Mortgage Free!, Second Edition: Innovative Strategies for Debt-Free Home Ownership [Paperback]

Robert L. Roy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 15, 2008

As a wave of foreclosures sweeps the country, many people are giving up hope for owning a home of their own. They have good reason to turn their backs on the banks, but not on their dreams. In this revised edition of Mortgage Free!, Rob Roy offers a series of escape routes from enslavement to financial institutions, underscored by true stories of intrepid homeowners who have put their principles into action.

From back-to-the-land homesteads to country homes, here is a complete guide to strategies that allow you to own your land and home, free and clear, without the bank. Included is detailed advice about:

• Clarifying and simplifying your notions of what's necessary;
• Finding land that you love and can afford;
• Taking control of the house-building process, for the sake of sanity and pleasure;
  and
• Learning to take a long-term perspective on your family's crucial economic decisions, avoiding debt and modern-day serfdom.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rob Roy knows what it means to live mortgage free. As director of Earthwood Building School since 1981, he has instructed many in the arts of natural building, and renewable energy. He is also the author of Earth-Sheltered Houses, Cordwood Building, Timber Framing for the Rest of Us, The Sauna, and Stone Circles. Rob and his family live in West Chazy, New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing; 2 Revised edition (November 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1603580654
• ISBN-13: 978-1603580656
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #377,999 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #87 in Books > Business & Investing > Real Estate > Mortgages

More About the Author

Rob Roy knows what it means to live
mortgage free. As director of Earthwood
Building School since 1981, he has
instructed many in the arts of natural
building, and renewable energy. He is
also the author of Earth-Sheltered Houses,
Cordwood Building, Timber Framing for
the Rest of Us, The Sauna, and Stone
Circles. Rob and his family live in West
Chazy, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DIY: for real., March 6, 2009

By 

Teacher Mikal "mechanismbusboy" (Berkeley, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mortgage Free!, Second Edition: Innovative Strategies for Debt-Free Home Ownership (Paperback)

Well, I just finished Mortgage Free! and I'm pumped more than ever to build that timber frame in the mountains. I couldn't be a more accurate target audience for author Rob Roy. I'm a late twenties art teacher and woodworker (and ex-carpenter/blacksmith) that perpetually annoys my friends and family with H.D. Thoreau, Wendell Berry, Neil Postman, and E.F. Schumacher passages. I'm married, have a decent "grubstake" (savings for land and house) no children, and limitless energy.

This book is probably the first real estate/building/economic philosophy book that I've read in my short years that truly aligns with my own thinking. It has nothing to do with the TV nonsense of flipping homes, buying and selling foreclosures or short sales to get rich, or how to be a landlord in the city. Its greatest merit is the argument that we can live this life unchained to the typical work-a-day existence of mortgages, corporate ladder climbing and consumer/energy gluttony. This very merit, although a proven path even ten years ago, is untested in our current lousy and price-bloated economy. Roy's main thrust is that we should avoid the death pledge of the mortgage at pretty much any cost-and here I agree. What this book really needs though, (indeed lacks) for me, are tangible case studies and numbers that come even close to the typical prices of anywhere else except the Upstate NY area where the author is familiar. I live in California, but I've also lived in Chicago and Denver. Prices in the West are often ten times the updated prices you find in Mortgage Free! The advantages that couples in the late 60s and early 70s had with open space, low prices, and inheritances, are unknown to me. For the first five years of my working life I made nearly the same wage as my father twenty five years before at the same age... except that everything costs ten, twenty times the prices of his day and the joke of unlimited growth of property values is coming to a rude end.

Despite these drawbacks, Mortgage Free! is well worth the money for its honest and sensible approach, clarity and style of the writing, and truthful, enlightened position on energy and economy. My determination to make it to those green mountain pastures in the Sierra Nevada has much deeper roots than this book alone...(and so should yours). So, you should buy Mortgage Free!, read it, and put its good message to work. Thanks Rob.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Awesome Material!! Highly Recommended subject, June 21, 2010

By 

Gwen "keep thinking" - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Mortgage Free!, Second Edition: Innovative Strategies for Debt-Free Home Ownership (Paperback)

This book is Wonderful in Many many respects and I Highly recommend it because to me the subject matter is indispensable. He's complete, thorough, etc. The one thing he is Not is concise. Great, great material and very well covered - but be prepared for a read that is occasionally tedious. I read through it anyway :) Also, be prepared for the discussion of a few other odd topics. He talks about salary free living, college, etc. Most of it's logical; such as going to college only if you have a career picked and must have the degree for it. College is Wonderful - but if you don't know what to do, wait. This is the sort of thing that he spends long paragraphs on. Again - good read; totally worthwhile. Just be prepared. His information is solid and useful. He covers the whole process and what to expect as you go. He discusses adaptations for individuals. He even helps you decide if it's right for you at all, and openly admits that in some situations it's not. In most situations it is the best way to go about home ownership - but if you're 2years from retirement and finishing your mortgage at the same time... or if you have a spouse that will leave if you live in a temporary shelter for a couple years while you build, etc. He gives reasonable ways to decide if this fits you and your family, and if so how to make the adaptations needed to fit it to your life. Good luck :)

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A guide to breaking free of the bank's grasp on one's finances, February 9, 2009

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mortgage Free!, Second Edition: Innovative Strategies for Debt-Free Home Ownership (Paperback)

When five or six or even more figures in debt, getting out of it seems impossible. "Mortgage Free!: Innovative Strategies for Debt-Free Home Ownership" is a guide to breaking free of the bank's grasp on one's finances, and conquering a plaguing mortgage that all too often dominates an American's life. Rob Roy has a huge selection of tips and advice for digging one's way out of debt, outlining what's truly necessary in one's life, smart shopping in the homeowner's market, planning for the long term, and so much more. Anyone plotting buying a home needs "Mortgage Free!".