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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 | |