Author Randy Johnson has written another book for "smart people", his expression for homeowners and home buyers who buy books because they acknowledge there is something new to learn from experts.
How To Find A Home and Get A Mortgage On The Internet, published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., offers a step-by-step guide to the homebuying process with Web resources for homes and mortgages.
Johnson thinks you should "use cyberspace to find your ideal space" and then puts his money where his mouth is by teaching you to find homes, check out the communities, determine the right kind of mortgage you need and how much you can afford, and how to plan smart that you can have your mortgage paid off when you retire.
Johnson knows that home buyers are vulnerable to the sales techniques of real estate agents and mortgage brokers and offers advice on how to resist the "little con" that sometimes crops up and how to find successful professionals who don't resort to pressuring home buyers. He says of web sites for mortgages, "I have never seen such open and blatant appeals to the rate-conscious shopper. Be very cautious about this. Is it possible to get a good deal on the Internet? Absolutely - but educate yourself first!"
Johnson's book first tells home buyers how to get information about communities and schools, check the value of homes, select a real estate agent and understand the agency relationship, and how to find homes online for sale as well as make choices for having a home listed for sale. He gives a great deal of detail and advice and provides the web site addresses for the sites.
The second half of this thorough how-to book is devoted to the mortgage selection process. Reminding us that the ideal home loan is the one that balances risk and protection, Johnson feels that most people get the wrong loan or pay too much for their loan. He spends a lot of time discussing the basics of mortgage financing and uses case studies to demonstrate how different the needs are for a young, first-time homebuyer, couple and someone approaching retirement who needs to build equity and investments.
Qualifying, checking credit, understand APR, buy-downs, and discount points and ensuring that lenders treat you fairly get covered in the second half of the book. The hidden treasure may well be the "Managing Your Mortgage" chapter which explains that a mortgage is just another financial instrument and that financial planning includes proper mortgage management, which can have awesome consequences.
Randy Johnson is President of Independence Mortgage Company, a firm that has been providing mortgage brokerage, real estate consulting, and financial services to clients since 1980. He has personally originated over $600 million in residential loans to thousands of home buyers. The author of the successful How To Save Thousands of Dollars on Your Home Mortgage (Wiley), he holds an MBA from Stanford University.
Pat Rioux
