Product Description

No–one obsesses over property quite like the British, even though buying and selling a home can be a personal headache and a financial lucky–dip. Our newspapers groan under the weight of property supplements; TV reports constantly track house prices; young people fret about getting on the property ladder, while established homeowners worry about how to increase the value of their home or the market crashing.

Buying a property is rarely straightforward and can be very time–consuming. There are numerous choices to make, from the style of building and location, to proximity to schools and other amenities.  Most of all, there are plenty of opportunities to make the wrong decisions.  

Selling your home is also fraught with stress; from deciding to move and evaluating your property’s worth to finding an estate agent and putting your home on the market, every step comes with it’s own difficulties.  Plus the advent of the Home Information Packs has also created a new headache for potential vendors.

Buying and Selling a Home For Dummies, 2^nd Edition covers everything from finding a property and getting a mortgage to preparing your home for sale and moving on.  It is also one of the few guides to cover England, Wales and Northern Ireland as separate entitles from Scotland, and to cover the Scottish property market.  This updated guide also contains coverage of HIPS (Home Information Packs), which were made compulsory in September 2007 and apply to all properties with three or more bedrooms.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #99222 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-11
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 370 pages

Review
"The latest must read property title to hit the shelves…" (Perfect Home, April 2004)

From the Back Cover

Includes updated material on Home Information Packs

Move in or move out with minimum effort and maximum return

If you′re trying to get a foot on the property ladder or are looking to trade up,this friendly guide covers every aspect of the property market in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. From arranging finance and looking for the right property to marketing your home and negotiating the best price, this insider guide helps make buying or selling a home as straightforward and pain–free as possible – whatever your situation.

Discover how to:

• Compile a Home Information Pack

• Negotiate like a professional

• Get the most from your estate agent

• Buy a property at auction

• Renovate a wreck for profit

About the Author

Melanie Bien is a property writer and a Director of Savills Private Finance. She is the author of the bestselling Renting Out Your Property For Dummies.

Customer Reviews

Incredibly useful and covers everything
I found this book incredibly useful. It really does cover everything that you should think about when buying and selling your home and does so in a really clear way. It makes you think about what you really want in a new house, gives good tips on dealing with Estate Agents (I needed all the help I could get with that one!), takes you through the buying and selling process step by step and even advises you on deciding when is the right time to see your home. Highly recommended.

Could do better
This book is written in the first person which is actually quite grating. The format is as expected - in the usual computer manual style. Ultimately, I found it very prosaic - there is so much potential in a book with this title. For example, the role and growth of online property portals is only briefly touched on, and the section on selling privately is weak.

Does exactly what it says on the tin......
The first two chapters seemed a bit repetitive, but after that it settled down into an easy read on all aspects. Very easy going, sections are good for skipping the bits not relevant to you (e.g there are two chapters on differences in buying/selling in Scotland compared to the rest of the UK, you can just skip if not relevant).

If you've moved 20 times before then there's probably not much here for you, but if you're not familiar with the process or terminology of moving, then this book gives a good explanation.

This book is not - and does not claim to be - an indepth detail of every single aspect of house buying, but it is a good overview with sufficient detail to help you get going with the process. It also makes good use of links to other sources of information, e.g. regulating bodies for estate agents.

One final thing to consider: buying a house is an expensive process. One mistake could easily cost you a few thousand (or even getting gazumped - through no fault of your own - could cost you a few hundred). If just one of the tips in the approx. 350 pages of this book help prevent you from wasting money, then it will of paid for itself.