Buying-the

This is a great book for learning different questions to ask your lender so that you can get the deal that is best for you. It also tells you different companies and programs that you can contact to get on a little or no money down program. This was an extremely helpful book. It completely covered the loan part of buying a home. If you have questions about other aspects of buying a home this book won't really help that much. For that get Home Buying for dummies. Between the two you can answer all of your own questions!

As no one had written a review of this book when I purchased it, I bought it based on the title alone; but don't let it fool you. It's not 300 pages on buying a home with little or no money down alone, as I would have thought, and primarily what I bought it for. Most of the chapters are simply about buying a house.

There is helpful and thorough information about figuring out how much house you can afford, credit, tax savings, home owners insurance, mortages, what to look for if inspecting the house yourself, etc. There are also many helpful sample and example forms such as House Closing/Refinance Data and Gift Letters. Also provided are tables that calculate credit ratings, mortages, etc. There are sample lists of what to look for at each viewing and sample tables of how to compare all of the properties. The book is riddled with "Example", "Note", "Caution", and "Tip" asides that help to explain, warn, and advize. Also, at the end of each chapter is a chapter summary, which is nice, because if you're not sure if you need to read the entire chapter or not, you can read the chapter summary first and decide then if you need more information. Each chapter is not set up like a novel either, which is also nice. It's broken down into smaller sections with informative headings so you really don't need to read the entire book to pinpoint the information you want.

One of the most helpful parts of this book is the glossary in the back of the book. We are first time home buyers, and I am not familiar with much of the terminology of home buying, so I found the glossary helpful in understanding what I was reading.

Now to the point of the book, buying a house with little or no money down. There is no "true" way to buy a house with no money down. You still need several thousand dollars in closing fees. There are two chapters in this book about "no" money down. Chapter 7 is called "Mom and Dad (Or a Good Friend) Give the Down Payment" and discusses taxes, shows sample forms to use, and gives tips and examples to help. Chapter 8 is called "Borrow the Downpayment from Family or Friends". This chapter discusses types of loans, interest rates, collateral, security, etc and provides an example of a form you would use if you chose to borrow the money from family or friends.

Chapter 10, "FHA Insured Mortgages", is what I was hoping this book would be all about, because of the title. If you are buying this book soley for information on buying a house with little money down, you will find that this is the most helpful chapter. (In addition to the FHA mortages, the author provides names, numbers, and websites for other agencies to go to that offer 3% or less down payments.) The author discusses how FHA morgages work, how much of a down payment you will need (1.25-2.85% depending on the area), benefits and drawbacks, how to qualify, and probably most importantly, how to obtain one. Just like the rest of the book there are "Tip"s and "Caution"s and tables to help explain.

Although I was disappointed that this book is not ALL about buying a house with little or no money down, as the title implies, there is lots of very useful, helpful, informative information in this book. However, no one book has everything. I would recomend, "100 Questions Every First-TIme Home Buyer Should Ask" by Ilyce R. Glink in addition to this book to any first-time home buyer out there.

Happy House Hunting! :-)

A couple of years ago, I decided it was time to move out of my parents house. Because I didn't plan on having a family of my own for some time, I decided that a condominium was the best choice for me. After about 5 months of searching and not coming up with everything I wanted for the price I was willing to pay, a friend gave me this book. After reading it, I knew what questions to ask to who(and what answers I needed to hear),how to research the people and situations I was dealing with, what to watch out for, and how to really find my dream condo. It made me realize that I wasn't only getting my own place, I was investing in my future! It took me almost a year, but I finally found what I was looking for AND paid MY price. The best part was that it was easy to read and understand,got to the point, and stayed interesting from the first page until the last. Anyone who is looking to invest in a condo NEEDS to read this book!

I found this to be a great resource for me as I sold one house and purchased another, all without the use of a realtor. It has good information about hidden things to look for and helpful hint about making your house look as attractive to home buyers. Since it goes over both buying and selling, you can cross reference to make sure you know about hidden costs and inspections that might be necessary. I would suggest it as a first stop (but not last) if you are thinking about buying or selling a home.

If you need a crash course on buying a house -- from family houses to condos to co-ops -- this well-produced book will help you aplenty. Featuring the "Now What?!" series' trademark Q&A format, each chapter deals with an aspect of the house-buying process. Each section starts with a general discussion and is followed by "Ask the Expert" with common questions and answers. The information is rather basic and leaves a lot to be learned in more depth, but if you want to know about how to buy real estate before the sun rises again, this is the book to get.

After this book I recommend the more comprehensive Complete Idiot's Guide to Buying and Selling a Home.

This book is a really easy to read book as it has short notes, many pictures, less wordings, and suggestions for each different wine.

Like the title, it lives up to the name. Too often, our problem is choosing the right wine for minimum dollar we pay. This book makes things much simpler. It offers the very basics of wine making and appreciation, and also goes right to the things we need and want to know. Also, how to prevent looking like a fool in a restaurant when you are trying to impress your date.

All in all, I think this is a good book to look at if you want one to impress people with the wine you bought from the grocer, but if you want to impress people with knowledge of wine, find a thicker and more detailed book.

I am constantly dabbling in the idea of getting myself a sporty car that I can have some fun with but like most of us, I don't happen to have a large disposable income to blow on the hot new Ferrari 575. That is why this book is most fabulous for even the most fund-deficient of car enthusiasts that just want to have a pedal stomping, gear shifting good time.

There is a large collection of moderately priced sports cars that have been rated for various attributes. Each car has a few pages dedicated to the pros, cons and specs of the car, along with pictures and some history behind the car. I felt that this book covered a very nice variety of domestic and imported sports cars and offered almost all the basic information anyone would want in narrowing down their search for a new toy. I still haven't gotten myself a car yet, but that doesn't stop me from dreaming.

This buyers guide is a great resource for Camaro information and history. Whenever I see a title by Michael Antonick, I just buy it. Often these kind of books are poorly done with poor photography and incorrect facts. For someone like me, I can forgive an occasional mistake but if I read about something I know and find a series of mistakes, the authors credibility goes down the drain.

The only thing I might add to the next edition is some kind of chart for each year listing all engines with RPO codes and horse power information etc.

Also, I can see no RPO codes for the base V8 engine for any year.

Great Book!

This book by Peter Sessler was very well writen. It has enough information to make anyone a respected mustang informant. This was my first mustang book and I still go back to it for information from time to time. I bought the book when I was 15, and now I own a 94 GT convertable. That is how big of an impact this book can have. People always wonder how I know so much about mustangs and now I must admitt, it is because of this book. The main thing that I didn't like about the book was the way it went into detail at times and later seemed to skim over some cars.

As a seasoned professional in the export/import business, I like this book for its breadth of substance. This could also be an interesting college or graduate school textbook for those pursuing a career in the field.