Customer Reviews

The Unofficial Guide to Buying a Home (The Unofficial Guide Series)

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2 star:		(1)
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The unoffical guide is definetly unoffical. It is the only book I have found that explains the home buying as a professional friend would. It contains a copy of the actual documents the banks and mortgage brokers use. The process takes you through the steps of getting prepared physically and mentally, financial aspects,what to shop for, closing, then moving in and fixing it up. It's the only book I've read that gives specific details of how to fix or work with credit problems. If you are a first time or any time buyer I strongly suggest the unoffical guide to buying a home.

The best of the four home-buying books I read or skimmed. The key is that it is unbiased and written from the buyer's perspective, usually with humor. Most other books are not. Exposes a lot of the unseen motives from the various players in the process, particularly real estate agents. Has lots of useful tips and is more comprehensive than most similar books.

It looks like the home real estate industry is changing rapidly with the MLS/Internet and discount realtors popping up. It seems I've seen more "for sale by owner" signs and/or discount realtor signs than standard realtor signs during my recent home search. It is clear that it no longer costs a realtor 5-7% of home price to market a house with Internet (especially expensive ones), so something has to give somewhere. They ought to update this book every few years.

Read "The Unofficial Guide to Buying a Home" before you go house-hunting and you'll save time and money and avoid a lot of headaches. The author provides a crystal-clear, enjoyably readable, step-by-step, logical approach to home buying. His menu of financing options is astonishingly comprehensive, and he even explains how the reader can determine the amount of mortgage he/she can afford. You won't get bamboozled by all the hype you might hear from loan officers (as I did the last time the last time I bought a home). The insider information I got from this book was fantastic -- and easy to understand!

Even though I've now bought my dream home with the aid of this book, Perlis's suggestions keep coming to the forefront. I'm following the book's advice on how to maintain an older home, how to make space more functional, and how to maximize my home's value with a minimum of cash. As with everything else in this book, the author is right on target.

(By the way, the correct title is "The Unofficial Guide to Buying a Home," not "Your First Home," as Amazon advertises. In fact, any homebuyer, however experienced, will find this a most helpful and valuable book.)

I'm in the process of buying my first home, and I felt prepared and ready to ask all the right questions of my agent after pouring through the tons of tips provided in this book. Most valuable to me was learning how to get the right agent to work for ME--one who will really assist the buyer in his/her pursuit of an attainable home. Buying a home is a huge, anxiety-provoking experience, but I'm relaxed aand confident because I followed the advise and facts compiled in this book.

When my fiancee and found out that our rental house is going to be demolished (2 weeks before our wedding), we decided to "Try" to buy a house. The first thing I did was buy this book. It has helped us realize that yes, we can afford it, how it may even be financially good for us! All of my fears about being uprooted were calmed, and as we read each chapter together each night I feel more and more confident about the process and pitfalls of finding and buying our very first home! This book has answered EVERY question we have had, and pointed out situations to watch for that would have otherwise been unknown to us. We're going to prove to all of our friends and family that we CAN do it, and that we did it ourselves (with the help of a little book).

This book is a waste of time, especially if you have anything complicated in your home-buying transaction (and who doesn't?). It's also sexist - they actually recommend that two people in a couple (because obviously anyone who is buying a house must be in a heterosexual relationship) go and read _men are from mars, women are from venus_. spare me.