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Buying a home is one of life s biggest decisions. Whether you re a first-timer or a veteran, you ll find heaps of helpful information and advice in House Hunting, the ultimate interactive guide to buying a home. From deciding what type of house you want and need and finding the right agent to comparing loans and making an offer, House Hunting walks you through all the steps and helps you ask all the right questions along the way.
Hymer, whose Starting Out column appears in this and other newspapers nationwide, has created an unusual carry-along book for buyers. Each chapter is marked with tabs for easy reference. It is also a workbook designed with fill-in-the-blank checklists and questions buyers should ask.
Each chapter contains Hymer s sage advice, gained from many years of successful sales experience helping buyers and sellers.
This is a book to be scanned first, then read and lastly used by filling in the blanks at each step in the home-buying procedure.
The color photos remind readers that their goal is to find a home to meet their needs. Each chapter contains pockets to store papers, such as your mortgage lender s pre-approval letter or certificate, brochures of homes you visit, copies of purchase papers you sign or review, inspection reports and seller disclosure forms, and closing papers. If the book has a flaw, it could have been larger to store the many papers acquired during a typical home search.
The book s appendix is especially valuable. It includes an interest rate chart to calculate your monthly mortgage payment, based on the interest rate and loan term. There is also a concise chart of typical purchase contract time contingencies, such as for obtaining mortgage final approval, professional inspection and pest confessional inspection and pest control inspecti8on, and when each contingency is appropriate.
The summary of possible closing costs explains who usually pays for what and how much is a reasonable price.
Also included are a typical residence purchase contract (although these vary by state), a transfer disclosure statement to be filled out by the seller, a uniform mortgage application and a HUD closing settlement statement.
The chapter on negotiation is especially strong and practical. It explains strategy and how to handle counteroffers and provides an analysis of the situation for buyers whose offer wasn t accepted by the seller.
There is even a chapter for sellers who are selling one home so they can buy another. Hymer answers the question Should you buy or sell first? by including a checklist of pros and cons for each alternative. Her checklist of how to interview a listing agent, with key questions to ask, is very thorough. The chapter even includes checklists about fixing up a home for sale and pricing it correctly.
This how to buy a home book is one of the few that cannot be recommended too highly. Buyers should carry it with them every time they inspect a candidate for home purchase. -Los Angeles Times
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
single parent, 1st time buyer must,
By
This review is from: House Hunting: The Take-Along Workbook for Home Buyers (Home of Your Dreams) (Spiral-bound)
I purchased this book for a friend of mine who happens to be a single parent and in the market for buying a home. This book kept her a step ahead. Her "ducks" where so in a row that her realtor said I have never seen a transaction go through so smoothly. I'm in the market now and she strongly encouraged me to pick one up for myself. I love it.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as helpful as author's previous book,
By Beth Thompson (Orem, UT, USA) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: House Hunting: The Take-Along Workbook for Home Buyers (Home of Your Dreams) (Spiral-bound)
I would recommend _Starting Out_ (Davis's previous book) over this one. That book (Starting Out) is the best book on buying a house I've seen and I've looked at dozens. This book seems to contain some of the same information, but less of it. I think the take-along workbook idea, at least in this format, is a failure. The spiral binding is flimsy. All of the pages of my copy are falling out and it hasn't seen much use. The workbook idea is good, but not flexible enough. Sure you could make copies of a page if you needed another sheet for interviewing a real estate agent and you could write out some more of your house wish list items if you found there weren't enough lines, but it doesn't seem worth it. I think most people would be more comfortable with whatever organizational system they already use: a paper planner, a PDA, just typing things out on the computer, whatever. The content is great, but you can get that ( and more of it) in her other book.
2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
PeggySchultz.biz - THE South Suburban Chicago Real Estate EXPERT,
By PeggySchultz.biz (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: House Hunting: The Take-Along Workbook for Home Buyers (Home of Your Dreams) (Spiral-bound)
My clients would absolutely love this book! In fact, it would be very helpful for Sellers too. Great insight as to what Buyer's are looking for. Of course, any Realtor worth their commission should be giving their clients all of this information from day one.
I prepare an extensive spiral bound notebook customized for my client's needs and market place. [...]
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