Customer Reviews

Your New House: The Alert Consumer's Guide to Buying and Building a Quality Home

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I am a first time buyer and wanted to make sure that I was getting the best deal at every end of the process. I read this book and although many parts of it were good, it did not apply to my situation. This book is excellent for those that are building a custom built home with a builder. If you are looking to buy a production home (centex, KB, pulte) this is not the book you will want. I found some of the examples to be informative, but overall I will need another book to answer my questions. I hope my review helped.

I RECOMMEND THIS BOOK TO ANYONE BUYING/BUILDING A NEW HOME. Much of the information can also be applied to buying an older home or remodeling. This is not a how-to book, this book goes into detail on the process of building/buying a new home. YOUR NEW HOUSE covers costs, contracts, architecture, buying land, mortgages, design, inspections, real estate agents, and the list goes on. The authors are obviously experienced in this field, and give useful tips on what to look for in quality construction as well as relevant real-life examples of how things can go wrong. Useful and informative web sites are provided for every topic. After reading YOUR NEW HOUSE, I feel well prepared to begin my home search armed with an abundance of information that will save me money and ensure that I buy a quality home. DON'T BUY A HOME WITHOUT READING THIS FIRST!!

Seven years ago we decided to build a house. I had never, ever heard one person who thought doing so was a good idea. I know the authors of this book seem hooked on horror stories, but it's all to the good because it's all true. In fact, by using the book's suggestions, we not only built a wonderful house, but our builder brought it in at $17,000 under budget. We've lived in the house for seven years and I've recommended this book to countless people. Don't know if it's been updated since I read it and things do change, but if you're a novice at homebuilding and don't want to be taken, this book should be number one on your reading and USING list.

I read three books: Cellers to Ceilings, Build It Right, and Your New House. All were good, but Your New House was by far the best of the three. Your New House was very thorough with information from beginning to end in building (and buying) a new home. Lots of information to protect the consumer and includes websites for additional information and products. Highly recommended reading!

I suppose there's some valuable information in here, but it could probably be reduced to a very brief checklist. Much of the book seems to be anecdotes about this "friend" who had this "absolute nightmare" building a home and how that proves that "you should always get it in writing" or something equally prosaic. They will misinform you that anchor bolts--in every house--are only required in earthquake zones and that the concrete compressive strength rating, e.g. 3000 psi, refers to its *weight*. In other words, know little about how houses are actually built, and so have exaggerated fears about what might go wrong. You're better off avoiding freelance writers capitalizing on the research for their own houses; choose a book from an architect, lawyer, realtor or builder with a few decades' experience instead.

This book is about building a home, not buying a home. The descriptions of the book made it seem like it was for both. We have no intention of building a home from scratch, and thus the book was of no use to us. The Fields' books are dynamite,and I'm sure this one is too. But folks need to be clear what the book is about. I wouldn't recommend to people who are just planning on buying a home--only if you plan on engaging in a nightmare of contractors and such.

I bought this book (2nd edition) to help me as I built a semi-custom home in 1997, after seeing a review of the first edition that emphasized the dark humor. Now I'm updating to the latest version because, quite simply, it's an unmatched, consumer-advocate view of building a house or buying a new house, and we are getting ready to build a custom home. Existing home buyers should probably look elsewhere, because this book focuses on new-construction perils and pitfalls.
No, it's not a guide for understanding the custom home financing process or even the building process in depth, because custom and semi-custom builders all work a little differently. But taken in a holistic sense, as a guide for intelligent and careful individuals, it's a gem. Dark humor and an Eor-like pessimism is a little hard to swallow at first, but it epitomizes "plan for the worst, hope for the best." I'm an aerospace engineer, a contracts specialist, and a government consultant, but I don't build houses and this book provides the critical path to success.
I recommend it highly!
And for all those who took the tone of this book too seriously...try reading its "Deadly Serious Copyright Page" with references to "Mr. Mac N. Tosh" and "Mike Crow Softword" and credits such as "Authors' hair by Carol Crespin and Jack Snook." Bravo to the authors for their insights, intelligence, and dry wit!

This is the single best homebuying book we've found. The section on binding arbitration clauses alone is worth the price of the book. Concise, sensible, at times overly cautious -- this book is a necessary skeptical foil to overenthusiastic homebuyers who may be getting themselves into a rotten home or rotten purchase agreement. No, it's not perfect. I'm sure some of the technical information is incorrect. All homebuying books suffer this problem. But the 1-star reviews of this book are inconceivable. Perhaps they were written by shady builders or sellers who are upset that this book is scaring away unwary buyers?

I recently purchased a new home with my husband. After having problems with our new house in several areas, I decided that for the collge speech class I was taking that I would choose the topic of "researching before you buy a new home." This book was among the five books that I purchased on this subject. It was by far the most helpful and easiest to understand. I will be using it as a Bible the next time we are looking at new houses.

Keep in mind that there are better books if you need mortgage or real estate document information. However, this book was the best for giving you information how how to choose your house and neighborhood.

Your New House: The alert consumer's guide to buying and building a quality home.

I recommend this book 1000% to anyone who is about to buy or build a home. The advise in this book is invaluable and saved us from costly mistakes. We did very well as a result.

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