Home Buying For Dummies

Eric Tyson is a syndicated personal financial writer, lecturer, and counselor. He is dedicated to teaching people to manage their personal finances better. Eric is a former management consultant to Fortune 500 financial service firms. Over the past two decades, he has successfully invested in securities as well as in real estate and has started and managed several businesses. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics at Yale and an M.B.A. at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. An accomplished freelance personal finance writer, Eric is the author of five other national best--sellers in the...For Dummies series: Home Buying (co--author), Personal Finance, Investing, Mutual Funds, and Taxes (co--author). His work has been featured and praised in hundreds of national and local publications, including Newsweek, Kiplinger's, The Wall Street Journal, Money, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and on NBC's Today Show, PBS's Nightly Business Report, CNN, The Oprah Winfrey Show, ABC, CNBC, Bloomberg Business Radio, CBS National Radio, and National Public Radio. Eric has counseled thousands of clients on a variety of personal finance, investment, real estate, and mortgage quandaries and questions. In addition to maintaining a financial counseling practice, he is a popular speaker on important personal finance topics. Ray Brown, co--author of the national best--seller Home Buying For Dummies, is a veteran real estate broker with more than two decades of hands--on experience. A former vice president and manager for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Company and McGuire Real Estate, and founder of his own real estate firm, the Raymond Brown Company, Ray is currently a writer, radio talk show host, and public speaker on residential real estate topics. Ray believes that most people are pretty darn smart. When they have problems, it's usually because they don't know the right questions to ask to get the information they need to make good decisions. This book completes Ray's residential real estate trilogy and fulfills his dream of helping folks find their way through the often mystifying process of buying, financing, and selling their homes. On his way to becoming a real estate guru, Ray worked as the real estate analyst for KGO--TV (ABC's affiliate in San Francisco), a syndicated real estate columnist for The San Francisco Examiner, and he hosts a weekly radio program, Ray Brown on Real Estate, for KNBR. In addition to his work for ABC, Ray has appeared as a real estate expert on CNN, NBC, CBS, and in The Wall Street Journal and Time.

Introduction. The Eric Tyson/Ray Brown Difference. The Road Map. Part I: Home Economics. Part II: Financing 101. Part III: Property, Players, and Prices. Part IV: Let the Game Begin. Part V: The Part of Tens. Part VI: Appendixes. Those Silly Little Icons. Part I: Home Economics. Chapter 1: To Buy or Not to Buy, That Is the Question. Chapter 2: Getting Your Financial House in Order. Chapter 3: What Can You Afford to Buy? Chapter 4: Why Home Prices Rise and Fall. Part II: Financing 101. Chapter 5: Selecting a Mortgage. Chapter 6: Mortgage Quandaries, Conundrums, and Paperwork. Part III: Property, Players, and Prices. Chapter 7: Where and What to Buy. Chapter 8: Your Real Estate Team. Chapter 9: What's It Worth? Part IV: Let the Game Begin. Chapter 10: Negotiating to Get What You Want. Chapter 11: Protecting Your Home. Chapter 12: It Ain't Over Till the Weight--Challenged Escrow Officer Sings. Part V: The Part of Tens. Chapter 13: Ten Tips for Realty Web Surfing. Chapter 14: Ten Financial "To Do's" After You Buy. Chapter 15: Ten Things to Know When Investing in Real Estate. Chapter 16: Ten Things to Consider When Selling Your House. Part VI: Appendixes. Appendix A: Sample Real Estate Purchase Contract. Appendix B: Example of a Good Inspection Report. Appendix C: Glossary. Index.