How to Save Thousands of Dollars on Your Home Mortgage

Before purchasing my first home I purchased and read many books on the homebuying process including: -The 106 Common Mistakes Homebuyers Make -100 Questions Every First-Time Home Buyer Should Ask -The 106 Mortgage Secrets All Homebuyers Must Learn--But Lenders Don't Tell -Home Buying for Dummies by Eric Tyson -How to Buy a Home When You Can't Afford It by Robert Irwin -Mortgages for Dummies by Eric Tyson -Complete Idiots Guide to buying and selling a home -How to Save Thousands of Dollars on Your Home Mortgage, 2nd Editionby Randy Johnson Randy Johnson's book was by far the most helpful and informational about the mortgage process. This books provides insights and tips to avoid the pitfalls of the mortgage process. The authors website also has many useful free programs and worksheets to help you analyze loans and the mortgage market. This book will truly save you thousands of dollars on your next mortgage. Educate yourself to the process. Put this book at the top of your reading list before you buy a house.

This is one of the books I bought when I bought my first house. It's a fine reference source if you want to know what all the different mortgage options are (e.g., what's the difference between a fixed-rate mortgage and an adjustable-rate mortgage, what indexes are ARMs tied to, etc.). And the author--Randy Johnson--makes honest recommendations on which mortgages best suit certain typical lifestyles or income scenarios. Also, one of the books great strengths is the discussion of how many discount points to pay. The one thing I found missing, though*, was at least one real-world scenario that you're likely to see used if you visit a mortgage broker in my neck of the woods [Silicon Valley], or other high-priced regions. And that is the use of a 'first' and a 'second' mortgage in a so-called "piggyback financing" or "80-10-10 financing" arrangement which can help you eliminate Private Mortgage Insurance (PMI). There's no in-depth discussion of this technique--which is very common--which I found incredible. There's all this advice on getting an ARM tied to the CD index vs. the LIBOR index with a balloon payment if you stay in your house for 3 years instead of 10 years and so on and so forth...but nothing about getting a conforming, fixed-rate, 30-year first mortgage and a smaller second in a technique to reduce your overall payments during the lives of the loans. It's a simple technique, and very worth a detailed analysis, but I couldn't find it. Anyway, like I said, if you want to know esoteric information about mortgages, then this is a worthy book. It helped me, it's just a little shy of a full-fledged 5-star effort.*Please Note: The review written above pertained to the 1st edition which I initially gave a 4-star rating. The second edition--which I now own also--has effectively covered "Piggyback" loans (i.e, 80-10-10 transactions), which I think propels this book into a solid 5-star work. The second edition also has updated information on shopping for a mortgage on the Internet, and some [though not all] of the examples that show different types of mortgages have had their interest rates brought more into line with present-day (i.e., 2002) rates. This is an excellent book for folks who want to know all about mortgages.

The difference between a NO-NEG-AM at 8.86% and a 30 year Fixed at 7.75% saved me $128,000 on my mortgage. Thanks to Randy's book I knew what questions to ask my lender. I knew the right answer too - NO - no negative amortization loan for me. This book gives you the knowledge you need to make an informed decision. No matter how "nice" and "helpful" your lender's may appear, YOU need to know what they are telling you is accurate. Don't buy a house without knowing what the terms being offered really mean for you. Thanks LoanWolf!!

Mortgage broker Randy Johnson reveals the chicanery that exists in the home loan industry, so you won't get bamboozled on this expense of a lifetime. He also shows you how to find the real pros who care about their clients and know how to work the system. It's a real jungle out there in mortgage land. Don't even think about sitting down with a loan officer before you read this book!

I've been in the industry for over seventeen years and I can tell you - this is one of the only mortgage books that really tells it like it is. If your idea of shopping for a mortgage includes picking up the local papaer or yellow pages and calling a bunch of different lenders to ask "what's your rate?", you're in trouble. Read the info on pages 113-118 to see why.Are you serious about shopping for a mortgage? Are you ready to set aside everything you think you know? Do you want a book that really "hits the nail on the head?" This is the book for you!Still undecided? How about this? - We like this book so much that we bought 500 copies to give to our mortgage customers.Do yourself a favor and put this book in your cart.