Product Description

"The Beginner's Guide to Property Investment" deals thoroughly with the whole process of buying your first home, right up to the time you move in. It also examines and explores the many alternative areas of property investment available to you once you've got your foot on the first step of the property ladder. These include buy-to-let, let-to-buy, renovation, buying property abroad, self-build and self-employed business enterprise. This book will disclose opportunities you might not even be aware of, whatever the state of the property market. However, it does not advocate cutting corners or taking unnecessary risks. By reading it in a progressive and methodical manner you will understand the advantage of self-assessment and careful planning. You will also gain access to generous amounts of inside information and well-kept trade secrets. It includes such topics as: Why estate agents yearn to make contact with first-time buyers? What constitutes a sound investment? Why buy-to-let has boomed? How to examine your borrowing potential and create a golden credit rating? It also examines the extraordinary volume and range of mortgages available and suggests the best types for you and your circumstances.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #120771 in Books
• Published on: 2004-05-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 382 pages

About the Author
For author Tony Booth this title represents the culmination of knowledge and experience gained over many years as a professional investor, estate agent, letting agent and author of other property related books.

Customer Reviews

An Excellent guide for FTB's
Recently purchased this to help in buying our first house. Has proved to be an excellent resource with a clear and very well layed out information for every step you need to take. I would say this book is more for the FTB than investor although there is many chapters which are dedicated to those intrested in Buy to Let / Holiday lets / Commercial lets with information on how to obtain property not advertised on the open market.

All in all a recommended read!

Disappointing...
While this book does contain some useful information, much of it is simplified and superficial, and the book contains very little information you couldn't find on the internet. I am disappointed in the overall contents, for 2 reasons:

1) Some of the information is simplified, to the point of being inaccurate. For instance, early on, the book makes reference to "checking your credit score from one of the agencies", which is incorrect - there is no such thing as a credit rating or score, only a file, and each credit agency holds a different file, so you should check ALL the agencies' files on you, not just one. This is a really important distinction, and makes me worry that other information has been over-simplified or is inaccurate. On occasion, the author just skips sections altogether (eg. ISA mortgages), on the basis that they are too complicated to explain. The book barely mentioned brokers, and the work they do, despite the fact that they're instrumental in finding the best mortgage.

2) Much of the advice is a statement of the obvious. The reader is told that one should make sure one is "mature" before buying a house - several pages are dedicated to churning out the same obvious advice. Some of the check-lists are also pretty uninspired.

Overall, I feel like I've learnt very little from reading this, than I didn't already know.

This book might be useful for those who know absolutely nothing about house-buying or mortgages. For anyone else, it sounds over-simplistic, and sometimes borders on the bleedin' obvious. There are some useful comments, but I'm not sure they're worth the cost of the book.