Homebuyers Beware: Who's Ripping You Off Now?--What You Must Know About the New Rules of Mortgage and Credit

Everything you thought you knew about financing a house has changed. Your future depends on knowing today’s mortgage and credit realities: Relying on older information could cost you a fortune or keep you from buying a house altogether. In Homebuyers Beware: Who’s Ripping You Off Now? – What You Must Know About the New Rules of Mortgage and Credit, Carolyn Warren reveals the new realities of home financing and shows exactly how to take advantage of them, whether you’re buying your first home, refinancing, struggling with imperfect credit, or planning to invest in real estate.

Homebuyers Beware reveals new secrets homebuyers simply can’t afford to miss and exposes new scams that target today’s eager consumers--including new loans that look great on paper but are every bit as dangerous as yesterday’s subprimes. Unlike other mortgage guides, this book fully reflects today’s radically new mortgage requirements, in addition to the latest federal housing legislation and how to improve your credit rating. Warren covers topics from real estate negotiation, to powerful tips on getting lower interest rates, to avoiding bogus junk fees, and everything in between:

· High-tech “smoke and mirrors” that can trick you into overpaying

· Quick, easy, powerful ways to fix your credit

· Uncovering the costly secrets of the Yield Spread Premium

· The latest laws and credit rules and what they mean to you

· New plans for recovering from bad credit, foreclosures, or short sales

“Carolyn Warren is my go-to expert for mortgage industry information. She not only helps you avoid rip-offs, she helps you know what questions to ask and how to ask them. Full of tips, scripts, and sample letters, Homebuyers Beware is an extremely valuable book that I recommend to all my readers!”
--Alison Rogers, “Ask the Agent” columnist, CBS Moneywatch.com

“In this fun-to-read volume, mortgage industry insider Carolyn Warren tells you what real estate cheats and mortgage scammers do NOT want you to know: the tricks, the deceptions, and the outright frauds that would otherwise add thousands, maybe tens of thousands of dollars to your mortgage. Get it. Read it. And take it to the mortgage broker with you. You’ll be glad you did!”

--Clayton Makepeace, The Total Package, Makepeacetotalpackage.com

“In Homebuyers Beware, Carolyn Warren directs her keen eye at the mortgage and credit markets in the wake of the housing bubble. With an insider’s knowledge, plenty of interesting anecdotes, and helpful reference information, Warren is a cheerful teacher leading readers down the path to homeownership and pointing out pitfalls along the way.”

--Ben Meyer, InternetBrands.com

Customer Reviews:

I lost everything in the mortgage crash!

By Claire Jordan "Filmmaker - "The Baroness ... - May 7, 2010

This book will save you many,many times the price you pay for it

By Temujin53 - November 20, 2009

As a small businessman and even smaller real estate investor,a licensed R.E.Broker and General Contractor,I wholeheartedly recommend Homebuyers Beware to all home buyers,first timers and seasoned investors alike.

I read Carolyn Warren's first book,Mortgage Rip-Offs,a few months ago and liked it so much I contacted her for consultation re:refinancing of my properties.Eventhough I bought my first home over 30 years ago and many since,I must confess I know NOTHING about yield spread premium and the way brokers/lenders use YSP to add income to themself before reading that book.The YSP information alone was worth thousand times the cost of the book(approx.$13 from AMAZON.COM)because I know absolutely, definitely that the brokers' additional income must come only from one source : borrowers like you and me.

There were other important information for ALL mortgage seekers in the first book :how to negotiate for lower fees and rates,whether to pay point,how and what to do... read more

buyer beware of buying the $2.39 kindle edition

By corynthian22 - September 21, 2010

Good book so far, but mainly wanted to warn people that the seller is selling just the introduction and the first chapter for $2.39. I was surprised at the price, thinking it was for the whole book, and clicked on it away. My mistake. The book stops at the end of page 19, at the end of the first chapter. Amazon was gracious enough to quickly give a refund, so that I could buy the whole book. However, this practice doesn't make sense to me. Who sells their introduction and their first chapter for 25% (including tax) of the price of the book, and especially when there is a free kindle download of the introduction? You're paying 25% of the price of the book for pages 7-19, which comes out to around 5% of the book. It's like watching 5 minutes of a movie and paying $2.50 on a movie ticket priced at $10. What is the seller thinking?