Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home - Softcover

Find the right house at the right price with insider tips and advice from the experts!

Say goodbye to landlords and laundromats with Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home. This timely title will help you find the right place to live and invest in -- and even enjoy doing it.
Filled with interesting facts, real-life stories and insights, and common pitfalls to avoid, this book provides everything you need to select the right type of home for your family, the right mortgage, the right agent, the right inspections -- and much more. Get the inside scoop on:

. deciding between a house, condo, co-op or townhouse
. exploring your local market for the best value
. creating and managing a realistic homebuying budget
. qualifying for and securing financing
. getting the right inspections and insurance
. negotiating with sellers or new home builders
. successfully closing the deal
Read through the real-world experiences of over 20 first-time homebuyers, as well as valuable insights from a team of 13 real estate professionals, including:
brokers

. attorneys who specialize in real estate
. a home inspector
. a neighborhood researcher
. a mortgage specialist
. and more!

Along with this step-by-step handbook, you'll get The Homebuyer's Toolkit, including dozens of forms and MP3s to help you find the right place, crunch the numbers, interview real estate professionals, and even borrow down payment money from your parents.

The brand new edition of Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home is fully updated to reflect the dramatically changed housing market, with emphasis on how to do the right kind of research before deciding on a price and the terms of your offer. It also includes a new discussion of what to expect when you're looking for financing.

Are you a California resident? Check out How to Buy a House in California - Download forms for book at nolo.com

Ilona Bray, J.D. is an author and legal editor at Nolo, specializing in real estate, immigration law, workplace wellness and nonprofit fundraising. Other books include Effective Fundraising for Nonprofits, U.S. Immigration Made Easy and Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home, The Volunteers' Guide to Fundraising. Bray's working background includes solo practice, nonprofit, and corporate stints, as well as long periods of volunteering, including an internship at Amnesty International's main legal office in London. She received her law degree and a Master's degree in East Asian (Chinese) Studies from the University of Washington. Bray also blogs at Nolo's Fundraising Tips for Busy Nonprofits and Nolo's Real Estate Tips for Home Buyers and Sellers.

Alayna Schroeder is a coauthor of several Nolo books, including Selling Your House in a Tough Market and Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home. A Sacramento, California lawyer, she has represented employers in litigation, drafted employee handbooks and policies and counseled employers on sound employment practices. She holds a law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of Law.

Marcia Stewart writes and edits Nolo books and forms on landlord-tenant law, real estate, and other consumer issues. She is the co-author of Nolo's Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home, Every Landlord's Legal Guide, First-Time Landlord, Every Tenant's Legal Guide, Leases and Rental Agreements, Renters' Rights, and The Legal Answer Book for Families. She has edited dozens of Nolo books, including The Women's Small Business Start-Up Kit. Marcia is also an author on a popular landlord-tenant law site.