The Unofficial Guide to Buying a Home

By Alan Perlis and Beth Bradley

Book Overview

It's typically the biggest expense you will encounter in a lifetime. The right choice can make you ecstatic, and the wrong one can leave you burdened beyond belief. Buying a home requires extensive information; the more you know increases the chances that you'll live there happily ever after. The Unofficial Guide to Buying a Home presents readers with unbiased, street-smart advice that helps them assess their options. How much home can you afford? How do you find a realtor? Where should you buy? What type of mortgage should you apply for? How do you make sense of all those fees? And how do you make certain that you're really purchasing your home sweet home? This is the first guide to truly address the anxiety that goes along with the purchase of a lifetime.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0028624610
• ISBN13: 9780028624617
• Release Date: December 1998
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Length: 454 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 5.3" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Well done...

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.

Easing the fears to confidence

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).

It explains everything from shopping till moving in

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.

Do yourself a favor and read this book before buying a home.

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.