Customer Reviews

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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!!!!

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.

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.

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 mortgage. While it does tend to be biased towards dealing with mortgage brokers, anyone can use this book to educate themselves on what they need to know to be a smart mortgage shopper, whether they use a bank or broker. This is the best resource on mortgages for the "common person" (like myself) that I've found, and I've looked at MANY. You can't go wrong buying this book. I wish I'd read it before I bought the first time - I'd have saved a bunch of money and headache.

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. And there is some interesting detail concerning ARMs, lender rate sheets, zero-point loans, etc.

But I think the book lacks organization and consistency. Like a lot of "insider" books it needed to have been read by a lot of "outsiders" for coherency before publishing. The author is not consistent in using the terminology that he defines at the start. He often is not clear about when he is talking about the firm originating your loan or the ultimate buyer of the loan. He creates as much confusion as clarity in his sloppy use of the terms: rebates, points, loan discount points, or loan origination points. Furthermore, for a detail-oriented book I was surprised that section numbers of a standard settlement form, 800, 900, 1000, etc, were not referred to when discussing closing costs.

I would have like to have seen more realistic discussion about the ability of a consumer to force a loan originator to reveal or discuss the profit margin on a loan as the author suggests one do. As far as I know American businesses are not in the habit and in fact resist revealing markups to consumers.

For some readers this book may be just what they are looking for, but I suspect that for most the detail is just not presented in a way that makes it particularly understandable or usable.

Randy Johnson is very informative and contains alot of useful information...once you understand what he is trying to explain. In my opinion this is not the book to read if you have absolutely NO idea how the mortgage process works and how and what lenders do in that process. If you are a total novice , the terminology Mr. Johnson throws around may sound very cryptic; and his examples might make sense to you if you were either a finance major in college or have some minor experience with terms of finance. In my opinon, the total novice should read another book for the basics before coming to this one . I recommend Eric Tyson's Mortgages For Dummies. It is very concise, clear, easy to understand and concentrates solely on the basics. After you have acquired some basic knowledge of the lending process, then come back to Mr.Johsnon for some serious nuts and bolts tips and strategies. To me, that is the best way to maximize the insider info and stratagies mapped out in Mr. Johnson's book. However, for those of you versed in the lending lingo and who have been around the block a time or two when it comes to the home buying process, this book is definitely a must read. You need look no further for info that really will help you to save money on your next loan or refinance(but I still recommend MFDs , it can compliment or elaborate on alot of the info mentioned in Randy's book). So, all in all, a good read for the novice and for the semi-pro.

The difference between a NO-NEG-AM at 8.86% and a 30 year Fixed at 7.75% saved me $128,000 on my mortgage. Thanks to Randy's book I knew what questions to ask my lender. I knew the right answer too - NO - no negative amortization loan for me. This book gives you the knowledge you need to make an informed decision. No matter how "nice" and "helpful" your lender's may appear, YOU need to know what they are telling you is accurate. Don't buy a house without knowing what the terms being offered really mean for you. Thanks LoanWolf!!

We weren't comfortable not knowing much about our mortgage options when we bought our new house and we could tell that the salespeople were "banking" on us staying innocent (used car salesman is what comes to mind). There was a lot of mystery we didn't like. We knew we'd be stuck with any mistake we made for many years and we didn't want our biggest expense to be any bigger than necessary. Then I heard about this book. As far as I can tell, no other book on the market contains the type of inside information this book has. We are confident that we have the right mortgage at the right rate after using this book as our guide. We really did save thousands.

Mortgage broker Randy Johnson reveals the chicanery that exists in the home loan industry, so you won't get bamboozled on this expense of a lifetime. He also shows you how to find the real pros who care about their clients and know how to work the system. It's a real jungle out there in mortgage land. Don't even think about sitting down with a loan officer before you read this book!

I've been in the industry for over seventeen years and I can tell you - this is one of the only mortgage books that really tells it like it is. If your idea of shopping for a mortgage includes picking up the local papaer or yellow pages and calling a bunch of different lenders to ask "what's your rate?", you're in trouble. Read the info on pages 113-118 to see why.

Are you serious about shopping for a mortgage? Are you ready to set aside everything you think you know? Do you want a book that really "hits the nail on the head?" This is the book for you!

Still undecided? How about this? - We like this book so much that we bought 500 copies to give to our mortgage customers.

Do yourself a favor and put this book in your cart.