Tips and Traps When Buying a Home

by Robert Irwin

Tips and Traps covers the home-buying process from start to finish, addressing the full range of decisions a home buyer must make--picking the right time to buy, deciding what is afforable, selecting the right house to buy, and picking a competent agent, and more.

Genres: Nonfiction, Personal Finance, Business

190 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Robert Irwin’s career in the real estate industry encompasses more than three decades of experience as real estate broker, landlord, and consultant to lenders, agents, and investors. He is the bestselling author of more than 50 books on real estate, including The Armchair Real Estate Investor, Fix It, Stage It, Sell It - Quick!, Buy Your First Home, The For Sale By Owner Kit, McGraw-Hill’s Tips & Traps series, and the latest edition of Buy, Rent, and Sell. A long-time voice of authority, Robert Irwin addresses landlording, investing, and homebuying issues with crystal clarity.

Reviews

[Kristen]

Easy 5-star read. I can’t remember the last time I read a book in two days. Robert Irwin’s “Tips & Traps When Buying a Home” is informative and accessible.

A book is top-notch for me when it’s full of “I have to write this down” moments. Indeed, the book had so many insightful pointers and warnings that I created a note on my phone during the first chapter. By the end of the book, I had typed 8 iPhone screens of notes.

Despite being a first-time house hunter, the book was very enjoyable and easy to read. While the content may be slightly dated, the majority is still relevant. Unless you’ve bought a house or are in the real-estate industry, this quick read is worth your time!

[M Khan]

Easy to follow, good introduction to the process of buying a house, would recommend confirming things because some content is outdated (for example buyer's agents are quite common now) etc., and some of the loan/mortgage sections I feel didn't emphasize the risk/tradeoff of some of the options enough (maybe examples with dollar amounts would do this).
Also on his tip on finding the most active agent, these days an agent like that has a team so they may not be working with you directly enough or give you enough attention.

[Palak]

Very nice book for all the people interested in real estate. Being outsider, having no knowledge about the real estate, it was very informational and helpful.
Easy to read and understand.

[Dinesh]

Very useful book and covers all the basics on home buying.

[Angela]

For what it is, this was a great guide. It gives a basic overview of the process of finding a house (and a little bit about what you want to find--this was the part I was really looking for, but the rest of it proved to be very informative and useful), along with information on loans, mortgages, finding and using an agent, etc. For someone who has never done this before, having a simple, straightforward guide was a good way to get acquainted with the process.

[Carlos]

This book is quite easy to read. It is a good tutorial for those who know nothing about purchasing a home AND want to learn the basic necessity in purchasing a home. I have LEARNED so many important concepts that will most likely benefit me in my future home purchase.

[Janel G. B.]

I feel a lot more prepared to dive into the home buying process. I imagine I will need many more resources, particularly detailing the fine details of acquiring a decent mortgage, in order to go through with buying a home, but this was a great starting guide.

[Melissa]

It gave me a lot of things to think about for when we start looking for a home, but I'm still not ready.

[Tomas Wantom]

Must read. Relensi project-specific.

[Audry]

Good information. A little dated on mortgages, but otherwise sound. Information mostly applies to buying the house you are going to live in, as opposed to an investment house.

[Arizonagirl]

This one was more informative, but I still feel like there is a lot to learn.

[Shelby]

A helpful overview of homebuying. He includes some good ideas to consider as you approach the process.