Clark Smart Real Estate: The Ultimate Guide to Buying and Selling Real Estate

by Clark Howard, Mark Meltzer

A leading consumer advocate and popular host of The Clark Howard Show shares insider secrets to the successful purchase and sale of real estate, in a guide that explains how to build wealth over time while capitalizing on the market's fluctuations.

Genres: Finance, Nonfiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 2007

About the author

Talk radio host and consumer advocate

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

The trouble with real estate books, I'm finding, is that they quickly become dated. Because I've been thinking of buying a house for a while, I've accumulated several over the past ten years. (I skimmed one published in 2004 that suggested you get a standard broker's agreement for reference at a "stationary store.")
This one is still relatively current, but the internet and the introduction of tablets and their apps has added a lot of tools available to home buyers and sellers that didn't exist when this book was published in 2007 (i.e. Zillow, Trulia, Realtracs.com). Many of the website references were no longer valid as far as using them for the purpose Howard suggests. (i.e. that you can see current interest rates on MyFico.com for each credit score category--you may be able to if you pay to subscribe, but I couldn't find it. Or that you can confirm if your home inspector is ICC certified at iccsafe.org--the site is geared toward the use of inspectors, not their customers, so there isn't a way I could find to search the membership for a particular inspector.)
Still, it's concise and accessible--a quick read and I picked up a few tips and a better understanding of some of the fundamentals of home buying. He also includes checklists of questions in most sections that serve as good reviews of the chapter content.

[Karen Hsu · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was SO informational and helpful! As a first time home buyer, it really explained the basics (and Clark's recommendations) without being confusing.

However, some of his sentence structure is bad, meaning I had to read the paragraph twice to understand his point. He writes like he speaks, which is nice but can be hard to read.

[Lindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a Clark Howard fan, so I liked this book. It was a quick overview on buying, selling, etc. Since I'm new to this subject, I found it helpful, and recommend it to anyone buying or selling a house--especially if they are doing it for the first time. This book was published in 2007, so I do wonder if he would have made any changes given the current housing market.

[Heather Jenson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clark knows everything

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful overview for somebody totally new to the process.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another quick read in anticipation of buying a house, full of good information.