General-mortgage

This book explains all the little nuances about buying a house. I read the whole thing and parts of it more than once before I bought my first house. It is well organized so that you can read just certain chapters if you need specific information right away. I actually sold my copy online after my house closed. Later, I ended up buying a copy as a gift for a friend. I recommend this book to all my friends who are thinking about buying a house.

I used the Nolo Press tenants' rights book in the past to (successfully) sue my deposit-greedy/law-breaking landlords. I just used this book to buy my first home in the competitive Bay Area (yes, it's still highly competitive even in these "tough times"). Nolo's book is accurate and insightful, written in a voice that's accessible and, at times, fun and tongue-in-cheek. The organization of information, as usual, is right on. And the links and helpful sidebars are fantastic! Don't waste your money on other books. I swear this one is the only book you'll need.

This book was recommended to us by a friend who bought a home in California. Since then, we've bought it for other friends and family. Nolo Press publishes excellent books, and this is no exception. If you only read one book on buying a home (in California), this should be it.

I read this fine book, that is so correctly titled. This book is "All About Escrow and Real Estate Closing." Every aspect of the closing from pro-ration of taxes, title insurance, holding title, and closing statement are included in this book. In addition there is an appendix which in 1 paragraph for each of the 50 states outlines the settlement procedures in each and every state. There is also 10 pages of blank forms in the back of the book, which are suitable for copying and using. The book is easy to read taking a complicated and foreign subject and breaking it down and explaining it. It comes as no surprise that this book is used by real estate schools and professionals. Every real estate professional should have a copy and read it as well as use it for reference. If you ever had questions about a real estate closing, those questions are probably answered by this book. If you are only ever going to buy one or two properties this book is going to be over kill, but if your plans include buying multiple properties and you are a real estate investor, then this book will be a helpful tool in your real estate toolbox.

The illustrator is Dave Patton, who also did fine work in Leigh Robinson's excellent book "Landlording".

My only reservation is that some aspects of settlement are handled differently in different states and locales, that everything could not be covered in this book. There is no standard for settlements in different states and some states use different documents. Also some states have a simultaneous closing whereas others have the buyer and seller go to settle at different times.

I ordered All About Escrow to explain a few questions I had on closing costs. I was surprised to find that this clearly written book explained to me everything from how to write a purchase agreement, what to look out for, and followed the purchase all the way through to the final closing day. I referred this book to a friend who wanted to purchase a house from a neighbor without using a real estate agent, and All About Escrow detailed exactly how to proceed.

All About Escrow outlines the Who, What, Why, When, and How of any real estate purchase better than most real estate books I have read. It gave me the information I needed. I appreciated the "The Way It Really Is" feature which tells real life stories of a closing and I liked the check lists and what to look for. The book is written in terms which any lay person can understand. The sample forms were very helpful and the State by State Procedures chart is unique. This is one real estate book which delivers more than the title suggests!

This book is fantastic. It really changed the escrow process for me. By simplifing the buying and selling network my escrow went allot easyer. Because of this book I knew which questions to ask and ended up saving allot of money. I would advise to anyone thinking about going through escrow to read this book. It will save you allot of time, energy and expenses.

There are so many ways to make money in real estate! Since my first flipper property, which I made $8000.00 after reading "Flipping Properties" I have pocketed 7 figures and acquired 7 units - with no prior real estate experience! Bill Bronchick illustrates and delivers, step-by-step techniques, in an user friendly manner! "Financing Secrets" will forever change the way you buy and sell real estate.

Well, Bill Bronchick has done it again. Following his excellent resource Flipping Properties, he's taken the complex subject of creative real estate financing and broken it down into it's component parts and explained each one clearly and concisely in simple language anyone can understand. In the section What to Expect from this Book he says, "This book will show you how to finance properties with as little cash as possible, while maintaining minimum risk and maximum profit." And he does.

Covering such subjects as loans, mortgages, foreclosure, and working with lenders, he gives you the background you need for the later subjects of creative financing, hard and private money, getting involved in partnerships and equity sharing and the more creative subjects of lease options and owner financing.

While the book is geared primarily toward real estate investors, it is an excellent guide for any person considering buying a new home or considering doing some kind of creative financing with an investor or other buyer on a house they already own.
After reading it cover to cover (an easy task) every real estate investor should then add it to their library as a useful reference for many financing situations that may come up in this business.

I recommend this book. If you are just getting started or have a lot of experience... this book will help you. Full of great ideas and solid information to help the creative real estate investor.

Byron Walker
Full Time Investor

I liked this book because it's useful for people with various levels of structured finance knowledge. The first few chapters explain the thought process behind the rating process and provide an introduction into the structured finance world of thinking. The second half goes into more depth about actual rating processes. The third part addresses asset specific issues (auto, airlines, etc...) While the last few chapters of the book review more advanced methods of analysis.

For people with little or no knowledge of the structured finance field, the first half of the book will provide a good understanding of the subject, the 2nd half of the book will probably required more time and effort to fully appreciate its value.

This intense and well-written book is actually two distinct pieces, appealing to two different audiences. Both are effective, but separate in most cases.

The book's aim is said to be (to show) "that presented with a capital-efficient, unified analytic approach, the market will find.....the motivation to operate at higher standards of precision, making the prospect of real commodity credit risk management is possible " (ref: Preface, (ix)). In Part I, The Contemporary Framework, Part II, Analyzing Structured Securities and Part III, Applications of Numerical Methods to Structured Finance, the authors present a succinct and very readable overview of structured finance, its major elements, risks and analytic tools. In Parts IV and V, Case Studies and Advanced Structural Features, they provide an alternative approach which should permit the desired new "credit risk management" paradigm.

Experienced practitioners will likely skip over the first three parts. To the beginner (like the reviewer), the reading was invaluable. The last two parts are provocative and potentially revolutionary, but require a degree of knowledge and experience which limits their readership to a relatively small group of market practitioners who actually understand the "guts" of their speciality. It is this dichotomy which leads to the proffered description of the book as being two pieces for different audiences.

That having been said, if the reader has the time (or the need) to go from the elementary to the complex, the entire journey of the book can be achieved . In many cases, the authors would help the beginner by including more cases studies or detailed expositions in the appendices and citing references to relevant readings. I took off about six weeks from the book to study the introductory topics in greater detail. And I found there was a sufficient mass of such material that the authors might consider breaking the book into two and expanding the first part into a larger introductory text book. The transition to the second part made me encounter heavier reading and I freely admit to requiring multiple rereads (and not an insignificant number of references to my graduate school quant books). In the end, I did grasp the message the authors intended (I hope).

Overall, I feel that of the literally ten thousand plus pages I have read on this subject in the last 6 months, the four hundred odd pages of "The Analysis of Structured Securities" represent the best investment of my time.

The authors present not only new paradims for people in the security field but introduce ways to make maestros out of simple musicians This book should be in the library not only of securities' analists but of bankers, realtors, mortgage grantors or anyone in the finance business.

Pierre-Emanuel de Gaspe

Very interesting  book; very easy to read.
As a small real estate investor I found it very helpful in understanding many of the ins and outs of real estate and financing, especially on the scale i would like to grow to.

The third edition of Construction Funding by Nathan S. Collier et al is a remarkable demonstration of insight and expertise. Collier and colleagues provide an exceptionally lucid description and analysis of the process of real estate development that is accessible to non-experts while being authoritative at the same time. In addition to being an excellent text for students and others interested in careers in real estate development, this book serves as essential background for all those whose responsibilities include any part of the development process.

Buying a home can be the most rewarding, yet the most stressful experiences of your life. It is like living between two worlds. You are leaving the safety of one nest and suddenly flying to the next, which you then have to spend time getting all in order.

Joe Breckner is a top producing real estate agent and understands how potential home owners feel. By dividing the details into manageable parts, he helps you understand the searching and financing aspects of buying a home. Marc Robinson has written finance books and has consulted with top Wall Street firms for over 15 years. This is a book written by experts in the field of financing and purchasing. This book will help to encourage a sense of self-confidence in the buying process.

Since most people own at least four homes in their lifetimes, buying a home is going to be an investment of money and time. This booklet will help you answer the following questions:

1. How much home can you afford? 2. How much will closing costs, mortgage insurance, home insurance and monthly upkeep and utilities cost in a new home? 3. Why is buying better than just renting? 4. How do you get a prequalification letter? 5. How do you select the best agent? 6. What do you desire in a new home? 7. Is a targeted search best? 8. What should you know when making a deal? 9. Where do you get loans? What is a title? Why do you need a home inspection?

Now, one thing that might happen when you buy a house. You could put a very nice offer on your dream house, only to find someone else got there first. That just happened to us, so don't worry too much about it. If it happens, remember..."There is always something better!" The house you will find next will be the one you really wanted anyway.

So, before you even think about closing a house deal, open this book and you will be amazed at how much goes into buying a house. After the process it through, you will have a beautiful home you can truly be proud of owning.

Anything Joe Breckner sells is worth buying, so if he writes a book I would advise anyone and everyone to go out and buy it without delay.

I've been in the industry for over seventeen years and I can tell you - this is one of the only mortgage books that really tells it like it is. If your idea of shopping for a mortgage includes picking up the local papaer or yellow pages and calling a bunch of different lenders to ask "what's your rate?", you're in trouble. Read the info on pages 113-118 to see why.

Are you serious about shopping for a mortgage? Are you ready to set aside everything you think you know? Do you want a book that really "hits the nail on the head?" This is the book for you!

Still undecided? How about this? - We like this book so much that we bought 500 copies to give to our mortgage customers.

Do yourself a favor and put this book in your cart.

My husband and I buy and restore old homes and we have always had to run the gauntlet of obtuse lenders and silly rules when it came to getting a mortgage. No longer! This book is filled with facts and information to help the consumer understand how the mortgage industry works and how to get it to work for you instead of the bank. Many thanks to Randy Johnson!

As a new Loan Officer and looking for some real world experience i'm looking for some book with some real life advise and experience that i can gain deep knowledge about mortgage.
This book give a solid foundation and in depth knowledge that i can't get from other Loan Officer in our company.
I will definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for some in depth knowledge and practical way to learn this industry and save money and time for homeowner as well as for new loan officer.

i'm getting another one because the first book is fully hightlighted.

I purchased this book when I was 3 months behind on my mortgage payments. It helped me immensely and taught me how I can negotiate a payment plan with my mortgage company. I will recommend the book to anyone I know that can use this knowledge.

I was devastated from the recent flooding and my house was severly damaged. This book help me arrange a payment plan with the bank when I fell behind on my mortgage payments due to a short unemployment status. I highly recommend this short masterpiece.

This book should have come out years ago when I was facing foreclosure. I bought this book simply to educate myself in case I need to employ the valuable information it contains.

This book has clearly stood the test of time. It is now in its 11th edition. My professor uses the 9th edition, and most of our class has a later copy. The author provides step by step help for novice financiers who want to learn mortgages, internal rates of return, and net present value calculations.
I would offer a word of warning to people who consider buying older versions in order to save money. I have the 8th edition. The concepts have not changed (although the assumed interest rates certainly have!). However, the chapters have since been rearranged and the questions in the back of the book are different. If you are using this book for a class you may need to at least have access to a newer version.

Excellent book. Easy to follow, yet explores some complex topics.

This book is extremely insightful into the world of real estate. After having used it for two real estate classes at the MBA level, I decided to keep it for future reference, figuring most real estate books wouldn't come near this text. The problem sets at the end of each chapter are also very useful in giving the potential investor a good foundation in how real estate finances work. Overall, I highly recommend this book to the novice or experienced real estate investor.

As other reviewers have mentioned this is a must for anyone involved with MBS ABS markets. Outstanding discussions on prepayment. Very detailed analysis of MBS ABS structures and related processes. Not much material related to interest rate derviatives.

A fine guide book for the asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities markets from the original dominating force: Salomon Brothers (now Salomon Smith Barney). This comprehensive volume is an essential reference for asset backed securities and mortgage backed securities, albeit it is somewhat U.S. centric.

"Collateralized Debt Obligations and Structured Finance" by Janet Tavakoli completes and updates the essential structured finance collection. Tavakoli discusses synthetics which use credit derivatives techology and compares them to cash deals. She also exposes weaknesses in the ratings and in the structural elements that investors and structurers can correct, or at least negotiate value. She also talks about the risks of fraud, inadequate asset due diligence, and inadequate documentation & structural protections.

A clear and detailed book, written by the No. 1 expert in MBS from, Salomon Smith Barney, the best MBS underwriting and trading firm on Wall Street. A must for all people working with MBS.