Home Rich: Increasing the Value of the Biggest Investment of Your Life | 
| Author: Gerri Willis
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $25.00
Buy New: $10.95
You Save: $14.05 (56%)
New (35) Used (9) from $9.40
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 105744
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.3
ISBN: 0345490444
Dewey Decimal Number: 643.120973
EAN: 9780345490445
ASIN: 0345490444
Publication Date: February 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: Brand new condition.
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Product Description
Your home is the single most valuable thing you can own, yet making it pay can intimidate and confuse even the savviest investor. Now, in an indispensable new book, finance expert Gerri Willis leads you step-by-step through the entire experience of buying, maintaining, and selling a home, and shows you how to come out ahead–maybe even way ahead.
Americans used to raise their families in one place, knowing that their homes would someday make them wealthy. These days, on average, people spend just nine years in a house; it’s become a medium-term investment in a volatile real estate market. Home Rich is the first book that offers simple rules specifically designed for this brave new world of home buying and selling. Here are the ways to maximize your profit, from the time you get the keys to the time you hand them over.
• before you buy: Learn about the best and safest loans available, how to finance and refinance them, and how to pick the right real estate agent (watch out for the “dual agency,” when one agent represents both buyer and seller).
• buy right: Understand what size home you need and can afford (it’s the features and the fit, not the square footage), and check out location, location, location (a school system is a tip-off to a growing neighborhood).
• keep up your investment: Make a checklist by season to determine maintenance expenses and find out how to protect against monster storms, mold, and vermin.
• upgrade in ways that count: Be practical (an updated kitchen beats a Jacuzzi), discover the new green improvements, and plant the best trees and shrubs for your zone (landscaping can add 6 to 7 percent to the value of a home).
• sell right: Inspect and repair, clear and clean, then set the correct price, advertise, and field the offers.
Home Rich addresses the needs of homeowners in all regions and at all income levels, featuring helpful case histories, practical charts, and clear instructions. Gerri Willis has written a comprehensive, reader-friendly guide for creating a special personal space that you will love living in–and that others will also value and happily pay for when the time comes for you to sell.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Good Overview! June 29, 2008
"Home rich" provides good overview guidance for buying, maintaining, and selling a home. Often the material is detailed enough to stand on its own - eg. selecting a realtor, things to watch out for in mortgage fraud. However, the topics involved often merit additional perspectives beyond those offered. For example, while the material on remodeling is helpful (eg. focus on kitchens and bathrooms), its suggestions are very limited due to space considerations, and one would do well to also consult books that focus exclusively on those topics. And the coverage on selecting a home inspector, while a very important topic, was not very helpful. (We got a bad one, and I doubt that Willis' selection suggestions would have helped.)
Bottom Line: "Home Rich" is a good start, but don't rely ONLY on it.
 A very helpful book April 12, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
I bought this book after buying a home. This is my first time buying a house on my own and this book is full of ideas on what to do to increase the value on my home. As I begin to tackle projects, it will guide me in making the right decisions as to the ones that will add value and those that are not so helpful or will even hurt the value. I can then choose the projects that are most beneficial. Some ideas are so simple you wouldn't even think about it. For example; just choosing the right color to paint your house can make it sell better.
For those still looking for a home it is full of information about selecting the right home for you and your family as well as choosing the right financing. This book is well worth reading for anyone who owns a home or is considering buying one.
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