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Increasing the Value of the Biggest Investment of Your Life
Ballantine Books
March 2008
On Sale: February 26, 2008
288 pages ISBN: 0345490444 EAN: 9780345490445 Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
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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