’t want to own and manage rental homes.

“But we pooled our money together, bought properties that were a little nicer and had them professionally managed,” Johnson says. “At first we chipped in $1,000, then $5,000, $10,000 and now we’re up to $100,000.”