How to Buy Your First Home [Paperback]

Diana Brodman Summers (Author)

Book Description

Series: Legal Survival Guides | Publication Date: April 2003

Take the fear out of buying your first home

For many, the process of buying a home for the first time can seem intimidating and overwhelming. How to Buy Your First Home is your resource for information on the subject. This book guides you through the entire process, including:

Preliminaries-Renting versus buying, determining what you can afford, deciding where to live

Searching for Your Home-What to look for in a home, hiring a realtor

Finances-Mortgage basics, government agencies, home loans for veterans

The Buying Process-Weighing your mortgage options, hiring an attorney, making an offer, inspecting and appraising your home

The Future-Caring for your home and increasing the value of your investment

Included within the text are Attorney Tip boxes that highlight important facts. Click on This boxes will guide you to helpful websites for additional information about calculating costs, locating homes in your area and more.

Extensive appendices include a glossary of important terms, contact information for state offices of real estate regulation and sample worksheets to help you as you make your decisions.

Written by an experienced attorney, How to Buy Your First Home is the resource that will take the mystery out of buying a home.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Take the fear out of buying your first home

For many, the process of buying a home for the first time can seem intimidating and overwhelming. How to Buy Your First Home is your resource for information on the subject. This book guides you through the entire process, including:

Preliminaries—Renting versus buying, determining what you can afford, deciding where to live

Searching for Your Home—What to look for in a home, hiring a realtor

Finances—Mortgage basics, government agencies, home loans for veterans

The Buying Process—Weighing your mortgage options, hiring an attorney, making an offer, inspecting and appraising your home

The Future—Caring for your home and increasing the value of your investment

Included within the text are Attorney Tip boxes that highlight important facts. Click on This boxes will guide you to helpful websites for additional information about calculating costs, locating homes in your area and more.

Extensive appendices include a glossary of important terms, contact information for state offices of real estate regulation and sample worksheets to help you as you make your decisions.

Written by an experienced attorney, How to Buy Your First Home is the resource that will take the mystery out of buying a home. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Diana Brodman Summers received her J.D. from DePaul College of Law in Chicago, Illinois. She is a member of the Illinois State Bar Association, Chicago Bar Association, DuPage County Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. She is an arbiter for Cook and DuPage counties and currently practices employment and family law in one of the suburbs of Chicago.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Sphinx Pub; 1st edition (April 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572483288
• ISBN-13: 978-1572483286
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,708,679 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good first book on buying a home, February 25, 2005

By 

magellan (Santa Clara, CA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: How to Buy Your First Home (Paperback)

This is a basic book on home buying intended for the first time buyer. It's' fairly brief, only about 130 pages (minus the appendices), so it's a quick read. If you're a second time buyer it would probably be too basic for you, but I was looking for a quick primer before starting to read more technical books on investing in real estate.

It covers the essentials of mortgages, the bidding and negotiation process, working with agents and inspectors, the major government agencies that participate in the mortgage market, such as HUD, VA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and so on. Although you don't need to understand it to purchase a house, the secondary market is briefly discussed so you'll know what that is when you hear real estate professionals mention the term.

Most of the information is quite practical, such as how to deal with real estate agents (don't let them act like mothers-in-law and let them decide what's best for you in the way of a house, no matter how well-meaning their intentions), and inspectors (don't insist on being present during the inspection, it'll just distract them).

After the chapters devoted to the mechanics of buying the house, there's a chapter basically on "What now?" After the happy glow of buying your first house wears off, you'll now have to face the reality of doing the required maintenance and repairs, keeping up the lawn and landscaping, making sure you save enough to pay taxes, and so on. There are even useful hints on how to conserve energy and how much you can save by having old furnaces and air conditioners replaced, and the author says hers paid for itself in about 18 months, although the initial cost was daunting (about $2500). But it was worth it over the long run.

Finally, there's a chapter on foreclosure and what to do if you find yourself in that situation. There's help available in that many cities or state government agencies can help with either grants, money or advice. The book also has a glossary, and two appendices of useful worksheets such as comparing house features and mortgage lenders, a HUD-1 worksheet, and a VA guaranteed loan application form.

The book is clearly and concisely written and should give anyone a basic understanding of the home buying process. After this I went on to reading more advanced books on investing in real estate and it was useful for getting the basic knowledge quickly and easily.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT guide for a first-time buyer, July 31, 2006

By 

Amy M. (Newark, DE) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How To Buy Your First Home, Second Edition (Paperback)

My roommate works at the library and brought me home a dozen different books on how to go about buying your first home and what you would need to know (including the dummy/idiot books which I normally love). After taking a look at this one, I sent all the other ones back and ordered it from amazon because it is by far the easiest, most comprehensive, and overall helpful guide for a first-time buyer. It answers all questions and can just be used as a good reference. It's questions and answer format makes the book very easy to pick-up and less daunting-- some of the books seems like a giant boring novel!! I even gave this book as a gift to a friend considering buying a place of his own.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Enough, June 13, 2008

By 

S. C. Carter "War Eagle" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: How To Buy Your First Home, Second Edition (Paperback)

The reading is very dry. Could not make it past a few pages without falling asleep. The worksheets in the back are excellent. So, if you are looking for a home buying book this one is a good one just for the worksheets.