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| Home Buying For Dummies, 3rd edition | 
 enlarge | Authors: Eric Tyson, Ray Brown
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $21.99
Buy New: $8.63
You Save: $13.36 (61%)
Buy New/Used from $7.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  (95 reviews)
Sales Rank: 7648
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Edition: 3
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 408
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 7.4 x 1.1
ISBN: 0471768472
Dewey Decimal Number: 643.120973
EAN: 9780471768470
ASIN: 0471768472
Publication Date: February 6, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Buy this book! July 13, 2006
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I bought this book and "A Complete Idiot's Guide..." If you want in depth details on buying a home, then this is the book for you. The other one was too fluffy and general and didn't really explain anything. I knew NOTHING about buying a home and this book takes you step by step and teaches what you need to know. Should buy or rent? Are your finances in order? What can you afford? They answer all your questions before you even leave chapter 1!
It's a great book. It's very easy to read and understand and when you're done with it, you'll feel like a pro! I just bought my first home, and I own it all to this book.
Fantastic book! March 12, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
This book coupled with Ilyce Glink's "100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask" (2005 ed.) should cover all your home buying needs.
 Dependent Upon Region and Timing February 20, 2006
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
This book felt like a great resource as we read through it pre-purchase, but, as the process began to solidify, we were disappointed to find that rules and laws vary so much state to state that our information was either erroneous, not fully explained, or unrealistic. We just bought our first home (in Texas, so you have an idea of what area is completely inapplicable to the book) and could not find one real estate agent who even knew what an activity list was, let alone maintained one. We had a long list of questions for the sellers, but maybe 5 of the 50 were answered at all, let alone to our satisfaction. Granted, the books says "walk away" from things like this, but, when pressed into a homebuying timeline due to job relocation, who has the luxury of waiting? It is a great resource for those that have the time for a few dozen "walk aways," but, for the rest of us, it will be of little use. (Although, I use it now to remind me to kick myself when I find yet another thing that did not go according to plan.) Our first home purchase went surprisingly smooth and we love our new house, but I found little of that can be blamed on good content of this book.
Get yourself ready for your first home purchase February 1, 2006
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This excellent (and surprisingly quite comprehensive) home buying book guides us through the entire journey of home ownership including the saving of downpayment, clearing existing debt and cleaning up of credit scores, mental prep, the understanding and selection of different mortgage types out there(fixed rate, adjustable, 80-10-10 etc), different types of housing available (condos/lofts, single-family etc), insurance shopping, advice on home inspection and closing the deal, and even advice for preparing your home sale down the road.
It is extremely important that we buy our house at the right budget without overstretching ourselves or under-buying it and this book helps us in making the right financial decisions.
From what I have gathered from various home buying books and articles, we should opt for a 20% down payment (or at least 10%) and go for a fixed-rate mortgage (or hybrid mortgage if intend to keep for only 5-10 years) to avoid potentially disastrous financial risks down the road. Our true monthly payment for our home ownership is usually 40% additional of our monthly mortgage payments (since it includes our home ownership tax, insurance, maintenance etc), so we should be aware of it before taking the plunge. Buying a house with the intention of selling it for quick profits is usually a very risky proposition. Though it is difficult to time the housing market, it looks like it is cooling off recently. So if you happen to buy a house at its peak value, you might encounter a considerable loss if you decided to sell it after a few months or even a couple of years later. A quick word about tax breaks for home ownership. We should only consider our tax breaks as nice bonus and should not factor in the tax returns into how much house that we could afford to avoid biting too much house.
I highly recommend reading Suze Orman home buying guide http://biz.yahoo.com/pfg/e10buyrent/. Very informative read.
With this book, I am confident that we will be a much better informed buyer and make our home ownership experience a true American dream instead of a financial nightmare. Best of luck!
Straightforward and Realistic January 30, 2006
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is a great beginner's guide to home buying. The advice is straightforward and the explanations are easy to understand.
Buying a home is a scary and daunting prospect for me. I kept getting a lot of conflicting advice from relatives, friends, and coworkers on when to buy, what to buy, and how to buy. This is very frustrating as everyone means well, but what worked for them might not apply to me. And don't bother asking a realtor or mortgage company if you should buy--they make their living on our decisions to buy!
So I bought Home Buying for Dummies to learn more, and it has a lot of sound and thoughtful guidance to help decide when and how much to buy... And also how to find a good home, and then negotiate with the realtors, the sellers, the mortgage companies, and everyone else that is sticking their hands in your wallet.
The author's advice is realistic, and he points out the pitfalls of jumping in and what trouble you can get into with the different loan options out there.
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