The Homebuyer's Kit: Find Your Dream Home, Finance Your Purchase, Negotiate the Best Deal, Explore Online Resources
Author: Edith Lank
An up-to-date primer to use when looking to buy a home, new or used, The Homebuyer's Kit offers down-to-earth advice and commonsense strategies from two of the nation's leading real estate experts. Despite the bells and whistles of online tours and e-loans, buying a home remains the most expensive and important purchase that most people make in a lifetime. It requires a major emotional commitment as well as a financial one. Authors Edith Lank and Dena Amoruso share all the tools needed to find and buy the right home, as well as what to watch out for along the way. The Homebuyer's Kit offers vital information about every stage of the homebuying process in an easy-to-use, step-by-step fashion, and also covers all the ins and outs of buying a home, from the initial dream to the final closing. "http://www.editeur.org/onix/1.2/onix-international.dtd"> 01 Dearborn Trade Publishing
Booknews
A primer on buying a new or used home, offering step-by-step instructions for every stage of the process. Gives advice on using the Internet as a resource for real estate information, getting preapproved with a mortgage lender, finding a broker or agent, and negotiating the sales contract, and outlines the costs of home ownership and how much to spend on a home. Includes worksheets, checklists, sample forms, and loan payment tables. Lank is a broker and real estate educator. Her real estate column, , appears in the . Amoruso writes a column for the . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Table of Contents:
Preface | ix | |
Chapter 1 | Starting Your Homebuying | 1 |
What Must You Have in Order to Buy? | 2 | |
Shelter Two Ways: Income Tax | 2 | |
How Equity Builds | 3 | |
If You Wait | 6 | |
Chapter 2 | You and the Broker | 9 |
Law of Agency | 10 | |
So Where Do You Stand? | 11 | |
How to Protect Yourself | 12 | |
Buyers' Brokers | 13 | |
Buying a New Home | 14 | |
Discount and FSBO Brokers | 16 | |
Pure For Sale by Owner Properties | 17 | |
Yet Other Arrangements | 19 | |
Chapter 3 | Choosing an Agent | 21 |
Tests to Apply | 22 | |
Using a Lawyer | 24 | |
Escrow and Title Companies | 25 | |
What the Agent Does for You | 26 | |
Chapter 4 | What Can You Spend for Your Home? | 31 |
First List Your Income | 32 | |
Qualifying Ratios | 32 | |
How Much Will This Carry? | 36 | |
Chapter 5 | Costs of Home Ownership | 41 |
Escrowing Taxes and Insurance | 41 | |
About Insurance | 42 | |
Replacement versus Depreciated Value | 43 | |
About Taxes | 44 | |
Other Costs | 45 | |
Repairs versus Improvements | 45 | |
Risk of Overimproving | 47 | |
Chapter 6 | What Sort of Home? | 49 |
Keeping a Marriage Together through It All | 50 | |
Consider Traffic Patterns | 50 | |
A Brand-New House | 56 | |
Owning a Co-op, Condomium, or Town House | 59 | |
Manufactured Housing | 61 | |
Chapter 7 | Financing Your Home Purchase | 65 |
Broker Plans Strategy | 65 | |
Buying for All Cash | 65 | |
Buying with Nothing Down | 69 | |
Picking a Mortgage | 70 | |
Mortgagor and Mortgagee | 71 | |
Portfolio Loans | 71 | |
The Secondary Market | 72 | |
Other Lenders | 72 | |
So What Are Points? | 74 | |
Annual Percentage Rate | 75 | |
Conventional Mortgages | 77 | |
Understanding Adjustable-Rate Mortgages | 77 | |
30 or 15 Years | 82 | |
Biweekly Mortgages | 83 | |
FHA Mortgages | 83 | |
VA Is for Veterans | 85 | |
Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) | 87 | |
Assumable Mortgages | 87 | |
Private Mortgages | 89 | |
Land Contracts and Lease Options | 89 | |
Balloon Mortgages | 90 | |
Building Your Own Home | 91 | |
In-House and Preferred Builder Mortgage Companies | 91 | |
A Note on Mortgage Preapproval | 92 | |
Chapter 8 | House Hunting | 95 |
Where Are the Bargains? | 98 | |
More Bargain Situations | 99 | |
Location, Location, Location | 101 | |
Choosing a Neighborhood | 102 | |
Using the Internet | 103 | |
Looking Over an Older Home | 103 | |
Building Inspection Engineers | 110 | |
Check Taxes | 110 | |
What Else? | 111 | |
Open Houses | 111 | |
Stay in Touch with Your Agent | 112 | |
Looking at New Homes | 112 | |
Chapter 9 | Buying Investment Property | 115 |
Getting Started | 116 | |
How Leverage Works | 118 | |
Analyzing Your First Investment | 118 | |
Financing Investment Property | 120 | |
Risk and Decision | 121 | |
Chapter 10 | Arriving at a Contract | 123 |
The Written Offer | 124 | |
First Decision: Purchase Price | 125 | |
Look for Comparables | 126 | |
Allow for Contingencies | 127 | |
Personal Property versus Real Estate | 129 | |
What Else in Your Offer? | 130 | |
Earnest Money | 132 | |
Legal Provisions | 133 | |
Final Jitters | 133 | |
Negotiation--The Tennis Game | 133 | |
Buyer's Remorse | 135 | |
Chapter 11 | Your Mortgage Application | 141 |
Assets | 144 | |
Income to Qualify | 144 | |
Debts | 145 | |
Credit History | 146 | |
After the Application | 147 | |
Chapter 12 | Buying Your Home at Last | 149 |
Forms of Joint Ownership | 150 | |
That Clod of Earth--The Deed | 150 | |
What to Do before Closing | 153 | |
Closing a New Home Purchase | 154 | |
What Happens at Closing? | 156 | |
Long Distance Closings | 156 | |
Holding Proceeds in Escrow | 157 | |
Adjustments and Prorations | 157 | |
A Word about the Power of the Cyber World | 158 | |
Passing Papers | 158 | |
Appendix A | Monthly Payment Tables | 165 |
Appendix B | Remaining Principal Balance | 181 |
Appendix C | EPA Lead Paint Disclosure Brochure | 197 |
Appendix D | Helpful Web Sites for Homebuyers | 213 |
Glossary | 215 | |
Index | 223 |
On-The-Job Communications for Business, the Professions, Government and Industry
Author: Ernst Jacobi
Teaches communications skills for vocational job and speaking, writing, interviewing,resumes etc.
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