Realty Check: Real Estate Secrets for First-Time Canadian Home Buyers

Realty Check: Real Estate Secrets for First-Time Canadian Home Buyers Summary:
  
By Sandra Rinomato
Publisher:   John Wiley & Sons Inc Canada Ltd
Number Of Pages:   255
Publication Date:   2008-12-31
ISBN-10 / ASIN:   0470157607
ISBN-13 / EAN:   9780470157602


Product Description: 

Top advice from one of television's most well-known Realtors.

Buying a home for the first time can be a daunting and stressful endeavor. The myriad questions and issues that arise can be overwhelming, resulting in an experience completely different from what first-time buyers were expecting. Sandra Rinomato, the host of the hit HGTV show Property Virgins, delivers a "realty check" by pointing buyers to homes that fit their budget, satisfy their needs, and most importantly, achieve their goal of home ownership. Realty Check covers such topics as:

How to finance your home purchase without going broke.

How to look past home staging and focus on the crucial elements of a potential property.

Home inspection and exactly what it entails.

Tips for condominium buyers.

How to find and work with a good Realtor.

Mortgage fraud and other legal issues.

Buying a first property is a major commitment, but readers of this book will be well-prepared to take the leap into home-ownership, with their eyes wide open.

Summary: Decent Info,But Frustrating to Read

Rating: 2

This book provides quite a few things to think about when buying a house and tries to present itself as a light read with lots of personality. The biggest problem is that Rinomato (and apparently her editor) have no clue how to actually write a book. I don't have an english degree and am generally pretty easy on my books, but I came across 2 full pages discussing how much she likes pasta in a book that is trying to teach me about real estate, I was seriously questioning her writing ability. When she all of the sudden began using the term "fade out...fade in" to get back on topic after digressing for four pages, I was thrown off because she digresses onto different subjects quite a bit, but only uses that tool some of the time. She seems like a nice person and a good realtor and I enjoy "Property Virgins" on TV. However, this book often ends up sounding more like a commercial for her own real estate skills, rather than ensuring the reader has the information they're looking for. The checklists in the back are probably the best part about the book with questions you should ask along the way, costs you should be ready to incur and calculating your debt-service ratio. That said, the more complicated aspects of the lists are not even covered within the actual book, so I'm going to have to still do some research as to what some things mean. It's a quick read with some decent information, but I don't thnk I'd recommend it. I'd just watch the TV show instead.

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