Customer Reviews

Home Buying For Dummies, 3rd edition

5 star:		(62)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I just successfully bought my first house. I shopped Amazon.com and bought half-a-dozen "how to" books for buying a house before I started my search. I was buying this house on my own, and had no one to rely on for hand-holding or expert advice. I also had a lot of qualms about the whole process. Out of all the books I bought, this was the one I kept going back to. It's typical of a "Dummies" book in that it doesn't give you too much unusable knowledge, but--coversely--it also doesn't drill down to the nth degree on any one topic. This is okay, though. With the usual high-quality editing that goes into most "Dummies" books, this one is very easy to read. It talks about who to hire (e.g., real estate agent, mortgage broker, etc.), how to go about hiring them, how to go about getting a mortgage, what are the ins-and-outs of mortgages, how to get a down-payment together, and--I thought--most importantly; how to budget yourself in preparation for homeownership. This part on figuring out what you spend as a renter and what you think you'll spend as a homeowner helps you decide how much of a house you can afford, and, in my experience, this is one of the big mysteries of buying your first house. Overall, the book is comforting, reliable [now that I'm in a house, I can see that the advice was good], and well organized. If you don't know much about how to buy a house, this is a fine start and a trustworthy source of information.

This book is amazing. I never considered buying a "for Dummies" series book because I thought they would be overly simplisitic, but this book proved me wrong. The authors do an awesome job of presenting just enough detail on every aspect of buying a home- I kept catching myself having a questions, then reading on to the net chapter and finding the answer. You may be tempted to skip around from chapter to chapter, but I've found that reading this book from the beginning is almost necessary since things like understanding which mortgage to get and how much of a house you want are all dependant on answers you arrive at in early chapters. I've just finished the book and feel well prepared and educated to tackle the house-hunting task now. A definite read.

I had purchased this book as well as The Idiots Guide for Buying a Home and was pretty impressed with Home Buying for Dummies. It was well organized, very readable and had very useful information that my parents wouldn't have told me. Some notworthy examples of how practical this book was include:
1. consider a tax free money market account to invest your down payment while you save depending on your tax bracket. Names of possible accounts were included.
2. Roth IRAs allow you to borrow against them tax free for the down payment as a first time home buyer.
3. What to consider for watching a housing market....
To name a few.

The Idiots Guide was an absolute waste of money. One of the reviewers here posted that Dummies was patronizing -- the Idiots guide was truely insulting. It actually seemed like a bad rippoff of the Dummies book, not to mention the font was twice as big and double spaced. I would have returned it if my spouse hadn't written in it. If you want it, look in the used books section...

I have to agree with another reviewer that some of the content is covered in other Dummies books like Personal Finances for Dummies -- but having the salient points repeated in the context of home buying was helpful. I dont have the other Dummies books mentioned so for me, the redundency between books was minimal.

Go with the Dummies book. Its an excellent intro to buying a home!

I never bought real estate in my life. I never shopped for a mortgage in my life. But after reading this book I am extremely well versed in both. I have been interviewing both buyer's brokers and mortgage lenders and I am extremely well prepared when I call them and when they walk thru the door to meet with me. Buying a home is probably the most money any of us will ever spend at one time. Why not be totally prepared to do it. We spend countless hours reading thru Consumer Reports just to buy a micorowave or a VCR. Don't you think you should be spend hours upon hours studying real estate, mortgages, taxes, etc.? I certainly do. That's why I picked up this book. In total I've read about 6-7 books on the subject. This is definitely one of the better ones. It is comprehensive, informative and detailed. I found myself underlining and using the language and suggestions in the book when talking to the brokers and the lenders. Many of them were impressed with the amount of information I knew about THEIR business. I am in the process now of negotiating my mortgage and so far I've gotten the lenders to decrease the points by .50 PLUS they agreed to pick up some of the closing costs as well. This could mean a sunstantial savings to the bottom line, maybe $2000-3000. We're not talking clipping coupons here anymore! Buy the book. Save some money. Learn about your subject. Knowledge is Power. If you know what they know, they can't screw you.

Having read both this volume and the Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling a Home, I recommend the idiot's guide over this one. The main reason is because the latter is better written and easier to understand. Home Buying for Dummies is very comprehensive but reminds me of my own Ph.D. dissertation: heavy on theory but little on practicalities. The idiot's guide presents information in a way that make it easier to digest and follow.

In short, this is a good advice primer for first-time home buyers, but I think you get a better book and also a better value if you buy the complete idiot's guide version.

(I'm not affiliated with any authors or publishers, nor do I even know or have met them in any manner.)

My wife and I purchased this book to help us in our hunt for our first home. We were total novices about the entire home buying process since we had always been apartment dwellers. I read through the book several times over the course of a month. The book armed me with good questions to ask my realtor and the seller's agent as well. It was particularly invaluable when addressing mortgage loans and funding alternatives.

48 hours from now my wife and I will close on our first home. This book gave us confidence in our decision making by helping us evaluate a wide variety of criteria we would not have otherwise thought of. The peace of mind this book gave is worth many times more than we spent for it.

If you are buying a home as a novice, you simply MUST purchase this book. Even if you are a veteran home buyer, I really believe this book will have value for you as well.

The Best Available For Lookers/buyers/Sellers - Everyone

The brilliance of HB For Dummies is taking important factual information, condensing (but not oversimplifying) it, organizing it, and labeling it with headers and bullets making the info. easy to find. It seems every angle and potential situation is noted here for home buyers, sellers, or anyone contemplating this major undertaking. The chapters are organized perfectly for you to go immediately where you want to go in this book.

Think of all of the millions of people who purchased their first home recently (2002-3), motivated by the lowest interest rates in decades. Many of them have likely paid higher and/or unnecessary fees, or had the process slowed because they weren't willing to read 30 minutes a week to get the basics down.

The duties of all of the 7 most common players in a home purchase and sale are described. The RE Agent, Broker, Lender, Property Inspector, Escrow officer, Financial and Tax Advisors, and Lawyer (if latter need be) are included. What should be expected of them, negotiating fees, which party pays them, and what actions are considered the norm and reasonable are detailed. And of course: all of the potential red flags, and how to spot them are enumerated also. What 11 questions should you ask the Real Estate Agents you interview to represent you? Find out here.

Most folks don't keep track of the details of the current home
values more than the generalities of it being a cold, sluggish, warm or hot market. There are instructions in this book on specifically how you can get comparable pricing of the values of what you are looking for in a home in the community you live in.

For some of the nuts and bolts, in the financing chapter for example, there is a list of 22 items you need to bring to a mortgage lender: original copies of the 8821 Form, inspection report, the closing cost worksheet, and various sections of the U.R.L.A. will give you confidence of having at least the basic background knowledge so you can know what to expect when you begin the process. How much will Homeowners insurance cost you? It's here. Doing your homework before-hand is much better than learning as you go along, which can surprise, sadden, cost more, and at times intimidate the first (or 2nd time) buyer.

In the back of the book there are appendixes that contain more original documents, such as the Purchase Contract. There is a comprehensive glossary of terms, and an index.

Another helpful book is "The 106 Most Common Mistakes Home Buyers Make (And How To Avoid Them)" by Eldred. But HB For Dummies has much, much, more. HB For Dummies provides the most bang for buck.

For a general overview of homebuying, this book is well written,easy to read, and well-designed in typical Dummy style. But for more detailed and down-to-earth practical advice and examples, we liked Eldred's 106 Mistakes Homebuyers Make. We found the Mistakes' book much easier to apply. The Dummies' authors seem not to be aware that most first-time buyers do not live in California. Overall, though, both (or either) of these books can really help prepare you for the trials and tribulations of what to expect (and watch out for) when buying a home.

Eric Tyson is a savvy writer with a wealth of knowledge that is shared in this fantastic book. I am a first time home buyer and purchased numerous books about the process; this one is by far the best. It served as my "jungle guide", and I found myself referring to this book on a daily basis for information. His chapters on gathering a solid real estate team, comparable market analysis, and escrow were particularly enlightening. Tyson's wit and the easy-to-read Dummies style proved a quick read and served to give me the confidence to discern what I wanted and ask the tough questions about one of life's bigger decisions. If there is ONE book to buy regarding home buying, buy this book.

I read this book from cover to cover before buying my first home last year. The information is invaluable, especially the section on how to find a sound realtor (I did, and she was able to negotiate a good price for me) and how not to buy more house than you should. The author also tells you what to look for in a house and alerts you to pitfalls that the first-time home buyer might be completely unaware of, and walks you through how to obtain a mortgage and the various steps involved in bidding on a house and closing the deal.

This is a must-read for someone who has never bought a home (be it a house or a condo) before and is immensely educational and helpful.

Highly recommended!