Customer Reviews

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling a Home (Serial)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Having read "Home Buying for Dummies" by Eric Tyson and Ray Brown which I highly recommend (with five stars) to all the home seekers, now I understand why I'm not really happy with this book. I find this "Idiot's Guide" approach too moderate, lacking in-depth analyses or comments in many areas. (e.g. how to spot ideal locations, etc. ) The author, in my view, doesn't take a stand and states her opinion clearly enough, which sometimes makes me feel like I am reading a free government brochure on home buying A to Z. Perhaps one single volume is not enough to cover such vast and complicated areas as buying and selling homes.

Although I will keep this book and use it as a reference/glossary when necessary, I'd probably rely on Tyson/Brown's book for "tips" most of the time.

I'm currently in the rush to buy a condo in a seller's-market city, and in the last two weeks I read through a dozen home-buying advice books. The Complete Idiot's Guide is by far the best of the bunch, and in case you are comparison-shopping, I think it's much better than the For Dummies title.

The biggest reason is the book, now in its fourth edition, is very comprehensive. The bulk of it covers the buying aspects, but there are a few chapters devoted to selling, and this is a great arrangement. As a potential buyer, it's to your advantage to know what it's like to sell, so when you select a property you will instinctly think of the time when you need to or have to sell. In my caes, I plan to live in the condo for about 5 years and then move to a different city, so having a seller's perspective while I shop for a condo is really helpful. For instance, I saw a nice condo yesterday which I would have bought but when I considered the selling perspective, I saw some problems and decided not to pursue it. As a home buyer, especially a first-time home buyer like myself (that's why I bought this book!), you really want to make a well-rounded decision. Sure there's no perfect house out there -- unless your definition of "perfect" is imperfect -- but the last thing you want is spend half a million dollars on something you regret right after you sign the closing docs.

Second, compared to many books this one is very well written. Maybe I have a slight bias in favor of female writers, but I find women tend to be better in explaining complicated concepts than men. This book is a perfect example of my stereotype. Every chapter is easy to read and follow, and you see the major points right away. The For Dummies title in particular suffers from information overflow and leaves you wondering what you've just read. Which makes it next to being worthless, especially if you are in a rush to get acquainted with the real estate market. There's a lot of information in this idiot's book but the top-notch organization makes it easy to digest... and remember.

(Don't forget, you don't want to carry a home-buying primer around when you shop for a house! If you did you'd simply be taken for an unpleasant ride by greedy sellers and brokers.)

Third, like I mentioned before, this book also covers aspects of the selling process, so it's a great book to keep in case you need to sell. In addition, when you do sell, you can review the home-buying chapters to learn what motivates the buyer, so to get your best deal!

To be honest at first I didn't like the format of this book; the page is wide and there seem too many words. But because the authors write well and clearly, I eventually found it the best primer on home buying, with bonus coverage on the basic of home selling.

Very highly recommended, especially to previously clueless people like yours truly.

I bought this book because of some of the lame reviews I read in the "Home Buying for Dummies" reviews. Had I spent 2 seconds to flip through and read a couple of paragraphs it would have stayed on the shelf and $20 bucks in my pocket.

On the flight to the city where my wife and I are considering buying a home, she read the Idiots Guide while I read the for Dummies. She constantly was showing me how pathetic this book is with paragraphs dedicated to "Why do you want to buy a home?" and "Banks are in this world to make money". Topics were disorganized and had no useful content. I actually was thankful that the book is double spaced with large fonts so I would have to read more of it! Within 2 minutes she wanted to take the "for Dummies" book from me.

Bottom line... Swing by the book store and see how bad this book is for yourself before you order it online. If you really want it, I'm sure there are plenty of used versions -- in near new condition, since there was nothing worthy of highlighting -- online.

I reorganized the information and examples in this book for the 3rd edition and want to point out a few things to potential readers. Because the book just came out in September 2000, note that the two previous reviews are based on the 1st or 2nd editions, not this third revision. Please check out this new edition because it has been reworked to better prepare you to buy or sell a home. You get more information on determining how much home you can afford, understanding your credit, and finding a mortgage broker (to get qualified) before you find your dream home. I truly believe that the first five chapters in this book will help you be better prepared to buy and sell your home and guide you through the rest of the book.

I bought both this book and "Home Buying for Dummies," and honestly I think I got one piece of useful information out of this book. Once I started reading the other book, I couldn't set it down. It was such an easy read and everything was easy to understand. Again, this book isn't bad, but it wasn't the right book for me.

Closings! Mortgages! What can you afford. How much should you put down. It can have a girl's head spinning! Some sit back and read!

This book was an excellent resource for the first time home buyer. It guided me through the very beginning stages all the way to close. At times it was a bit simplistic, however, for first time buyers, that simplicity is duly warranted. I especially appreciated the definitions in the back explaining the various jargon used in the real estate industry.

If you are buying a home, you would do well to find a book that concentrates on that facet of the real estate market. Ditto if you are selling a home, especially if you are selling it yourself.

This book leans heavily toward hiring an agent (at 6 percent of the sale price) to sell your home. FISBOs get brief, and not entirely objective, advice but in most other chapters the term "your agent" appears frequently.

If you are selling your own home, the authors tell you to check the financial qualifications of your prospective buyers by asking them for information about their personal finances, such as income and debts. I would not tell a stranger those things and would not insult and anger a prospective buyer by asking those questions. Also, without documentary proof, how would you know the buyers are telling the truth? I would (will) tell the prospective buyers to submit a letter from their lender showing they are pre-approved for a loan when they submit an offer on my house.

I found this book to be very superficial and biased. I never felt that the author was in my corner nor had much experience offering objective home buying advice.

I am a big fan of Bob Bruss' column and have been very happy with his book picks. Not sure what he said about this one but I hadn't seen it on his top picks of the year list.

I highly recommend this book. Because of the simple wording, I actually felt comfortable and understood the real estate terminology.

This book will ease your fears about buying/selling a home.