From Publishers Weekly
This slender guide to home buying for single women offers a plethora of emotional support and anecdotal entertainment, but only a smattering of practical advice. Musselman (
The Hip Girl's Handbook for the Working World) extols the benefits of independently pursuing happiness and security and refusing to wait for or depend on a partner. A solo home buyer herself, the author champions home ownership as the ultimate safety net capable of providing women with security and confidence. She arms her readers with the tools they'll need to navigate treacherous real estate waters: the fundamentals of credit approval, mortgages, house hunting, negotiations, contracts—and she even addresses buyer's remorse, renovations and refinancing. The text is peppered with helpful sidebars and long success stories, forming a comfortable, chatty narrative that makes the process of buying a home seem manageable. However, the information Musselman provides is simplistic and acts more as reassurance to those struggling with the emotional roller coaster that is home buying, rather than as a real aid to the planning and logistics of the purchase. First-time homeowners seeking solid information would be better off looking elsewhere.
(June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
HOUSE HUNTING and dating have a lot in common. Both involve long lists of must-haves -- three bedrooms, stable family, walk-in closet, higher education. But just when you think you've found "the one," there's always a compromise. That corner home with the immaculate lawn? Termites. The new guy in accounting? Two kids.
But in real estate, like love, the unexpected doesn't have to be a deal-breaker, as Jennifer Musselman says in "Own It! The Ups and Downs of Homebuying for Women Who Go It Alone" ($15.95, Seal Press), due out on June 1.
Imperfections add character, right? And many gals love fixer-uppers, really.
To that end, "Own It" almost reads like a dating manual, with chapters titled "Growing Out Your Roots," "Dirty Little Costs of HomeBuying" and "Are Your Signs Compatible?" But Musselman's main message is empowerment: Twenty percent of home-buyers last year were single women, according to the National Association of Realtors -- which means no waiting for McDreamy to show up before you make that down payment. -- Express, April 30, 2008
If you're a potential single woman home buyer who is sitting on the fence, Jennifer Musselman's book, Own It: the UPS and DOWNS of Homebuying for Women Who Go It Alone, will help you to make that decision to buy with confidence. Musselman writes in a breezy, fun style, with the voice of a woman who has been there and done that. She starts by talking about the real fears facing women who venture into home ownership without a partner or spouse, covering such issues as: * Will owning your own home hurt your chances of finding a mate because couples often buy their first home together? * Are men intimidated or put off by women who don't need them? * Will men find you less sexy if you have equity in a home? -- About.com
