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Mortgage-Free!: Radical Strategies for Home Ownership
This is a banker's worst nightmarea book that tells you how to live without being enslaved to financial institutions.Chelsea Green has produced a formidable series of books on innovative shelter. But every alternative building strategy, no matter how low-cost or environmentally benign, requires a complementary financial strategy. the accepted path is to go hat-in-hand to a big financial institution, such as a bank, to borrow a lump sum that is repaid over many years. By the time the loan is repaid, the homeowner will have paid several times the original amount in interest.The literal meaning of "mortgage" is "death pledge." Author Rob Roy is offering an escape route from a lifetime of indentured servitude. "Mortgage-Free! Radical Strategies for Home Ownership" is a complete guide to strategies that allow you to own your land and home, free and clear, without the bank. Included is detailed advice Clarifying and simplifying your notions of what's necessaryFinding land that you love and can affordTaking control of the house-building process, for the sake of sanity and pleasureLearning to take a long-term perspective on your family's crucial economic decisions, avoiding debt and modern-day serfdom.
- GenresNonfiction
225 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1998
3 people are currently reading
124 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
April 1, 2016
At first glance, this seems like a financially orientated book on how to get a house without a mortgage (or pay it off fast).
NOT AT ALL.
I already knew that the author, Rob Roy, was a big advocate of DIY home building using techniques like cordwood masonry or earth homes having built several homes himself using the same.
This book is more a treatise on the philosophies as well as a practical road map (and sometimes blueprint) on being self-sufficient and a DIY'er.
He sometimes waxes poetic on tangents like growing your own food and etc while at it for the full green living lifestyle but then pulls himself back on track and continues with what you really want to know (assuming you haven't put the book down in disgust and gone in search of money focused books) complete with anecdotes that help give the sense that you too can really do this!
I know I had to interrupt myself and start looking up some of the listed resources for cheap land. Btw Realtor.com & Craigslist are other good places to look, not everything has to be a foreclosure or gov't sold.
Now I'm going to go page thru his other book Earthwood homes which should contain all the photos of what people have done in making homes in the earth. I'd seen some photos on a social community and fell IN LOVE. From "modern" steel/light type to a home that looks someone's rendition of a Tolkien Hobbit Hole and in the middle a gorgeous palatial yet simple roomy/airy style with skylights for lots of natural light.
I'd guess that this book should be read as a companion piece to the Earthwood book for those who are interested in being able to buy land and build on it themselves on a "pay as you go" basis even if they have no actual building experience (this is me to a T!). You don't have to build your house in the ground and Rob does discuss and give resources for further learning about other methods of home construction that can be done DIY. However after finishing this book, you'll be very curious about earth covered homes because in this book, Rob gives a good lesson in why & exactly how they become more energy efficient for heating & cooling. Not all "earth" homes are actually energy efficient. Basements aren't usually right?
Things that Rob discusses in this book: Ways to acquire land, things to consider in choosing land, things to consider in designing the house and picking the method of construction, and much more.
NOT AT ALL.
I already knew that the author, Rob Roy, was a big advocate of DIY home building using techniques like cordwood masonry or earth homes having built several homes himself using the same.
This book is more a treatise on the philosophies as well as a practical road map (and sometimes blueprint) on being self-sufficient and a DIY'er.
He sometimes waxes poetic on tangents like growing your own food and etc while at it for the full green living lifestyle but then pulls himself back on track and continues with what you really want to know (assuming you haven't put the book down in disgust and gone in search of money focused books) complete with anecdotes that help give the sense that you too can really do this!
I know I had to interrupt myself and start looking up some of the listed resources for cheap land. Btw Realtor.com & Craigslist are other good places to look, not everything has to be a foreclosure or gov't sold.
Now I'm going to go page thru his other book Earthwood homes which should contain all the photos of what people have done in making homes in the earth. I'd seen some photos on a social community and fell IN LOVE. From "modern" steel/light type to a home that looks someone's rendition of a Tolkien Hobbit Hole and in the middle a gorgeous palatial yet simple roomy/airy style with skylights for lots of natural light.
I'd guess that this book should be read as a companion piece to the Earthwood book for those who are interested in being able to buy land and build on it themselves on a "pay as you go" basis even if they have no actual building experience (this is me to a T!). You don't have to build your house in the ground and Rob does discuss and give resources for further learning about other methods of home construction that can be done DIY. However after finishing this book, you'll be very curious about earth covered homes because in this book, Rob gives a good lesson in why & exactly how they become more energy efficient for heating & cooling. Not all "earth" homes are actually energy efficient. Basements aren't usually right?
Things that Rob discusses in this book: Ways to acquire land, things to consider in choosing land, things to consider in designing the house and picking the method of construction, and much more.
December 10, 2009
Oh, how I want to build a house!
Michael Pollan's book Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder, and all of the books by Lester Walker that Pollan's book led me to, including Tiny Houses, totally got me going on this idea.
Then, a couple of years later, I stumbled upon this book - Mortgage Free! - completely by accident at a Waldorf school rummage sale fundraiser. We actually drove by and saw them setting up, thought it was in progress, and went through all their stuff... nicely enough, they didn't stop us, and they were willing to make the sale even though, officially, they weren't up and running until the next day.
Anyways, lucky me! $1 for this rad book! I don't even know why I picked it up, I've never thought too much about mortgages, or avoiding them, other than the fact that I've never had enough money/income to get myself involved in one. I think it was just the beautiful framed house on the cover. I didn't realize it actually discussed how to build houses, and how people had gone about purchasing land and doing so. But, it turns out that this is the easiest - um, well, money-wise - way to end up mortgage (literally "death pledge") free.
This book is about all this and more. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and looking at the photos and drawings. I'm all about Rob Roy's life philosophies that he shares via his stories. And so happy for all the green building, energy-efficiency, and renewable energy practices he's been espousing for the last thirty years. (Why has no one been talking about this (mainstream-wise) until this decade?)
I say, if any of that grabs you, then grab this book.
... That was my Reading Rainbow ending. :) ...
Michael Pollan's book Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder, and all of the books by Lester Walker that Pollan's book led me to, including Tiny Houses, totally got me going on this idea.
Then, a couple of years later, I stumbled upon this book - Mortgage Free! - completely by accident at a Waldorf school rummage sale fundraiser. We actually drove by and saw them setting up, thought it was in progress, and went through all their stuff... nicely enough, they didn't stop us, and they were willing to make the sale even though, officially, they weren't up and running until the next day.
Anyways, lucky me! $1 for this rad book! I don't even know why I picked it up, I've never thought too much about mortgages, or avoiding them, other than the fact that I've never had enough money/income to get myself involved in one. I think it was just the beautiful framed house on the cover. I didn't realize it actually discussed how to build houses, and how people had gone about purchasing land and doing so. But, it turns out that this is the easiest - um, well, money-wise - way to end up mortgage (literally "death pledge") free.
This book is about all this and more. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it, and looking at the photos and drawings. I'm all about Rob Roy's life philosophies that he shares via his stories. And so happy for all the green building, energy-efficiency, and renewable energy practices he's been espousing for the last thirty years. (Why has no one been talking about this (mainstream-wise) until this decade?)
I say, if any of that grabs you, then grab this book.
... That was my Reading Rainbow ending. :) ...
April 21, 2008
You don't need to be a slave to a mortgage! Part of avoiding one, though, is sourcing your own materials, buying affordable land and building an unconventional dwelling. Rob Roy's solutions aren't for everyone but he demonstrates (by doing so himself) that you can create a comfortable house without become a debt slave. Where there's a will, there's a way, and if you want to avoid debt like the plague and don't mind hard work and persevere, you can indeed be free of a mortgage.
April 27, 2008
This was an interesting book around the idea of building your own home using several interesting strategies. As I'm tired of being in debt, and want to live somewhere someday rather than rent, this looked like a must-have. It has certainly changed a lot of my ideas about my future housing!
March 17, 2010
The ideas are really not at that radical, but very common sense. If only we would use some of that common sense! I really loved this book and it really is full of creative ways to live your life comfortably.
February 5, 2008
A compilation of different techniques for building a home, procuring land, saving money, living simply, and getting out.
October 16, 2008
worked
March 16, 2011
A Good read with inspiration as well as practical strategies for owning/building a home without the kind of debt most of us take on without even thinking about it.
July 14, 2011
I read this book twice in a row! Once myself, then to my husband. The strategies are things you probably already know but put in perspective.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews