General-mortgage

I found Arditti's writing to be simply attrocious. What the marketplace needs is a clear, concise guide to instrument structure and valuation, and Mr. Arditti writes in circles. As an example, his chapter on option pricing refers to "using the methods used previously in this chapter" without referring to how to apply these to the method just introduced. The method just introduced was explained using numbers that were presumably fabricated, but lord only knows, because the author can't be bothered to specify how his example was structured.

In trying to explain things simply, the author fails to explain anything clearly. "Derivatives" is an extreme disappointment. As a reference, this book may have some use, but if you're looking to learn something from it, stear clear.

This book is an excellent resource for beginning and intermediate level fund managers who want to understand the derivatives to be able to use them in risk hedging and income maximization.

The book is excellently organized in four sections and each section is self sufficient. Each of the sections begin with basics, illustrates the concepts with example, introduces the mathematics of pricing and methodology of hedginag of risks

Every section has also a nice subsection on terminology and definitions.

The book is an excellent attempt to explain a highly technical and complex subject.The section on Interest Rate swaps is outstanding. A must read for all corporate money managers and a must addition to all financial libraries.

I am completely satisfied with this book. He knows how to design derivatives and make them work. This book does a remarkable job of explaining the theory and practice of derivative securities.

It's the industry standard. Everyone has one. It stands alone in its field. And if you're reading this you're probably going to buy regardless of what is written here.

But I've found this book (along with some of the other Fabozzi 'Handbooks') to be overrated. Basically, the format of 30 or so different authors each writing a chapter in the form of an article diminishes the usefulness of the book. There is no narrative, pedagogical or otherwise. The format leads to significant gaps in coverage. The quality of the chapters is uneven, as is the level of detail covered.

Don't misunderstand me -- the Handbook isn't bad, by any strecth of the imagination. It's just not as good as it could be. It has almost no fluff, and all the information in it is good. And the competition is a very slim field. For many things Fabozzi is not only your best choice, it's your only one.

I have seven years of experience selling these products, and I use Fabozzi's book often. This is a good reference, and a good treatment of mortgage and asset backed securities. I only gave it four stars because the fact that this is a compiled work of research material interrupts the flow of ideas. On the other hand, there is some merit to getting different angles on the subject from different viewpoints.

One caveat. Mortgage derivatives used to mean calls and puts on mortgage backed securities. Today, however, entire portfolios of mortgage risk are laid off in the form of credit derivatives.

Tavakoli has the best treatment of that topic in the book: "Credit Derivatives".

A vast collection of articles by practitioners on Wall Street, this book covers a broad number of topics on Mortgage Backed Securities. While not a scholarly approach, 'street research' typically aims to educate the fixed income portfolio manager.

I bought this book in hopes of understanding better how to buy my first home. It did in fact help with a number of questions I had (though many remain). But what really hurts this book is the author's confusion with math. Several of the formulae in the book are just wrong (like how to calculate your debt-to-income ratio). His comparisons of various loan options are also useless. I'll give two examples: (1) he compares ARMs to fixed-rate mortgages during a historical period during which interest rates dropped like a rock, so it was already clear which would look better; (2) in another example he prefers a 30-year, low point but high rate loan to a 20-year, high point but low rate loan based solely on the monthly payments -- no mention of the relative paydown of the loan's principal. There was a lot of useful info in this book, but since there are so many options in this genre, I would suggest you look elsewhere. I am returning this book tomorrow.

When I purchased this book I had very little knowledge about real estate or lending. After reading the book, successfully buying my first home and now preparing to buy my first rental property, I must say that Mr. Eilers book is truly amazing. I have followed his methods, formulas and tips and tricks to the tee and they ALL work! My realtor even borrowed the book until she could puchase one of her own. I have now purchased and read four real estate books and none were nearly as helpful, complete or as easy to understand as this book. Not only does the book help with real estate, it is also very helpful in the area of finance. Thanks for helping me buy my first and second homes.

Smart Guide is filled with useful informatation you ought to know before you start looking around for your first home. From finding a lender, finding a mortgage, picking an agent, negotiating the deal, and understanding all of the closing costs, this book tells you everything you need to know about buying a home. Just bought my first home this weekend!

If you ever want to find out the grueling process of buying a home, this book will tell you all the gory details from budgeting your expenses to find out how much house you can afford to paying all those crazy closing costs. There are some tips and reminders scattered throughout the book. The chapter on negotiating with references to "The Art of War" is going alittle too far...the authors had way too much while writing that chapter.

I'me new to real estate investing and I found this book very helpful. In particular, I enjoyed the sections on investing, financing and taxes.

If you want to invvest successfully in real estate, I highly recommend this book.

In fact, I wouldn't invest without it!

I have read many real estate books and found most say pretty much the same thing. This book by Dolf DeRoos is different.

You won't find 1,000+ pages of worthless drivel like some financial books, just meaty, powerful stuff that really works.

You'll want to add this one to your must read list. Great book.

My wife bought the book for me as a Christmas gift in 2002. Wow! This is by far the best book I've read on how to build wealth using real estate. Dolf clearly explains how buying property is one of the most common wealth building tools used by the rich and famous. Quick question. Do ya think Donald Trump makes billions of dollars working for someone else? No! It's from owning real estate. Lot's of real estate that has appreciated over time. On a personal note, because of this book, real estate has started to provide me a with a steady monthly pay check for the rest of my life. In today's world, no JOB can offer that.

In the spring of 2003 I refinanced an existing property for over $37,500 and reinvested it into two multi family homes. I never thought of my equity as tax free investment capital. Each home has a positive cash flow of over six hundred dollars per month. After property management fees, I net over nine hundred dollars per month. I plan on buying twenty eight more properties within the next ten years using what I learned from this book. My goal is to earn over $25,000 per month in positive cash flow from my business. As Dolf points out, owing properties should be treated as a business if you want to succeed. To my ears, that's good sound advice.

My only criticism of Real Estate Riches is that Mr. De Roos spends the first third of the book trying to convince the reader that real estate is the BEST investment of All Time.
Personally, I still enjoy selling call options on stocks and profiting handsomely in an up or down stock market. I will say that adding real estate to my over all investment portfolio is one of the best things I have ever done.

If you enjoy living pay check to pay check DON'T order this book. However, if you're seriously looking for a way to make a better life for yourself and your family, this book is a must have!

My rating is based on two criteria: (1) The authors can't write readable prose. They do not even know how to constuct a coherent paragraph, let alone build a coherent full-bodied narrative. Mostly academic jargon. (2) The authors say that you can view commercial real estate from many perspectives, but they emphasize financial economics. Unfortunately, anyone who restricts their view to fin econ cannot make sensible decisions.This perspective renders the book useless. It's clear the authors have no practical knowledge of commercial real estate -- or if they do they're keeping it a secret. Written primarily to impress their buddies in university econ and finance departments.

This may be the worst book on real estate or mortgage markets that I have ever seen. The authors seem to be saying "Look how smart we are!" I have an MBA from University of Chicago and much of the book is a bad rephrasing of inroductory corporate finance. My book for the real estate class at University of Chicago was by Bruggman (?) and Fisher; although that book will not win any awards, it is vastly superior. This book could easily lose 1/2 of its contents. Don't waste your money.

This is an excellent book for developing an analytical view on commercial real estate markets. It is not suited as a "commercial real estate analysis" step-by-step guideline for the average real estate professional, but it is great as a textbook in a university master course. Complex concepts and principles are described in an easy-to-understand way. The book has a broad scope, with chapters written from a finance, investments or urban economics perspective. One of the best books for an academic real estate course.

My husband and I are shopping around for our home we plan to purchase. My husband is a school teacher and I brought home this book, thinking he could read through it and get a real handle on what we should be doing for a mortgage when we find our home. He found the book very complicated and he said it was overwhelming. I paged through the book, just reading the tips, which I found helpful, but I, too, felt the book was very heavy on facts and information which probably doesn't pertain to the average homebuyer - certainly not us.

We were pre-approved for a loan before we started looking for our home by a very helpful mortgage broker referred to us by our Realtor. He has answered all the questions we had to date very professionally. I showed him the book and he said he had read it and he thought there were some helpful hints in it but he said there were some very glaring errors in it, too. Like one of the other revieweres pointed out, the author makes a monster mistake when he states that most all mortgage brokers are real estate agents. That's not at all true. They are required to have a current Department of Real Estate license (mortgage brokers) but they are not automatically real estate agents unless the author meant that they are QUALIFIED to sell real estate. The vast majority of them do not sell any real estate. They make loans on the real estate sold by real estate agents. It sounds confusing but it isn't. The author needs to correct this. He also needs to scale down the contents of his book so that the average borrower can understand it better.

He should also spend a lot more time denouncing many, if not all, of the lenders who advertise on the highways and freeways with their big electronic billboards advertising interest rates that absolutely do not exist. He should devote an entire chapter to this unethical practice which continues. unabated, as I write this review.

I called one of those lenders this afternoon because they offered a rate which was better than my mortgage broker offered. I found out that what they advertised wasn't even close to what they were quoting. The agent there told me the billboards were malfunctioning. I suggested they turn them off, then. His comment was, "we spend too much money on them to turn them off." Robert Irwin, get on this scam now. Do a whole book on it.

First off, if you just want to buy a house and not deal with much, find a good broker (of course, that assumes you can find a good broker) and set them loose with specific requirements.

This book is more worthy of people who want to learn more about mortgages and save themselves anywhere from 1000 to 5,000 dollars on average. More if you really dig but this isn't the book for big saves in real estate.

Irwin will take you through all the various steps in

(1) figuring out your credit rating and what you can and cannot get with it;

(2) different types of mortgages and which ones to use;

(3) how to figure out your payment schedule; how to not get in over your head;

(4) the little costs for escrow and banks and other costs; some of which you can have removed;

(5) dealing w/ a broker;

(6) various loans to seek out, including govt ones;

(7) dealing with the seller; and

(8) how to make sure you don't get ripped off.

Overall, this is a great book for the first time investor or someone who wants a home and wants to save a few thousand dollars (or more). Not worth your time, as it's too complicated, for those who want to spend little time learning about it.

The most complete book I've ever seen on hunting for a mortgage. It explained in detail all my options. It even gave me a list of different types of mortgages that I could get and where I could get them. I found it invaluable in getting a lower than market interest rate mortgage from a mortgage broker. (Who cares if he was previously a real estate agent or not-see earlier reviews!)

Don't believe the above review, it's obviously written by the author as it appears in exactly the same format on other review sites 'copy and paste' style. The guy can't write but he can self promote.

I read this in 1999 and it *still* grates in my mind as the worst book i've ever picked up, and i've read *alot* of junk SF.
The plot makes little sense and where it does it sticks to convention like glue and the characters are so two-dimensional it's impossible to feel any empathy for them at all. I struggled to the end because I was on holiday and had no other books with me, and I was not rewarded for my perseverance.

The author makes note of his passing a creative writing course, and it tells in that this book is by the numbers the whole way. You will not receive any surprises nor feel any excitement. The fact that he never got published again speaks volumes.

Read something else. Anything. Even if it's a cereal packet.

I read this book when it came out and loved it. The near future Chicago setting is fantastic. It's an exciting read. Great detective story. I searched Google for Richard Engling to see what he's done lately and found his web site. Engling is giving Body Mortgage away on his web site in a couple of ebook formats, including for PDAs, and he's revised and updated it. (When it came out, the book was set in Chicago 1999 as the near future). Go check it out at his site. You can see the reviews from the professional reviewers there, too....

Good & easy read for beginners. Text has not been updated to reflect changes in tax law. Lacks some meat for those of us that have a few mortgage closings under our belts. Good basic premise - to shop around for the best deal.

I don't know why colleges use this book as a required textbook. This book is DEFINITELY not a good book for someone who is new to real estate apraisal. The book did't explain things very clear especially some very important things like "Highest and Best Use". There are some other book that explain the real estte concepts better than this one. You definitely will not pass the real estate appraisal exam if you only read this book

This book was required for a college class. I found it obtuse and the illustrations/photographs were unclear, as in, there was a photo of a house, but why it was an example of a particular appraisal situation was unclear. I found another book published by the Department of Real Estate (California) to be much more consise and clear. For someone new to the subject, this book seems to make the topic more difficult than necessary. If it is required for a college class, there isn't much you can do about it, but if you are just looking for info on the topic of appraisal, I would suggest another book. Good luck!

This is a great book that is used in some of the colleges for textbook. It explains the fundamentals of real estate appraisal by using pratical examples which we may experience everyday. In addition, it clearly shows the calculations, number by number with detailed explainations to make the readers easy to understand the concepts. It really helped me a lot in the real estate business.