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Buying a Home: The Missing Manual
Home ownership is a cornerstone of the American dream, but it's a complex process that, without the right guidance, can seem like a nightmare. This Missing Manual takes you through the process of buying a home, from start to finish. Along the way, you'll use the book's expert advice and fill-in forms to identify the house you want, figure out what kind of neighborhood you want to live in, determine what a target home is really worth, make an offer, and close the deal. Throughout the process, this book helps
Ten Tips for Buying a Home in a Buyer’s Market
By Nancy Conner
1. Know what you can afford--and stick to your budget. This is true of any market, of course. But when there are lots of houses on the market, it can be easy to slip into the mindset that any home is yours for the “Another bedroom might be nice, or a family room and a great room….” Don’t treat your local housing market like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Before you shop for a home, know your needs and your budget, and focus on homes that fit those. To track your spending, try the free budget planner spreadsheet from Spreadsheets123. 2. Get preapproved. This is a good idea whenever you shop for a home, buyer’s market or not. Preapproval means that a lender has given you the green light to borrow a certain amount of money before you start shopping. It helps you know how much home you can afford, and it also streamlines the mortgage application process. And it signals to sellers that you can follow through on your offer—a big bonus at a time when mortgages are tough to get. 3. Work with a buyer’s agent. A buyer’s agent represents you and your interests exclusively in a real estate transaction. If you don’t have an explicit buyer’s agency agreement, your agent may actually be working for the seller. If you’re not sure that your agent is a buyer’s agent, ask. You need to be sure that your agent works for you, 100 percent. 4. Negotiate your agent’s commission. Real estate agents earn their money by commission, and that means they get paid only when they sell a home. In a buyer’s market, when sales are sluggish, your agent may be willing to return a portion of her commission to you as a rebate at closing. Why? Agents waste a lot of time working with window-shoppers who never make an offer. A rebate may induce you to follow through and buy a home. 5. Do your research. Before you make an offer, spend some time looking at similar properties that have sold in your area recently (the last six months), called comparables or comps. (Your real estate agent can get you the most recent data.) If selling prices are consistently lower than list prices, you’ve got a good chance of having a lower-than-list-price offer accepted. 6. Use online resources. Thanks to the Internet, it’s easier than ever before to get information about your local housing market—and you can do so in your pajamas and bunny slippers. Use sites like Trulia.com to find homes, check a particular home’s price history, and compare it to recent sales in the area. Zillow gives you a computer-generated estimate, called a “Zestimate,” of a home’s value. 7. Don’t assume all sellers are desperate. Some buyers lose out on homes they want to buy because they think that a buyer’s market means the buyer calls all the shots. They make an insultingly low-ball offer and are surprised when the seller turns them down. As a buyer, you’re in a good negotiating position, sure. But a seller isn’t obliged to sell his home at any price. There are other pressures on the seller, like having to pay off his current mortgage. When you make an offer, be reasonable. 8. Consider short sales and REOs. In a short sale, the current mortgage-holder agrees to a sale price that’s less than the seller owes on the home. An REO is a property that’s gone through foreclosure and is now owned by the lender. You can find bargains among short sales and REOs, but you need to look at these properties in context. Are prices still falling, meaning the home will continue to lose value? Is the house in acceptable condition? Many short sales and REOs are sold “as is,” which means the seller won’t help pay for repairs. If you’re looking at short sales and REOs, be sure to work with a buyer’s agent who’s familiar with the ins and outs of the distressed housing market. 9. Negotiate for the best price. In a buyer’s market, some sellers try to get buyers’ attention by throwing a new flat-screen TV or a cruise into the deal as an enticement. Instead of going for a $1,000 gimmick, ask the seller for $1,000 off the price. You’ll save money in the long run by reducing the size of your mortgage and the interest you pay on it. 10. If you want something, ask for it. If you think the seller’s furniture looks better in the living room than yours would, ask the seller to include it in the sale. If you’re buying in a new development, ask the developer for free custom touches or appliance upgrades. The seller can always say no, but she might agree for the s...
Ten Tips for Buying a Home in a Buyer’s Market
By Nancy Conner
1. Know what you can afford--and stick to your budget. This is true of any market, of course. But when there are lots of houses on the market, it can be easy to slip into the mindset that any home is yours for the “Another bedroom might be nice, or a family room and a great room….” Don’t treat your local housing market like an all-you-can-eat buffet. Before you shop for a home, know your needs and your budget, and focus on homes that fit those. To track your spending, try the free budget planner spreadsheet from Spreadsheets123. 2. Get preapproved. This is a good idea whenever you shop for a home, buyer’s market or not. Preapproval means that a lender has given you the green light to borrow a certain amount of money before you start shopping. It helps you know how much home you can afford, and it also streamlines the mortgage application process. And it signals to sellers that you can follow through on your offer—a big bonus at a time when mortgages are tough to get. 3. Work with a buyer’s agent. A buyer’s agent represents you and your interests exclusively in a real estate transaction. If you don’t have an explicit buyer’s agency agreement, your agent may actually be working for the seller. If you’re not sure that your agent is a buyer’s agent, ask. You need to be sure that your agent works for you, 100 percent. 4. Negotiate your agent’s commission. Real estate agents earn their money by commission, and that means they get paid only when they sell a home. In a buyer’s market, when sales are sluggish, your agent may be willing to return a portion of her commission to you as a rebate at closing. Why? Agents waste a lot of time working with window-shoppers who never make an offer. A rebate may induce you to follow through and buy a home. 5. Do your research. Before you make an offer, spend some time looking at similar properties that have sold in your area recently (the last six months), called comparables or comps. (Your real estate agent can get you the most recent data.) If selling prices are consistently lower than list prices, you’ve got a good chance of having a lower-than-list-price offer accepted. 6. Use online resources. Thanks to the Internet, it’s easier than ever before to get information about your local housing market—and you can do so in your pajamas and bunny slippers. Use sites like Trulia.com to find homes, check a particular home’s price history, and compare it to recent sales in the area. Zillow gives you a computer-generated estimate, called a “Zestimate,” of a home’s value. 7. Don’t assume all sellers are desperate. Some buyers lose out on homes they want to buy because they think that a buyer’s market means the buyer calls all the shots. They make an insultingly low-ball offer and are surprised when the seller turns them down. As a buyer, you’re in a good negotiating position, sure. But a seller isn’t obliged to sell his home at any price. There are other pressures on the seller, like having to pay off his current mortgage. When you make an offer, be reasonable. 8. Consider short sales and REOs. In a short sale, the current mortgage-holder agrees to a sale price that’s less than the seller owes on the home. An REO is a property that’s gone through foreclosure and is now owned by the lender. You can find bargains among short sales and REOs, but you need to look at these properties in context. Are prices still falling, meaning the home will continue to lose value? Is the house in acceptable condition? Many short sales and REOs are sold “as is,” which means the seller won’t help pay for repairs. If you’re looking at short sales and REOs, be sure to work with a buyer’s agent who’s familiar with the ins and outs of the distressed housing market. 9. Negotiate for the best price. In a buyer’s market, some sellers try to get buyers’ attention by throwing a new flat-screen TV or a cruise into the deal as an enticement. Instead of going for a $1,000 gimmick, ask the seller for $1,000 off the price. You’ll save money in the long run by reducing the size of your mortgage and the interest you pay on it. 10. If you want something, ask for it. If you think the seller’s furniture looks better in the living room than yours would, ask the seller to include it in the sale. If you’re buying in a new development, ask the developer for free custom touches or appliance upgrades. The seller can always say no, but she might agree for the s...
350 pages, Paperback
First published April 13, 2010
67 people are currently reading
131 people want to read
About the author
Nancy Conner
27 books4 followersNancy Conner has been fascinated by coastal California horticulture since she arrived here in the early 1960s. A graduate of Wellesley College and Stanford University, she was a docent at Strybing Arboretum in the late 1970s. She cofounded the San Francisco Landscape Garden Show and was instrumental in its organization for the twelve years it was managed by Friends of Recreation and Parks in San Francisco. She has long been active in the cause for parks, serving on the boards of both the San Francisco Parks Alliance and the Presidio Trust. Her pet park projects include restoring the Conservatory of Flowers and building the underground garage in Golden Gate Park. She gardens in Inverness.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 19, 2021
Definitely a good read for anyone looking at buying a house within the next few years and have no idea where to start. This book breaks EVERYTHING down for you!
August 13, 2015
This is an excellent foundation for the maddening, insane, and twisted world of homebuying. My wife and I haven't yet purchased a home, and are still about 10 months away from entering the market, but after reading this I feel like I'm at least a little bit less likely to get swindled. I mean, I know what points are, I know that paying a little more interest up front can save me in the long run if we plan on staying in our home for a while, I know to shop around for mortgages, I know that agents only have their best interests in mind, I know the questions I need to be asking, I know to be pragmatic and logical instead of falling in love with every house we see. Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. Whoops, I got carried away. Have I mentioned that I'm "MONEY MAD!" at the moment? How I became obsessed with budgeting and personal financial management when I was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer in January? How looking at investments and high yield savings accounts soothes my soul and offsets the ever present death anxiety? These are true facts. I have become a monster, someone who has betrayed the lofty and artistic goals of my youth for ruthless dollar signs, but if that means my daughter doesn't make the same mistakes I did when I was between the ages of 16 and 26, then I think this is for the greater good. FOR THE GOOD OF THE REALM! SO SAY WE ALL!
October 20, 2020
A solid explanation of the home buying process from beginning to end that clarifies the needlessly insular legal and real estate terminology involved. Most everything is common-sense after reading it once, but it’s all much less intimidating in sum to know more for certain what I didn’t know before.
The book being 10 years old means some of the specific advice might not be exactly relevant now, but it also makes an effort to condition its advice based on certain regions or market conditions. There’s also a few negotiation tactics mentioned, though they’re presented as objectively good ideas that overlook the wild variety of psychologies possible in a potential seller versus one that thinks like the author does. That discrepancy didn’t occur to me until I mentioned one to a friend who’s in the process of selling their house, and their strong negative response to it reminded me of that obvious factor.
Overall this is a great, succinct read to demystify a process that shouldn’t be as intimidating as it can seem.
The book being 10 years old means some of the specific advice might not be exactly relevant now, but it also makes an effort to condition its advice based on certain regions or market conditions. There’s also a few negotiation tactics mentioned, though they’re presented as objectively good ideas that overlook the wild variety of psychologies possible in a potential seller versus one that thinks like the author does. That discrepancy didn’t occur to me until I mentioned one to a friend who’s in the process of selling their house, and their strong negative response to it reminded me of that obvious factor.
Overall this is a great, succinct read to demystify a process that shouldn’t be as intimidating as it can seem.
September 17, 2012
The real estate experience is very subjective. The author is an agent in New York. I am an agent in Florida. Read this book. It will help give you a basic understanding of all of the aspects involved in a purchase. The information on financing options and mortgages is very valuable considering how the mortgage market has changed since 2008. Understanding the steps that occur once you have a contract will also help. However, I would say once you have an understanding, also know that a real estate’s agent’s job is to help guide you through the many details, roadblocks and detours in the process. There were quite a few sections that gave me pause in this book. The section on “Finding an Agent You Can Work With” is very biased and does not cover every aspect of the information considered. Closing agencies and mortgage and insurance companies all work differently in Florida. So I would say read through it all, but know that every state and real estate agent works differently.
December 29, 2017
This was a great primer not only for those who are buying a home for the first time, but also for those who are selling. Not every bit of advice applies to every situation, but that's a good thing because it means many people can find useful information here. I already bought a house before reading this book but that didn't make me an expert so I learned a great deal thanks to this. I am now in the process of selling that first house and buying my second so while reading, I often found myself pondering the advice both from the point of view of a buyer and of a seller. Now I know what to expect as I shop around for my next house and how I need to be presenting my current house to potential buyers. Aside from that, this book confirmed and expanded upon all the reasons I decided to get a real estate agent. Yeah, you may pay more in cash by dealing with agents, but the services they offer in return are far more valuable in terms of time and hassle.
September 3, 2021
Getting a slight bit dated, but still something any first time home buyer should probably read. Lays out all the basics, every document and term you should be aware of, questions to ask, etc. Super helpful
February 2, 2020
Complete, well organized and well written.
Really helped find my knowledge gaps in the "things I didn't even know I didn't know" sense.
Thank you Ms. Conner!
Really helped find my knowledge gaps in the "things I didn't even know I didn't know" sense.
Thank you Ms. Conner!
March 10, 2013
The book is a good primer for first time home buyers.
I feel like the author was trying to give readers a mild introduction to the real estate buying experience.
Any reasonable reader should know that their own specific circumstances will vary and they need to look elsewhere for more in depth information and guidance.
It feels at times like it holds your hand for a little too long on some easy topics or explanations but I guess this book assumes you know absolutely nothing about home buying.
I wish it would include an 'extended reading' or 'for more in depth' section some books have at the end of each chapter. Tho' it contains a fair share of external resources like web site urls.
The missing cd resource online was very helpful.
One particular item I will look into is 'living trust'. It says you save in taxes by putting the title of the home in a living trust but it doesn't say how and/or where to look for such info. Of course it says to consult with your real estate attorney but if I'm reading the book may be I am the type who likes to find out for myself. Just a very minor complaint.
I do recommend this book for brand new potential home buyers, it will open up your eyes to see many many little procedures and expenses related to buying a home. In my case I had absolutely no idea what was included in the closing costs and I thought for so long that it was a scam by the financial industry to 'steal' easy money from people who was overwhelmed by the whole process but now I understand better. The book made it very clear.
I feel like the author was trying to give readers a mild introduction to the real estate buying experience.
Any reasonable reader should know that their own specific circumstances will vary and they need to look elsewhere for more in depth information and guidance.
It feels at times like it holds your hand for a little too long on some easy topics or explanations but I guess this book assumes you know absolutely nothing about home buying.
I wish it would include an 'extended reading' or 'for more in depth' section some books have at the end of each chapter. Tho' it contains a fair share of external resources like web site urls.
The missing cd resource online was very helpful.
One particular item I will look into is 'living trust'. It says you save in taxes by putting the title of the home in a living trust but it doesn't say how and/or where to look for such info. Of course it says to consult with your real estate attorney but if I'm reading the book may be I am the type who likes to find out for myself. Just a very minor complaint.
I do recommend this book for brand new potential home buyers, it will open up your eyes to see many many little procedures and expenses related to buying a home. In my case I had absolutely no idea what was included in the closing costs and I thought for so long that it was a scam by the financial industry to 'steal' easy money from people who was overwhelmed by the whole process but now I understand better. The book made it very clear.
August 16, 2012
Helpful, not great. I browsed it and "Home Buying for Dummies" in the book store and found this one more user friendly. This definitely helped me with all the new terminology of home buying and knowing what to expect, but honestly, the best things that helped us were 1) finding a great real estate agent, and 2) attending a first-time home buyers class put on by a local university. I would recommend it and/or loan it to friends looking to buy their first home. Wouldn't necessarily recommend buying it.
March 20, 2013
The timing for reading this couldn't have come any better! No sooner did I get started reading this book, that we started looking at buying homes. This manual went over seemily everything, from the types of loans available, to the style of roofs available. For someone like me that pretty much knows nothing about homes, it was great. I will say that at many times it was a little too much information though, if that's a bad thing. All in all, after reading this book, I feel pretty prepared as a first-time home buyer, and I've even used some of this newfound knowledge to impress our realtor!
March 1, 2016
A solid four stars for this book, from someone who is NOT quite there yet on the home-buying front but thinks it's important to be informed and is just generally super interested in home ownership. I liked the sections on the types of homes and the all information about the mortgages/home loans. It also had useful websites listed for different area-specific resources and I was happy to see that home search sites I already use were listed in the book as well. I think that when I am ready to buy a home I would look at this book again.
August 8, 2015
I am in the process of buying a home, and while I do have a fantastic real estate agent, reading this book has been a huge help. It tells you exactly what to expect throughout each step. The content really delivers on the title's promise to be a missing manual. There are also a bunch of online resources that you can access through the missing manual website, which is a nice addition. I'd recommend this book to anyone thinking about or in the process of buying a home.
August 16, 2016
This read gave a good introduction to buying a home. It details so much of the process and gives helpful charts to explain home loans. It also explains some pitfalls of certain lending practices.
The author did assume that you will use a real estate agent, and so gave little information on home buying without one. But overall, the book left me with a better understanding of purchasing a home.
The author did assume that you will use a real estate agent, and so gave little information on home buying without one. But overall, the book left me with a better understanding of purchasing a home.
June 24, 2011
Not bad - I prefer Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home. This basically covered the same information, but the Nolo guide goes a bit more in depth.
April 9, 2012
I checked this book out of the library and kept it as a reference through most of our house-hunting and buying events. It provides some excellent material, including questions you should ask potential real estate agents, lawyers, and home inspectors.
June 23, 2015
Helpful, with easy-to-find information. It did not have the list of incredible resources that the Home-buying For Dummies book I read a few years ago (I like to be really prepared).
I skipped the last couple of chapters.
I skipped the last couple of chapters.
September 19, 2013
Buying a Home: The Missing Manual was helpful, informative, and in-depth.
June 6, 2015
A helpful overview of home buying.
April 24, 2017
Seems to be a solid overview and gave me a good idea of what to expect during the home buying process
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews