This superb new guide by an award-winning journalist and real estate expert focuses as much on lifestyle as on finances. Taking a consumer-advocate approach to buying a home Razzi tackles all of the important financial issues and explains what a home buyer needs to know about selecting brokers agents and mortgage bankers. All across the country home ownership rates are at their highest levels in years. With prices escalating monthly in the most popular areas buyers need to look carefully before they leap. And the best place to find the information they need to make a wise home purchase is this superb new guide by award-winning journalist and real estate expert Elizabeth Razzi which focuses as much on lifestyle as on finances. Taking a consumer-advocate approach to buying a home Razzi tackles all of the important financial issues and explains what a home buyer (particularly a first-time buyer) needs to know about selecting brokers agents and mortgage bankers. What separates this book from the pack is that it also addresses important lifestyle matters: How do you size up a neighborhood? Tour a house? Anticipate what a home will actually be like to live in? The first in a projected new series of Fearless real estate titles this book provides the kind of positive authoritative advice that will turn any nervous home buyer into a fearless home buyer.7 By an award-winning real estate journalist Written specifically for the non-investor-the millions of Americans who are buying a home to actually live in Fresh consumer-advocate s approach to buying a home transforms nervous home buyers into fearless home buyers Explains everything the first-time or move-up buyer needs to know about staying in control of the deal-from getting a mortgage to the closing Discusses the lifestyle issues to be considered before buying a home: how to select a neighborhood; the pros and cons of different house styles; how to test the commute