Home Buying For Dummies, 4th Edition [Paperback]

Eric Tyson (Author), Ray Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 2009

Now updated — America's #1 bestselling home-buying book!

Want to buy a house, but concerned about the market? Have no fear — this trusted guide arms you with Eric Tyson and Ray Brown's time-tested advice and updated strategies for buying a home in current market conditions. You'll discover how to find the right property, make smart financial decisions, and understand the latest lending requirements and tax implications.

• New to this edition — new and expanded coverage to help homebuyers take advantage of low home prices, understand the subprime mortgage crisis, obtain a mortgage, and improve credit scores

• To buy or not to buy? — weigh the advantages of owning versus renting, get your finances in order, and know how much house you can safely afford

• Handle financing — understand your credit rating, navigate the different types of mortgages, and complete all paperwork

• Play the real estate game — find the right location and property, assemble an all-star real estate team, and make the most of the Internet's real estate resources

• Let's make a deal — negotiate with finesse, make successful offers, inspect and protect your new home, and cover all your bases in escrow

"Invaluable information, especially for the first-time home buyer."
—Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"A reference you'll turn to time after time."
—St. Petersburg Times

Open the book and find:

• Reasons why home prices rise and fall

• Hands-on instruction for buying a home in up or down markets

• How to pay the price you want

• The best mortgage options

• A sample home-buying contract

• Pros and cons of comparable market analysis

• Tips for overcoming mortgage and appraisal problems

• How to cope with buyer's remorse

• The best real estate Web sites

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Eric Tyson, MBA, is a financial counselor and the author of bestselling For Dummies books on personal finance, investing, and real estate investing.

Ray Brown, a real estate professional for more than 30 years, has hosted a real estate radio show in San Francisco.

Product Details

• Paperback: 408 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 4 edition (May 11, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470453656
• ISBN-13: 978-0470453650
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,525 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Business & Investing > Real Estate > Mortgages
  • #7 in Books > Business & Investing > Real Estate > Buying & Selling Homes

More About the Author

Eric Tyson is a best-selling personal finance book author and has penned five national best sellers. He is also the only author to have four of his books simultaneously on Business Week's business book bestseller list.

His Personal Finance for Dummies, a Wall Street Journal best-seller, won the Benjamin Franklin Award for Best Business Book of the Year. Eric's syndicated newspaper column is read by millions of readers weekly. He is a former columnist and award-winning journalist for the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle. His website, www.erictyson.com, rocketed into the top one percent of financial websites within its first year of operation.

Eric's work has been featured and quoted in hundreds of local and national publications and media outlets including Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, Money, Worth, Parenting, USA Today and on the NBC Today Show, ABC, Fox News, CNBC, PBS Nightly Business Report, CNN, and on CBS national radio, NPR's Marketplace Money and Bloomberg Business Radio. He's also been a featured speaker at a White House conference on retirement planning.

Tired of working as a management consultant to Fortune 500 financial service firms which more interested in maximizing short-term profits than in providing sound financial products and services, Eric founded in 1990 the nation's first financial counseling firm which works exclusively on an hourly basis. He started his new company with a simple mission: to provide objective, cost-effective personal financial advice, especially to non-wealthy Americans. Through family and friends, Eric had seen many otherwise intelligent people make horrendous mistakes in managing their money, in part, because the failure of our schools and colleges to teach personal finance.

In addition to his counseling work, Eric also hoped to make an impact in the writing and media fields. Much of the personal finance writing and reporting he saw and heard was biased, jargon-laden and, in some cases, filled with bad advice. For example, rather than telling people the hard truth - that one must live within one's means as a prerequisite to building wealth - many publications offer up hyped and unrealistic "get rich without making sacrifices or taking risk" type approaches.

In addition to his writing and counseling, Eric also taught the nation's most highly attended personal financial management course at the University of California. He has spoken at many corporations and non-profits. His educational background includes having earned his bachelor's degree in economics at Yale and an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Eric is the only best-selling personal finance author who has an extensive background as an hourly-based financial planner and who does not accept speaking fees, endorsement deals or fees of any type from companies in the financial services industry or product or service providers recommended in his articles, books and his publications.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

65 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good basic reference.... but very CA biased., July 2, 2009

By 

Meredith (Stowe, VT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Home Buying For Dummies, 4th Edition (Paperback)

A friend recommended this book, and it is a helpful reference that covers all the basics. Confused by inspection and what to expect? There are helpful hints and good definitions to help you figure that stuff out. This book helped "calm me down" by explaining all the processes of home buying in a simple way so there were no surprises.

My only real gripe is that the book is VERY California biased. While it is impossible to clarify all the nuances of buying a home in different states, counties, and towns... the homebuying process differs significantly in California than most of the northeast. Well, the process may be the same - but escrow agents? Huh? We got lawyers for that. Some terminology was a bit confusing. And there was plenty of coverage about earthquakes... but what about snow? Or what to look for with different types of heat? These are HUGE concerns when buying a house in the northeast and these issues aren't even discussed. I felt the book could be more comprehensive in addressing homebuying across the USA... not just in Cali.

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extraordinarily Detailed, May 26, 2009

By 

Fritz R. Ward "dayhiker" (Crestline, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Home Buying For Dummies, 4th Edition (Paperback)

New home buyers might be tempted by the 2009 combination of low home prices, low interest rates, and federal incentives to start searching for a home. If you do, and especially if you live in a heavily regulated state like California, books like this one are extremely valuable. Much of the advice might seem "obvious" when you think about it (why do you "need" title insurance anyway?) but no one thinks about all aspects of purchasing a home when they first enter the market. This book spells out all the steps you need to take from deciding whether you really need to buy a home at all (if you are planning to move soon, don't) to saving for a down payment all the way through escrow. Mortgage options (15 v. 30 year, adjustable or fixed) are also covered in some detail so potential homebuyers can make sound choices. It is, on the whole, a very useful book.

This For Dummies guide also includes quite a bit of valuable information most people would not think of when buying a home. Sandbagging by mortgage companies is moderately more common than you might expect in a down market and this guide tells you how to recognize it. The authors also explain why sellers, in general, are not very realistic about what their property is worth and how to effectively use the internet when searching for a home. Hint, mortgage calculators are not nearly as useful as they are convenient. You should know from your own budget (including contributions for retirement savings) what you can afford, and not be pushed into a house beyond your means by a calculator that only considers your income and debt ratios. Finally, the book covers the psychology of home purchases, including buyers remorse and negotiations.

There is simply too much in this book to cover it all. Suffice to say, this is not a guide to getting rich in real estate. The authors (wrongly, in my opinion) do view real estate as an investment but first time home buyers, the target audience for this book, should not. Homes can in fact be something of a liability. But the 4th edition of 'Home Buying for Dummies' can help you limit the costs associated with buying your home and for this reason alone the book is invaluable. And if, in the future, you should actually make money on your purchase, more power to you. Besides, the authors have another title for you on how to sell your home. If it is even close to as comprehensive as this book, you should buy it too when the time comes.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 4th Ed probly not necessary, January 7, 2010

By 

bobb (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Home Buying For Dummies, 4th Edition (Paperback)

I was hoping the 4th Edition of this book brings more relevant items pertained to the 2008 crash and what's happening in the last 12 mos. But I should had known, paper books take awhile to edit, publish, stock, so I feel I kinda wasted my money and could had borrowed a 3rd Ed from the library instead. But if u are not paying full retail like I did go4rit. Overall excellent info for the first-time buyer. I personally wish it has gone into more details of some of the items. To complement this book, you most likely have to get another one on FORECLOSURE unless u absolutely shunt going this route. A separate book on MORTGAGE is also recommended for completeness.