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Build Your Dream House For A Song; and own it free and clear in five years.
 
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Build Your Dream House For A Song; and own it free and clear in five years. [Paperback]

David Noel Cook (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Price: $24.95 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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Book Description

March 1, 1998
REVIEW

"Dear Mr Cook, Thank you for writing this book. With the help of your techniques and sweat equity, we are living in our dream home and not affected by the recent housing market crisis." -- The Yang Family, California

"To assert that a house can be built 'for a song' may be slightly hyperbolic, but David Cook's book is so laden with intriguing, money-saving ideas that any owner-builder who uses just a handful of Cook's ideas is bound to save thousands of dollars on the construction of a house. Full of fascinating money-saving ideas..." -- George Ehrenhaft, author, The Builder's Secret

"Cook's book is the best advice we have seen for buying land at tax auctions and construction materials at salvage." -- Mark Smith, author, The Owner-Builder Book

BOOK DESCRIPTION

Build Your Dream House for a Song -- and own it free and clear in five years by David Noel Cook is a different breed of self-help book. Instead of step-by-step instructions, it offers an extraordinary strategy for building the house you've always wanted-whether it's a timber-frame retreat or a California contemporary. The author explains numerous tactics for saving tens of thousands, including how you can buy land for twenty percent of its retail value at tax-defaulted land sales, buy building materials at auctions for next to nothing, design for ease of construction, avoid paying rent while you build, and get the best help for the least money.

Since building his dream house in Northern California, the author has taught thousands of aspiring homebuilders his secrets to home ownership-truly believing that everyone should be able to live in a dream home he or she owns free and clear.

The author's hard-earned insights could change the life of anyone who has ever yearned to live in a beautiful house-without a mortgage.


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Editorial Reviews

Review

I have never come across another book that comes close to giving the kind of advice available in this book. There are secrets here that you will find nowhere else. This truly is the only book available anywhere that shows you how to build the house of your dreams for a song. -- From The Publisher

About the Author

David Cook has been a ships hand, a television salesman, a restauranteur and the owner builder of his own half million dollar dream house. His hard earned insights could change the life of anyone wishing to own their own home free and clear.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 160 pages
  • Publisher: Warbeck Publishing CO; 1 edition (March 1, 1998)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1890824364
  • ISBN-13: 978-1890824365
  • Product Dimensions: 10 x 8.3 x 0.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,346,143 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Full of fascinating money-saving ideas, November 6, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Build Your Dream House For A Song; and own it free and clear in five years. (Paperback)
To assert that a house can be built "for a song" may be slightly hyperbolic, but David Cook's book is so laden with intriguing money-saving ideas that any owner-builder who uses just a handful of Cook's ideas is bound to save thousands of dollars on the construction of a house. To do so, however, takes time, planning, plenty of energy, and a place to stockpile the lumber, ducts, plywood, salvaged windows, drainpipe, even the land, that Cook says can be picked up virtually for "a song" and/or barter at auctions, salvage yards, fire sales, construction sites, and so forth. In the house that he built himself, Cook installed kitchen cabinets that he had bought for a fraction of their worth years before he had a kitchen. (A German manufacturer displaying the cabinets at a trade show sold them cheap to avoid the cost of shipping them home.) To find an architect to do the required drawings of his house, Cook dropped in at the school of architecture of a nearby university in order to find grad student to do the work. Cook's methods are fascinating. While reading the book I kept wishing that I had thought of that in years past while building the equivalent of two and a half houses of my own. To think of all the money I could have saved if I only had had David Cook's luck, insight, fortitude, ability to take advantage of a bargain, and, of course, his book.
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24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Thin gruel for the experienced, a brief overview for others, September 7, 2000
This review is from: Build Your Dream House For A Song; and own it free and clear in five years. (Paperback)
I've been reading and researching low-cost homesteading for about a year now, so I was very excited to come across this title and see what else I could learn from a first-person success story.

Sadly, the answer was not much and what *was there* wasn't terribly detailed. There are other, better books that will leave you prepared to act upon the ideas David Cook only touches upon.

The first that comes to mind is Rob Roy's "Mortgage-Free". Ironically, a reviewer for that book thought it wasn't detailed enough. Apparently, they hadn't read this book first.

The truth is that no one book can prepare and educate you for the experience of "getting back to the land". But, while we're on the subject of land, I'd recommend Les and Carol Scher's "Finding and Buying Your Place in the Country".

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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Build Your Dreamhouse For A Song, January 5, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Build Your Dream House For A Song; and own it free and clear in five years. (Paperback)
I live in California where the price of owning my own home seemed to prevent me from ever realizing my dream. With the information in this book, I learned how to acquire land inexpensively, acquire materials inexpensively, and have my home designed around available materials. And, I found out that you don't have to know a lot about building to build your own home. I am very grateful for this book and the seminars the author teaches.
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