Customer Reviews

How to Buy a Home Without Getting Hammered

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Although the description of this book is that it is useful for all home buyers, in truth, it is only useful for those looking for buy a new home. The first few chapters talk about new and resale homes, but after that the entire focus is on new homes. If that's what you want, this is a good book. However, if you're looking at resale, don't bother buying this book.

Please ignore the reader from Bothell, WA who apparently does not get the pun in the title of this book and proceeds to levy some b.s. criticism on a book he/she apparently didn't really read.

This book is geared toward buyers of new homes, especially construction homes, but has information that can help any home buyer. I myself am looking to buy a condo and I especially enjoyed the chapters on "curb appeal" (exterior) and floor plans. The latter topic is covered in a lot of details with examples of good layouts and bad layouts. You may not totally agree with what the author says should be a good floor plan -- and I don't -- but it's great to know what the latest trend in floor planning is and what angles (no pun intended) you should see a home from.

The book covers from why you should buy a home to what to do if you are unhappy with your newly bought home. Again, the target audience is really potential buyers of new homes, so there's a lot of information on that, like seeking out a builder's reputation, working with salespeople (as opposed to real estate agents), etc.

I recommend this book as a second book for getting home-buying advice. For more in-depth coverage of mundane home-buying topics such as mortgages and dealing with agents and closing, check the Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling a Home.

This book is an easy read and very helpful to the first time homebuyer. I actually moved into an older David Weekley home and absolutely love it. I highly recommend this book as a reference and guide to those who are clueless to the whole process of buying/building a home. I know it will be helpful to me once we build our new David Weekley home!!!

My husband and I have always bought resale homes, never have we built a new home from the ground up. This book offered excellent information from what to look for in the builder to what to look for in the floorplan. So much of this is common, sense, but until someone lays it all out for you, you might not think about it--especially with such a large emotional and financial investment. If you are building a new home, don't do it without reading this book!

I bought this book because it was highly reviewed and by the title I would have imagined it was the perfect consumer's guide to learning all about mortgates, real estate markets, first time home buyers programs, what "points" are, how the inspection process works, financial pitfalls, how to pick a realator, what steps to go through when you are going from renting to buying, the bidding process, etc and found very little on these topics within the pages. The title is completely misleading. This book is about how to build, repair, and do structural assesments of houses. The author is a builder, and builds houses. His expertise is in building. He spent more pages talking about drywall than mortgages. If you are building a library of home buying books, this might be the 25th or 26th book to get because it deals with construction, but if you are buying a house for the first time, save yourself the hassle of returning this and don't buy it.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone buying their first or second home, or who's been burned on any home buying experience. This book contains helpful information and guidance beyond the basics. I was given this book by Weekley Homes while in the process of hunting for my second home. Although intitially skeptical, thinking it was only going to "tout" his own homes, I found it completely unbiased. I actually found the perspective from the homebuilder extremely helpful and found his many years of experience reflected in the information. Not many books on buying homes delve into covering the home itself like this one does. It gives you information to be aware of in the process that other homebuilders might not want you to be aware of. The book is also very comprehensive in covering the financial aspects of buying a home. It's an easy read but packed with relevant information.

I did end up buying a Weekley Home and love it, and appreciate the fact that this book along with the Weekley people helped make the whole process easier. I buy this book to give to my family and friends who are thinking of or are currently searching for a home. It worked for me so it should work for them, and I want to keep my own copy!

David Weekley really knows what hes talking about in this book. If you need a good book on hombuilding this is the one to buy! I have learned so much through reading this, and highly reccomend it to others!!!..

My wife and I are beginning our search for a new home in Baton Rouge. Upon the advice of a friend and the fact I'm an information nut I decided to read David Weekley's book. I found the book to be an excellent common sense (which most of us don't have when making the biggest financial commitment in our lives) approach to the entire process of building or buying a home. The glossary of terms was extremely helpful when "talking the talk" with potential builders and lenders. Buying this book may be the cheapest "mistake insurance" I've ever purchased.

I was familiar with David Weekley's homebuilding company so I was afraid that this book would only contain information about building a new home. I was really pleased to find that this book had great advice for purchasing an older home. There were so many "secrets" that helped me through my home buying experience. Thank you David!

As a first-time buyer, I found this book very helpful in wading through the process. David's able to de-mystify the process and he pointed out some things to look for that helped me. Even though he is more familiar with new homes (as a builder), his advice about pre-owned homes works. In fact, I used it to buy my pre-owned home.