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| Introduction | |
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| About This Book: The Eric Tyson/Ray Brown Difference | |
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| Conventions Used in This Book | |
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| How This Book Is Organized | |
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| Icons Used in This Book | |
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| Where to Go from Here | |
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| Home Economics | |
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| Deciding Whether to Buy | |
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| Weighing the Advantages of Owning versus Renting | |
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| Ownership advantages | |
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| Renting advantages | |
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| Pitfalls of the Rent-versus-Buy Decision | |
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| Renting because it seems cheaper | |
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| Fretting too much over job security | |
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| Buying when you expect to move soon | |
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| Succumbing to pushy salespeople | |
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| Ignoring logistics | |
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| Overbuying | |
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| Underbuying | |
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| Buying because it's a grown-up thing to do | |
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| Buying because you're afraid that escalating prices will lock you out | |
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| Misunderstanding what you can afford | |
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| Getting Your Financial House in Order | |
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| Surveying Your Spending | |
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| Gathering the data | |
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| Analyzing your spending numbers | |
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| Reckoning Your Savings Requirements | |
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| Setting some goals | |
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| Retirement savings accounts and a dilemma | |
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| Other reasons to save | |
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| Protecting Yourself, Your Dependents, and Your Assets | |
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| Insuring yourself | |
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| Insuring your assets | |
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| Invest in Yourself | |
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| What Can You Afford to Buy? | |
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| Lenders Can't Tell You What You Can Afford | |
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| The Cost of Buying and Owning a Home | |
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| Mortgage payments | |
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| Property taxes | |
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| Insurance | |
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| Maintenance and other costs | |
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| The tax benefits of homeownership | |
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| Closing Costs | |
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| Accumulating the Down Payment | |
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| The 20 percent solution | |
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| Ways to buy with less money down | |
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| Where to invest the down payment | |
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| Why Home Prices Rise and Fall | |
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| What Drives Real Estate Markets and Prices? | |
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| Jobs, glorious jobs | |
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| Available housing | |
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| Inventory of homes for sale and actual sales | |
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| The rental market | |
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| How to Get a Good Buy in Any Market | |
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| Seek hidden opportunities to add value | |
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| Buy when others are scared to buy | |
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| Find a motivated seller | |
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| Buy during slow periods | |
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| Become a great negotiator | |
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| Buy in a good neighborhood | |
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| Financing 101 | |
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| Understanding and Improving Your Credit Score | |
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| The Record You Can't Ignore: Your Credit Report | |
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| What your credit history comprises | |
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| What goes into your credit report | |
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| Why you should check your credit report | |
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| The Most Popular Kid on the Block: FICO Scores | |
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| How scores work - the short version | |
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| How a FICO score assesses your credit history - the long version | |
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| What FICO scores ignore | |
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| Why your score is what it is | |
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| Getting Hold of Your Report and Score | |
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| Selecting a Mortgage | |
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| Fixed or Adjustable? That Is the Interest(ing) Question | |
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| Distinguishing fixed from adjustables | |
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| Looking at hybrid loans | |
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| Starting out risky: Interest-only mortgages | |
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| Making the fixed/adjustable decision | |
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| Deciding on your loan's life: 15 years or 30? | |
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| Finding a Fixed-Rate Mortgage | |
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| The all-important interest rate | |
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| The finer points of points | |
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| Other lender fees | |
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| Arriving at the Absolute Best Adjustable | |
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| Where an ARM's interest rate comes from | |
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| How often does the interest rate adjust? | |
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| Limits on interest-rate adjustments | |
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| Locating the Best, Lowest-Cost Lenders | |
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| Shopping on your own | |
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| Working with a mortgage broker | |
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| Mortgage Quandaries, Conundrums, and Paperwork | |
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| Conquering Common Mortgage Problems | |
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| Insufficient income | |
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| Debt and credit problems | |
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| Lack of down payment | |
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| Dealing with Appraisal Problems | |
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| You've overpaid | |
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| The appraiser doesn't know your area | |
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| The appraiser/lender is sandbagging you | |
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| Those Darn Mortgage Forms | |
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| The laundry list of required documents | |
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| Permissions to inspect your finances | |
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| The Uniform Residential Loan Application | |
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| Other typical documents | |
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| Property, Players, and Prices | |
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| Where and What to Buy | |
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| Location, Location, Value | |
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| Characteristics of good neighborhoods | |
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| Selecting your best neighborhood | |
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| Fundamental Principles for Selecting Your Home | |
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| The principle of progression: Why to buy one of the cheaper homes on the block | |
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| The principle of regression: Why not to buy the most expensive house on the block | |
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| The principle of conformity: Why unusual is usually costly | |
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| Defining Home Sweet Home | |
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| Detached residences | |
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| Attached residences | |
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| Finding a Great Deal | |
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| Finding a fixer-upper | |
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| Taking over a foreclosure | |
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| Pooling Your Resources: Ad Hoc Partnerships | |
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| Types of residential partnerships | |
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| Structuring a successful partnership | |
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| Assembling an All-Star Real Estate Team | |
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| The Team Concept | |
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| Lining up the players | |
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| Avoiding gratuitous advice | |
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| Reeling in a Real Estate Agent | |
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| Types of agent relationships | |
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| How agents get paid | |
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| Characteristics of good agents | |
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| Selecting your agent | |
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| Getting the most from your agent | |
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| Bagging a Broker | |
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| Landing a Lender | |
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| Procuring Property Inspectors | |
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| Electing an Escrow Officer | |
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| Finding (Or Forgoing) Financial and Tax Advisors | |
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| Looking for Lawyers | |
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| Selecting your lawyer | |
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| Getting the most out of a lawyer | |
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| What's It Worth? | |
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| The Three Elusive Components of Worth | |
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| Value is a moving target | |
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| Cost is yesterday | |
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| Price is what it's worth today | |
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| Fair Market Value | |
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| When fair market value isn't fair - need-based pricing | |
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| Median home prices versus fair market value | |
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| Determining Fair Market Value: Comparable Market Analysis | |
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| The basics of a helpful CMA | |
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| The flaws of CMAs | |
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| Getting a Second Opinion: Appraisals versus CMAs | |
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| Why Buyers and Sellers Often Start Far Apart | |
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| Inept agents | |
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| Unrealistic sellers | |
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| Tapping the Internet's Best Resources | |
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| Finding Useful Information | |
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| Bypass traditional search engines | |
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| Get your feet wet at Realtor.com | |
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| Read quality real estate news | |
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| Discover more at these sites | |
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| Doing Some Preliminary Shopping | |
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| Surveying homes for sale | |
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| Sifting school information | |
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| Perusing "best places" to live | |
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| Familiarizing yourself with financing options | |
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| The Drawbacks of Searching for Houses in Cyberspace | |
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| Conflicts of interest | |
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| Bankruptcies | |
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| Misleading home-valuation tools | |
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| Untrustworthy mortgage calculators | |
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| Slow surfing | |
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| Making the Deal | |
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| Negotiating Your Best Deal | |
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| Understanding and Coping with Your Emotions | |
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| Examining the violent forces at work | |
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| Controlling yourself | |
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| The Art of Negotiating | |
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| Being realistic | |
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| Examining your negotiating style | |
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| Negotiating with finesse | |
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| The Negotiating Process | |
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| Making an offer to purchase | |
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| Leaving an escape hatch: Contingencies | |
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| Getting a counter offer | |
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| The Finer Points of Negotiating | |
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| Negotiating when the playing field isn't level | |
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| Spotting fake sellers | |
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| Lowballing | |
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| Negotiating credits in escrow | |
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| Inspecting and Protecting Your Home | |
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| Conducting Thorough Inspections | |
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| All properties should be inspected | |
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| The two types of defects: patent and latent | |
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| Patent-defect red flags | |
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| Types of property inspections | |
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| Inspecting inspectors | |
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| Insuring Your Home | |
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| Homeowners insurance | |
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| Title insurance | |
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| It Ain't Over Till the Weight-Challenged Escrow Officer Sings | |
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| An Escrow Is a Good Thing | |
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| Know thy escrow officer | |
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| Cover all the bases | |
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| 'Tis the season: December escrows | |
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| Follow through | |
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| How You Take Title Is Vital | |
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| Joint tenancy | |
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| Community property | |
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| Tenants-in-common or partnerships | |
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| Getting help drafting an agreement | |
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| Getting Possessive | |
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| Moving day | |
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| Final verification of condition | |
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| Coping with Buyer's Remorse | |
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| The Part of Tens | |
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| Ten Financial "To Do's" After You Buy | |
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| Stay on Top of Your Spending and Saving | |
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| Consider Electronic Mortgage Payments | |
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| Rebuild Your Emergency Reserve | |
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| Ignore Solicitations for Mortgage Insurance | |
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| Ignore Solicitations for Faster Payoff | |
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| Consider Protesting Your Tax Assessment | |
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| Refinance If Interest Rates Fall | |
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| Keep Receipts for All Improvements | |
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| Ignore Solicitations to Homestead | |
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| Take Time to Smell the Roses | |
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| Ten Things to Know When Investing in Real Estate | |
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| Real Estate Is a Solid Long-Term Investment | |
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| Real Estate Investing Isn't for Everyone | |
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| REITs Are Good If You Loathe Being a Landlord | |
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| Don't Invest in Limited Partnerships | |
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| Avoid Timeshare Condos and Vacation Homes | |
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| Residential Properties Are Your Best Investment Option | |
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| Consider Fixer-Upper Income Property | |
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| Consider Converting Small Apartment Buildings to Condos | |
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| Considr the Property's Cash Flow | |
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| Your Rental Losses Are Limited for Tax Purposes | |
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| Ten Things to Consider When Selling Your House | |
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| Why Are You Selling? | |
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| Can You Afford to Buy the Next Home? | |
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| What's It Worth? | |
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| Have You Done Your Homework to Find a Good Real Estate Agent? | |
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| Do You Have the Skills to Sell the House Yourself? | |
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| Have You Properly Prepared the House for Sale? | |
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| Do You Understand the House's Hot Buttons? | |
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| What Are the Financial Ramifications of Selling? | |
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| Do You Know the Rules for Capital-Gains Taxes on the Sale of a House? | |
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| Appendixes | |
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| Sample Real Estate Purchase Contract | |
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| Example of a Good Inspection Report | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Index | |