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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling a Home, 4th Ed
 
 
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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling a Home, 4th Ed [Paperback]

Shelley O'Hara (Author), Nancy D. Lewis (Author)
3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling a Home, 4th Ed
32% buy the item featured on this page:
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling a Home, 4th Ed by Shelley O'Hara Paperback 3.4 out of 5 stars (10)
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Home Buying For Dummies, 3rd edition by Eric Tyson Paperback 4.5 out of 5 stars (98)
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling a Home, 5th Edition
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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling a Home, 5th Edition by Shelley O'Hara Paperback 4.5 out of 5 stars (8)
$17.05
Home Buying For Dummies, 4th Edition
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Home Buying For Dummies, 4th Edition by Eric Tyson Paperback 3.8 out of 5 stars (10)
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Editorial Reviews

Review

From the people who brought you the best-selling Complete Idiot's Guides to computer topics, this lighthearted introduction to real estate helps both buyers and sellers find the best deal. It contains valuable tips for dealing with realtors, builders, mortgage companies, and more. Advice from the pros helps readers find or build the right home. Special coverage of selling a house without a broker. Relaxed, conversational approach takes the intimidation out of real estate topics. -- MacMillan General Reference --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Goodbye, old house-hello, good buy!

From looking to sell to finding a dream home, this all-in-one guide features new, updated, and vital information and tips on getting the best deal...no matter which side of the deal you're on.

€ Unlike other books, this covers both buying and selling-which usually go hand-in-hand
€ Revised edition includes more information on buying a second home, researching locations, saving on costs, and more
€ Existing-home sales are setting new records every year
€ Very low mortgage rates are making this a great time to buy
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 432 pages
  • Publisher: Alpha Books; 4th edition (September 2, 2003)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1592571204
  • ISBN-13: 978-1592571208
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #957,745 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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More About the Author

Shelley O'Hara
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› Visit Amazon's Shelley O'Hara Page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Almost everyone imagines owning his or her own home. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
maximum mortgage payment, overall debt ratio, final walkthrough, seller disclosure form, homebuying process, ask your agent, periodic cap, housing ratio, home inspected, monthly gross income, dual agent, particular lender, closing costs, selling your home, teaser rate, loan origination fee, principal broker, mortgage insurance premium, negative amortization, lifetime cap, professional inspection, finance options
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Real Deal, The Least You Need, Fannie Mae, Real Estate Terms, Freddie Mac, New Nome, Social Security, Good Faith Estimate, Multiple Listing System, Net Proceeds Statement, Counter Offer, Deciding Where You Want, Energy Star, Federal Housing Administration, Multiple Listing Service, Seller's Perspective, Understanding the Up-Front, American Society of Home Inspectors, Better Business Bureau, Cape Cod, Existing Nome, Ginnie Mae, Prepaying Your Mortgage, Sub Total, Ask Lenders
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Starting Out by Dian Davis Hymer
 

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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:    (0)
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Average Customer Review
3.4 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
54 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Too moderate for me, October 22, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling a Home (Paperback)
Having read "Home Buying for Dummies" by Eric Tyson and Ray Brown which I highly recommend (with five stars) to all the home seekers, now I understand why I'm not really happy with this book. I find this "Idiot's Guide" approach too moderate, lacking in-depth analyses or comments in many areas. (e.g. how to spot ideal locations, etc. ) The author, in my view, doesn't take a stand and states her opinion clearly enough, which sometimes makes me feel like I am reading a free government brochure on home buying A to Z. Perhaps one single volume is not enough to cover such vast and complicated areas as buying and selling homes.

Although I will keep this book and use it as a reference/glossary when necessary, I'd probably rely on Tyson/Brown's book for "tips" most of the time.

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51 of 57 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Best home buying primer, February 2, 2004
This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling a Home, 4th Ed (Paperback)
I'm currently in the rush to buy a condo in a seller's-market city, and in the last two weeks I read through a dozen home-buying advice books. The Complete Idiot's Guide is by far the best of the bunch, and in case you are comparison-shopping, I think it's much better than the For Dummies title.

The biggest reason is the book, now in its fourth edition, is very comprehensive. The bulk of it covers the buying aspects, but there are a few chapters devoted to selling, and this is a great arrangement. As a potential buyer, it's to your advantage to know what it's like to sell, so when you select a property you will instinctly think of the time when you need to or have to sell. In my caes, I plan to live in the condo for about 5 years and then move to a different city, so having a seller's perspective while I shop for a condo is really helpful. For instance, I saw a nice condo yesterday which I would have bought but when I considered the selling perspective, I saw some problems and decided not to pursue it. As a home buyer, especially a first-time home buyer like myself (that's why I bought this book!), you really want to make a well-rounded decision. Sure there's no perfect house out there -- unless your definition of "perfect" is imperfect -- but the last thing you want is spend half a million dollars on something you regret right after you sign the closing docs.

Second, compared to many books this one is very well written. Maybe I have a slight bias in favor of female writers, but I find women tend to be better in explaining complicated concepts than men. This book is a perfect example of my stereotype. Every chapter is easy to read and follow, and you see the major points right away. The For Dummies title in particular suffers from information overflow and leaves you wondering what you've just read. Which makes it next to being worthless, especially if you are in a rush to get acquainted with the real estate market. There's a lot of information in this idiot's book but the top-notch organization makes it easy to digest... and remember.

(Don't forget, you don't want to carry a home-buying primer around when you shop for a house! If you did you'd simply be taken for an unpleasant ride by greedy sellers and brokers.)

Third, like I mentioned before, this book also covers aspects of the selling process, so it's a great book to keep in case you need to sell. In addition, when you do sell, you can review the home-buying chapters to learn what motivates the buyer, so to get your best deal!

To be honest at first I didn't like the format of this book; the page is wide and there seem too many words. But because the authors write well and clearly, I eventually found it the best primer on home buying, with bonus coverage on the basic of home selling.

Very highly recommended, especially to previously clueless people like yours truly.

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18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars OVERSIMPLIFIED, June 14, 2005
This review is from: The Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling a Home, 4th Ed (Paperback)
I bought this book because of some of the lame reviews I read in the "Home Buying for Dummies" reviews. Had I spent 2 seconds to flip through and read a couple of paragraphs it would have stayed on the shelf and $20 bucks in my pocket.

On the flight to the city where my wife and I are considering buying a home, she read the Idiots Guide while I read the for Dummies. She constantly was showing me how pathetic this book is with paragraphs dedicated to "Why do you want to buy a home?" and "Banks are in this world to make money". Topics were disorganized and had no useful content. I actually was thankful that the book is double spaced with large fonts so I would have to read more of it! Within 2 minutes she wanted to take the "for Dummies" book from me.

Bottom line... Swing by the book store and see how bad this book is for yourself before you order it online. If you really want it, I'm sure there are plenty of used versions -- in near new condition, since there was nothing worthy of highlighting -- online.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Anytime is a great time to learn!
Closings! Mortgages! What can you afford. How much should you put down. It can have a girl's head spinning! Some sit back and read!
Published on June 30, 2008 by David Colvin

5.0 out of 5 stars A Susinct Guide for Home Buying
This book was an excellent resource for the first time home buyer. It guided me through the very beginning stages all the way to close. Read more
Published on May 22, 2008 by T. Ganz

2.0 out of 5 stars There are better books about this subject
If you are buying a home, you would do well to find a book that concentrates on that facet of the real estate market. Read more
Published on November 1, 2007 by Thomas P. Mckenna

2.0 out of 5 stars Not bad... but not great.
I bought both this book and "Home Buying for Dummies," and honestly I think I got one piece of useful information out of this book. Read more
Published on July 13, 2006 by A. Hargrave

1.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointing and superficial
I found this book to be very superficial and biased. I never felt that the author was in my corner nor had much experience offering objective home buying advice. Read more
Published on January 31, 2006 by Howard

5.0 out of 5 stars 3rd Edition
I reorganized the information and examples in this book for the 3rd edition and want to point out a few things to potential readers. Read more
Published on November 9, 2000 by Nancy Warner

5.0 out of 5 stars Very easy to follow. Written in plain English!
I highly recommend this book. Because of the simple wording, I actually felt comfortable and understood the real estate terminology. Read more
Published on December 3, 1998

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