Home Buying Kit For Dummies

Your turn-key guide to crucial information about buying a new home before you take the plunge

Home Buying Kit For Dummies, 7th Edition simplifies and explains the home-buying process to new home buyers everywhere. Authors Eric Tyson, MBA and Ray Brown inform and educate readers in the simple, straightforward and incisive style the For Dummies series is known for across the world.

This book covers all the topics necessary to tackle the purchase of a home with confidence, including:

• Complete coverage of new US tax rules and strategies

• What's happening with home financing given the high home prices and fluctuating economies found in many markets

• How to compare renting and buying in light of new rules regarding mortgage interest and property tax write-offs

• Updated coverage of internet resources and how to best utilize them as a buyer

The 7th Edition of Home Buying Kit For Dummies offers brand new content of particular interest to millennial homebuyers, as well as freshly updated online companion content.

Auteur

Eric Tyson is a personal finance writer, lecturer, and former management consultant to Fortune 500 financial service firms.
Ray Brown is a real estate professional with over four decades of hands-on experience and a public speaker on residential real estate topics.

Contenu
Introduction 1

About This Book: The Eric Tyson/Ray Brown Difference 2

Icons Used in This Book 2

Beyond the Book 3

Where to Go from Here 4

Part 1: Getting Started With Buying A Home 5

Chapter 1: Deciding Whether to Buy 7

Weighing the Advantages of Owning versus Renting 8

Ownership advantages 9

Renting advantages 14

The Pitfalls of the Rent-versus-Buy Decision 16

Renting because it seems cheaper 16

Fretting too much over job security 16

Buying when you expect to move soon 17

Succumbing to pushy salespeople 17

Ignoring logistics 17

Overbuying 18

Underbuying 18

Buying because it's a grown-up thing to do 19

Buying because you're afraid that escalating prices will lock you out 19

Misunderstanding what you can afford 20

Chapter 2: Getting Your Financial House in Order 21

Surveying Your Spending 22

Gathering the data 22

Analyzing your spending numbers 27

Reckoning Your Savings Requirements 28

Setting some goals 28

Retirement-savings accounts and a dilemma 29

Other reasons to save 31

Protecting Yourself, Your Dependents, and Your Assets 32

Insuring yourself 33

Insuring your assets 34

Invest in Yourself 36

Chapter 3: What Can You Afford to Buy? 37

Lenders Can't Tell You What You Can Afford 38

The Cost of Buying and Owning a Home 39

Mortgage payments 39

Property taxes 48

Insurance 49

Maintenance and other costs 50

The tax benefits of homeownership 51

Closing Costs 54

Accumulating the Down Payment 57

The 20 percent solution 57

Ways to buy with less money down 58

Where to invest the down payment 60

Chapter 4: Why Home Prices Rise and Fall 67

What Drives Real Estate Markets and Prices? 68

Jobs, glorious jobs 70

Available housing 71

Inventory of homes for sale and actual sales 72

The rental market 74

Tax rules and changes 75

How to Get a Good Buy in Any Market 76

Seek hidden opportunities to add value 77

Buy when others are scared to buy 78

Find a motivated seller 78

Buy during slow periods 79

Become a great negotiator 80

Buy in a good neighborhood 80

Part 2: Financing 101 81

Chapter 5: Understanding and Improving Your Credit Score 83

The Record You Can't Ignore: Your Credit Report 84

What your credit history comprises 84

What goes into your credit report 85

Why you should check your credit report 85

The Most Popular Kid on the Block: FICO Scores 86

How scores work the short version 87

How a FICO score assesses your credit history the long version 88

What FICO scores ignore 95

Why your score is what it is 96

Getting Hold of Your Report and Score 96

Chapter 6: Selecting a Mortgage 99

Getting a Grasp on Mortgage Basics 99

Fixed or Adjustable? That Is the Interest(ing) Question 100

Distinguishing fixed-rate mortgages from adjustables 100

Looking at hybrid loans 102

Starting out risky: Interest-only mortgages 102

Making the fixed/adjustable decision 104

Deciding on your loan's life: 15 years or 30? 109

Finding a Fixed-Rate Mortgage 111

The all-important interest rate 111

The finer points of points 112

Other lender fees 114

Arriving at the Absolute Best Adjustable 115 Where an ARM's interest r...