Product Description

Buying a house is one of the most important decisions any of us make - and it's a minefield - and the system is on the side of the seller. But with Phil and Kirstie on your side to highlight the pitfalls, guide your decisions and help you carve through the bureaucracy, you'll get it right - and you may even enjoy it! Aspirational, classy, colourful and readable How to Buy a House will be essential reading for anyone thinking of moving - from first time buyers to those climbing higher on the property ladder. Packed with easy to digest, practical information How to Buy a House will set a new standard for books on property

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46878 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 208 pages

About the Author
Property experts Phil Spencer and Kirstie Allsopp are the presenters of Location, Location, Location, Channel 4's top rated show that helps people to buy their perfect property. Off screen they both work together for Garrington Homefinders where they help clients do the same thing.

Customer Reviews

Practical Advice for Property Novices
This isn't a book about making a killing in the property market - it's just a supremely practical and easy-to-read guide to buying your own home. Unlike other reviewers, I'm impressed with it precisely because it has appeared at a time when the property market seems to be falling: it helps the reader focus on exactly what she or he wants from a house which might have to be home for five years or more before the market picks up again. I wish I'd read it before I bought my first house - it would have saved me so much worry, expense and dissatisfaction. It's worth the money for the advice on dealing with estate agents and solicitors alone. Though it's true that the proportion of photographs to text is high, for me this helped keep my attention through the tedious but necessary technical bits (and even these are set out in a clear and comprehensible way). If you are an experienced property developer then obviously you won't need this book; but for those of us whose home is the biggest investment we will ever make, it's well worth reading.

An easily accessible guidebook
The book is a very light read and the spacious layout resembles a cookbook more than a book on real estate. Short hints are presented mixed with plenty of (irrelevant) pictures - half of them showing Allsopp and Spencer.
The strength of the book is that it has collected *all* the fundamentals in an easily accessible format. It is definitely not for the more experienced house-buyer, but for an infrequent reader about to buy a first home it could prove extremely useful.

Best leave this book on your coffee table
If you like the idea of buying a house and want to have a colourful and attractive book to let your friends know that you are 'thinking of buying a house' then this is a must. If you are a first time buyer and serious about buying a house, then don't bother.

It's mostly style over substance filled with nice photos and a really annoying magazine-style layout with bits of text scattered across the page in random segments. There's also some really garbage tips like 'Kirstie says, 'don't forget estate agents are human too, why not get them coffee on the way to your viewings from the nearest Starbucks...' or some such. Which she immediately admits is a stupid idea, as if everyone followed it, all estate agents would be bloated and caffeine crazed.

To be fair there are some useful bits and pieces, but a lot of it is either common sense or common courtesy. Lots of things are glossed over so it's unclear what happens between different stages.

I think you're better off getting the Adam Walker book of the same name. It's much better laid out with clear headings and practical advice that you can follow. This one is definitly best kept on the coffee table of your Clapham flat.