Real Estate Broker Writes a Novel Novel : Publishing: In Joseph DeCarlo’s book, the protagonist--and the reader--learn the basic principles of buying and selling property.

The literary world has given us comic novels and adventure novels, dramatic works and fantasies. Lately, there has even been a run of business-related novels. So perhaps it is time the business world gave something back.

Enter Joseph W. DeCarlo, a Costa Mesa real estate broker, property manager, community college instructor and author of perhaps the world’s first real estate novel.

DeCarlo has just published a 282-page paperback that he describes as “an educational, romantic novel interwoven with basic principles and concepts of real estate, allowing the reader to enjoy and learn simultaneously.”

In brief, the book by the Coastline Community College real estate professor follows nascent real estate broker Megan Marlowe as she interacts with her new boyfriend and guru, John; her analyst, Simone; her mother, Marie; and other friends and business associates.

The reader rolls along with Megan as she learns all about property exchanges, accrued depreciation, gross rent multipliers, curb appeal and even alligators--an industry term for income properties that cost more to run than they bring in.

In this sampling from “Real Estate Adventures, Principles & Practices,” Megan has just had a heart-to-heart with her analyst:

Megan left Simone’s office feeling pensive, but her outlook had definitely improved. It was raining as she walked the four blocks to the parking lot, but she didn’t seem to notice the rain running down her face. When she finally got home and hung up her raincoat, she felt so good that she decided to call her mother, Marie, and check up on her family.

“What’s wrong, honey?” her mother asked.

“Nothing’s wrong, Mom. I was just thinking about you,” Megan said.

“That’s nice. You just called to have a chat?”

“Yes. Yes, I did, Mom. Just to chat,” Megan said.

“Well, tell me about the real estate business, honey. What are you learning these days?”

“I’m glad you asked, mom,” Megan said, cradling the phone between her ear and her shoulder while she poured herself a cup of tea. “I’m learning that selling a property is not the end of a real estate transaction. Seldom do buyers pay cash for a building, but they make a down payment, which usually varies from 5% to 30% of the selling price, and then they finance the balance. Did you know that, Mom?”

And so it goes, for 12 chapters: from Life Before Real Estate through The First Deal, Appraisals, Financing, Taxation, Serving the Client and on to Office Politics and Procedures and finally, New Horizons in Real Estate.

That last chapter deals with the brave new world of real estate in the wake of the national savings and loan industry collapse. “Cram downs,” “Resolution Trust Corp.,” “Financial Cleansing” and the ever-popular “Cockroach Theory,” all are concepts that Megan--and the reader--must tackle and come to grips with as the heroine reaches reaches maturity in both her professional and personal lives.

DeCarlo, who published the book himself through his Costa Mesa-based JD Seminars & Publications, also includes footnotes in each chapter explaining the real estate concepts that pop up. He illustrates dialogue about real estate finance with charts and step-by-step examples of the procedures being explained; and adds a glossary and samples of real estate forms at the back of the book.

It’s a novel sort of novel.

DeCarlo said it took him 2 1/2 years to bring the book to print.

“It only took four months to write it,” he said. “The rest of the time was spent figuring out how to make my main character a nicer person.”

The difficulty, DeCarlo said, is that Megan as originally written was a tough, aggressive woman and there was some sex thrown in between the real estate information.

“But these days,” he said, “you have to make sure you are politically correct. I had a lot of women in real estate read those chapters, and they didn’t like them. So the published version is cleaned up.”

There is romance, but any sex is left to the mind of the reader. And instead of starting as a tough newcomer who softens and becomes more considerate as her career progresses, Megan now starts the book as a nice but pretty unschooled young woman who becomes sharper and more successful as she pursues her education in real estate.

“The lesson is that success comes with education,” said DeCarlo--always the teacher.

This author isn’t in the Howard Stern-Rush Limbaugh category--he’s only printed 300 copies--but DeCarlo is no marketing slouch, either.

His first book, “Property Management in California,” is a textbook that is used in real estate programs in 45 community colleges in the state.

He said he has sent copies of his latest, “Real Estate,” to a number of community college instructors and already has received orders from two of them and expects to close four or five more deals by the end of the year.

Although they only average 30 of the $14.95 books each, “the nice thing about college orders,” said DeCarlo, “is that they renew at the end of every semester.”

DeCarlo said he has also sent a copy of the book and a lesson plan to the state’s Department of Real Estate and hopes to get the book certified for nine units of continuing education credit for realtors who read it and can later pass a test on its content in a correspondence course.

“It’s a great career book,” he said. “It goes through what you need to know, what you need to do and even what you can expect” at each stage of a real estate transaction.

Thomas Maybry, manager of the Department of Real Estate’s education section, said he is two-thirds through the book and finds it “a creative and imaginative way to teach real estate . . . it does a good job of bringing the practices and principals of real estate to the student.”

As to the novel’s literary merit: “I’m not really qualified to comment,” Maybry said, adding that he sees no reason that DeCarlo’s proposal to use the book for continuing education for realtors won’t be approved.

And with 115,000 realtors in the state--each of whom needs to complete 45 units of continuing education every four years--that’s a lot of potential sales.