Tips and Traps When Mortgage Hunting 2/e

Robert Irwin

1 Good book for those who want to understand mortgages and r/e
First off, if you just want to buy a house and not deal with much, find a good broker (of course, that assumes you can find a good broker) and set them loose with specific requirements.

This book is more worthy of people who want to learn more about mortgages and save themselves anywhere from 1000 to 5,000 dollars on average. More if you really dig but this isn't the book for big saves in real estate.

Irwin will take you through all the various steps in

(1) figuring out your credit rating and what you can and cannot get with it;

(2) different types of mortgages and which ones to use;

(3) how to figure out your payment schedule; how to not get in over your head;

(4) the little costs for escrow and banks and other costs; some of which you can have removed;

(5) dealing w/ a broker;

(6) various loans to seek out, including govt ones;

(7) dealing with the seller; and

(8) how to make sure you don't get ripped off.

Overall, this is a great book for the first time investor or someone who wants a home and wants to save a few thousand dollars (or more). Not worth your time, as it's too complicated, for those who want to spend little time learning about it.

2 A must have!
The most complete book I've ever seen on hunting for a mortgage. It explained in detail all my options. It even gave me a list of different types of mortgages that I could get and where I could get them. I found it invaluable in getting a lower than market interest rate mortgage from a mortgage broker. (Who cares if he was previously a real estate agent or not-see earlier reviews!)

3 HELP
My husband and I are shopping around for our home we plan to purchase. My husband is a school teacher and I brought home this book, thinking he could read through it and get a real handle on what we should be doing for a mortgage when we find our home. He found the book very complicated and he said it was overwhelming. I paged through the book, just reading the tips, which I found helpful, but I, too, felt the book was very heavy on facts and information which probably doesn't pertain to the average homebuyer - certainly not us.

We were pre-approved for a loan before we started looking for our home by a very helpful mortgage broker referred to us by our Realtor. He has answered all the questions we had to date very professionally. I showed him the book and he said he had read it and he thought there were some helpful hints in it but he said there were some very glaring errors in it, too. Like one of the other revieweres pointed out, the author makes a monster mistake when he states that most all mortgage brokers are real estate agents. That's not at all true. They are required to have a current Department of Real Estate license (mortgage brokers) but they are not automatically real estate agents unless the author meant that they are QUALIFIED to sell real estate. The vast majority of them do not sell any real estate. They make loans on the real estate sold by real estate agents. It sounds confusing but it isn't. The author needs to correct this. He also needs to scale down the contents of his book so that the average borrower can understand it better.

He should also spend a lot more time denouncing many, if not all, of the lenders who advertise on the highways and freeways with their big electronic billboards advertising interest rates that absolutely do not exist. He should devote an entire chapter to this unethical practice which continues. unabated, as I write this review.

I called one of those lenders this afternoon because they offered a rate which was better than my mortgage broker offered. I found out that what they advertised wasn't even close to what they were quoting. The agent there told me the billboards were malfunctioning. I suggested they turn them off, then. His comment was, "we spend too much money on them to turn them off." Robert Irwin, get on this scam now. Do a whole book on it.

4 WAY TOO COMPLICATED
I am a first time homebuyer looking for my first home. I found this book fairly detailed, even though I didn't think so when I leafed through it at the bookstore before I bought it. I think most of homebuyers want streamlined, summarized information, not reams and reams of info we don't understand or can't use. The author seems to know his material, it just takes him quite a while to present it. That's why I gave the book one star instead of two or three.

Also, I am also confused. The author describes mortgage brokers as "mostly real estate agents." I thought mortgage brokers were independent contractors whom the borrower employs to find the best loan out there for the borrower. I have been working with a mortgage broker on my own transaction and I showed him the statement in the book. He said, and I quote, "that's totally inaccurate." He said that the author should have stated that all mortgage brokers should be licensed by the department of Real Estate but that doesn't necessarily make them real estate agents. My broker said he has a real estate license but had never sold a property in the 25 years he's had the license. I think the author should clarify that statement. It's confusing. I know I wouldn't want my realtor to be acting as my mortgage broker, just as I wouldn't want my doctor to be my dentist. Both hold medical degrees but they specialize in totally different fields. Same with brokers and realtors, I would imagine. Also, the few realtors with whom I have worked all told me they have NEVER done mortgage loans and wouldn't even ATTEMPT to try. They refer their business to their favorite mortgage broker or loan officer. Real estate agents list and sell homes. Mortgage brokers make the loans on those homes. Very few would attempt to do both, according to my info from the realtors and the mortgage brokers with whom I have talked.

I live in California. Maybe it's different in other states, but I don't think so and neither did my mortgage broker.

5 good reading
I learned a lot about the mortgage busines