How to Save Thousands of Dollars on Your Home Mortgage: Amazon.ca: Randy Johnson: Books

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Review

At last, here's a 'how to get a mortgage' book that takes the borrower's side, explaining how lenders earn their biggest profits and how borrowers can take advantage of lenders....This is one of the few 'how to get a mortgage' books that cannot be recommended to highly. It's not perfect (the reverse mortgage section is very superficial), but the insider knowledge makes up for the weaknesses. Home buyers, realty agents, mortgage lenders and homeowners should study this book to understand the real workings of the huge home mortgage industry. -- Robert Bruss, San Francisco Examiner, June 7 1998

Book Description

Few home owners are aware of all the types of mortgages available to them. This very reader-friendly resource enables them to explore the many alternatives that are out there--and save a sizable amount of money in the process.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Various segments of the industry offer different types of loans for reasons that are important to them. Read the first page

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Concordance

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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
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Average Customer Review

4.9 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars I wish their were more stars., Nov 20 2002

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"craig_castor" (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews

I recently purchased the second edition of this book from www.amazon.com . I chose it because it had such impressive customer reviews, but it was even better than I expected! HOW TO SAVE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS ON YOUR HOME MORTGAGE was undoubtedly the most valuable reading I've done in a long time. The advice will probably save me money every month for the rest of my life. I am so glad I read it before I completed the mortgage on my first home, I can just imagine the readers who are writing their second or third morgages kicking themselves as they turn the pages. IF YOU ARE GOING TO TAKE THE TIME TO READ ANYTHING BEFORE YOU BUY YOUR NEXT HOME, READ THIS BOOK FIRST!!!!

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5.0 out of 5 stars It's the best!, April 8 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: How to Save Thousands of Dollars on Your Home Mortgage (Paperback)

I shopped for a number of mortgage books, and bought three, including one published by Barons ("Keys to Mortgage..."), and "How to get the Best Home Loan" by "Bell".

This was the only one worth reading.

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5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent book, Mar 23 2002

By

BookGuy (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How to Save Thousands of Dollars on Your Home Mortgage (Paperback)

This is one of the books I bought when I bought my first house. It's a fine reference source if you want to know what all the different mortgage options are (e.g., what's the difference between a fixed-rate mortgage and an adjustable-rate mortgage, what indexes are ARMs tied to, etc.). And the author--Randy Johnson--makes honest recommendations on which mortgages best suit certain typical lifestyles or income scenarios. Also, one of the books great strengths is the discussion of how many discount points to pay. The one thing I found missing, though*, was at least one real-world scenario that you're likely to see used if you visit a mortgage broker in my neck of the woods [Silicon Valley], or other high-priced regions. And that is the use of a 'first' and a 'second' mortgage in a so-called "piggyback financing" or "80-10-10 financing" arrangement which can help you eliminate Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). There's no in-depth discussion of this technique--which is very common--which I found incredible. There's all this advice on getting an ARM tied to the CD index vs. the LIBOR index with a balloon payment if you stay in your house for 3 years instead of 10 years and so on and so forth...but nothing about getting a conforming, fixed-rate, 30-year first mortgage and a smaller second in a technique to reduce your overall payments during the lives of the loans. It's a simple technique, and very worth a detailed analysis, but I couldn't find it. Anyway, like I said, if you want to know esoteric information about mortgages, then this is a worthy book. It helped me, it's just a little shy of a full-fledged 5-star effort.

*Please Note: The review written above pertained to the 1st edition which I initially gave a 4-star rating. The second edition--which I now own also--has effectively covered "Piggyback" loans (i.e, 80-10-10 transactions), which I think propels this book into a solid 5-star work. The second edition also has updated information on shopping for a mortgage on the Internet, and some [though not all] of the examples that show different types of mortgages have had their interest rates brought more into line with present-day (i.e., 2002) rates. This is an excellent book for folks who want to know all about mortgages.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Helpful Book
This book is a must-read for anyone who doesn't have much knowledge of the mortgage process. It's easy to understand, and covers the entire process of shopping for and closing a... Read more

Published on Jan 30 2002 by Ron

4.0 out of 5 stars Some interesting detail, but could be better
This book is written by a mortgage industry insider and makes the claim that it will reveal the inner workings or even secrets of the process of obtaining a mortgage. Read more

Published on Oct 15 2001 by J. Grattan