Customer Reviews

Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home (book with CD-Rom & Audio)

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am just starting to research what's involved in purchasing a first home. I found this book to be very helpful in providing a landscape of what is involved, but you should supplement it with more specific books, particularly around mortgages.

The book starts out by having you evaluate what you want in a home, and prioritizing the features. It tells you how to research neighborhoods, ok this is pretty city-centric but they are trying to reach a wide audience. It explains the various professionals involved in each stage of the process, provides forms for interviewing them, and explains what they should provide. It continues to walk you through the inspections, negotiations and closings.

The book is easy to read, but let's face it, the purchase process is complex, and I found myself re-reading some sections discussing the many forms and insurance options. There are some quirky sidebars that are of questionable value (songs about houses, a cookie recipe) but they do add some levity.

Where the book fell a little short was the mortgage discussion. The first book I read "Mortgage Ripoffs and Money Savers: An Industry Insider Explains How to Save Thousands on Your Mortgage or Re-Finance" covers this in great detail, and I highly recommend it as supplemental reading. It will explain in detail the junk fees that are mentioned in this book.

The forms included in the book have varying degrees of usefulness, but the interview and inspection forms are gold. A number of websites are listed throughout the book, and will save you from having to Google for the information.

Overall I'm happy with this book, and plan to reference it throughout the purchase process.

I started looking at buying my first house many months ago and realized that the conflicting and often spotty advise I would get from friends and family wasn't enough. I needed a book to guide me and fill in the gaps (of which there were many).

I figured a "Home Buying for Dummies" type book was what I needed, but I didn't stop there and thumbed through almost a dozen home buying books at the local store before finding this gem by Nolo.

This was the ONLY book that guides you through the process, taking logical, simple steps while interjecting real-world experiences from different people.

It's written in a manner that appeals to just about everyone, explaining how to find a good agent (or save yourself on closing costs by using an online broker), what you should REALLY look for when finding the house that's right for you, all the way through closing, and even what's involved afterwards!

Buying a home can be stressful and overwhelming, but this book really made things quite easy. I can't think of a single home buying related subject that it doesn't cover. If you are buying your first house, this book is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

For me, because this is the only first-time buyer's guide that discusses in detail issues around getting a personal gift or personal loan towards purchasing a home, it already deserves 5 stars.

But it's more than just that. This is a very comprehensive guide with a helpful accompanying CD-ROM. The materials are organized clearly and presented in an easy-to-understand manner. I had read other guides such as the Dummies one which tended to be really verbose and confusing. This book stands out as a highly useable companion as you search and purchase your first home (and as you deal with real estate agents and lawyers).

Very highly recommended.

This is a great read for a first time homebuyer because it explains things clearly and thoroughly without making many assumptions about what you know. I liked the section on alternative forms of financing, especially useful in this day of ever more restrictive bank lending.

However, it basically assumes you are going to be using a real estate agent/broker/realtor, so I was disappointed because I want to work without one and I hoped this book would make me independent.

The forms are weak; I was hoping for some sample Offers or Contracts, but instead it has a dream house worksheet and some random other forms which are so small and basic that they could easily be offered for free as a download instead of necessitating the enclosed CD.

Ilona Bray, Alayna Schroeder and Marcia Stewart's NOLO'S ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO BUYING YOUR FIRST HOME is also a standard reference which combines the savvy of buying a first home with legal tips designed to clarify common obstacles to the process. From deciding between a house, condo or coop to getting inspections, insurance, and negotiating with sellers, this is a top pick blending the real-world stories of over twenty first-time home buyer with insights from a team of real estate pros including attorneys, a home inspector, a neighborhood researcher, a mortgage specialist and more. This team approach sets the Nolo guide far above most authored by real estate agents alone.

Pros: This book was just released in 2009 so it's by far the most up to date on the current market. It gives the pitfalls of past subprime mortgages and is somewhat geared to todays buyers market. It has references to the $8000 new home credit and other recent additions to tax law. The websites listed are much more up to date than some older books.
Cons: The forms on the CD are pretty basic but useful I guess and the closing costs section isnt as comprehensive as I would have liked.

This is where I started my research. A great alternative name would be HomeBuying 101.

I'd therefore recommend more "advanced" books after reading this one.

Positives:
*A great overview of Getting Mortgage (including technical details), Loan Choices, Making an Offer, Closing Process, Inspectors.
*I found some good tidbits of info regarding pitfalls to avoid.
*The CD is great for some checklists to start with.

Negatives:
*Realtors definatly had their hands on this book. I had to double-check the publishing date because of statements like options of "no money down loans" and "focus on all the reason you chose this house on the first place, and on how it will be a good investment over time". Yes, this was punlished 2009 AFTER the crash as prices are still dropping.
*Almost blatant advertising of Realtor services and ZipRealty.
*Really skims over the rent-vs-buy calculations-- buying is does not make financial sense for everyone.

I found this book to be easy to follow and helpful in my process. I think the most important information is "How to find the best __________" --- fill in the blank, Realtor, Mortgage Broker, Inspector. It's very helpful to have a list of questions when interviewing people who know a lot more about the subject that I do. I'm glad I started my research with this book.

I am an attorney who recently purchased my first home. Further complicating the situation was the fact that I was purchasing this home from across the country. Nolo's first time home buyer's guide was indispensable to navigating the scary process of the biggest purchase of your life. Even as an attorney, it was incredibly helpful to have Nolo's straight forward plain English explanation of the process, what to expect and what to do to prepare for each step. Thanks Nolo and keep up the great work.

Doug

This is my first book on purchasing my first house and I found it very detailed compared to the others I have read. There seemed to be a few pages that, for me, were not needed, but none-the-less very helpful. The statement on the CD is true, its a complete waste. But the book its self is a great read with vauable information. I would definetly recommend this book to family and friends.