Home Buying Kit For Dummies (eBook)

Eric Tyson is a personal finance writer, lecturer, and former management consultant to Fortune 500 financial service firms. Ray Brown is a real estate professional with over four decades of hands-on experience and a public speaker on residential real estate topics.

Introduction 1

Part 1: Getting Started with Buying a Home 5

Chapter 1: Deciding Whether to Buy 7

Chapter 2: Getting Your Financial House in Order 21

Chapter 3: What Can You Afford to Buy? 37

Chapter 4: Why Home Prices Rise and Fall 67

Part 2: Financing 101 81

Chapter 5: Understanding and Improving Your Credit Score 83

Chapter 6: Selecting a Mortgage 99

Chapter 7: Mortgage Quandaries, Conundrums, and Forms 129

Part 3: Property, Players, and Prices 155

Chapter 8: Where and What to Buy 157

Chapter 9: Assembling an All-Star Real Estate Team 197

Chapter 10: What's It Worth? 227

Chapter 11: Tapping the Internet's Best Resources 247

Part 4: Making the Deal 257

Chapter 12: Negotiating Your Best Deal 259

Chapter 13: Inspecting and Protecting Your Home 287

Chapter 14: It Ain't Over till the Weight-Challenged Escrow Officer Sings 309

Part 5: The Part of Tens 325

Chapter 15: Ten Financial "To Do's" After You Buy 327

Chapter 16: Ten Things to Know When Investing in Real Estate 335

Chapter 17: Ten Things to Consider When Selling Your House 343

Part 6: Appendixes 351

Appendix A: Sample Real Estate Purchase Contract 353

Appendix B: Sample Short-Sale Addendum plus Short-Sale Information and Advisory 365

Appendix C: Example of a Good Inspection Report 373

Appendix D: Glossary 393

Index 411