Real Estate Smart: The New Home Buying Guide

By: Matt Parker

Narrated by: Fred Filbrich

Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

*Buying a new home?*

*"… it’s a must-read for anyone weighing a rent or buy decision, anyone looking for their first home, and anyone looking to move to another home."*

Dave, Seattle

*"I have purchased three homes in my life, I wish I had this book to help me with those decisions."*

Jim, Richmond

*Worried you will make the right choice?*

You will be surprised to find out what the latest statistics from the National Association of Realtors, Gallup, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and multiple studies tell us about modern home buyer happiness.

In this brand new book, discover what unmentioned small choices you make have huge, meaningful impacts on not only your financial future, but also your fitness, health, relationships, and professional life.

Modern home ownership data reveals many things you never thought of! Learn:

*—One feature in a given neighborhood encourages fitness up to 20 percent greater than others.*

*—One item on your street will make your children significantly safer, particularly from automobile accidents.*

*—A particular condition you may practice in your home makes many women chronically stressed.*

*—One trait of your neighbor plays a large part in whether or not you will divorce.*

*—One decision when signing your loan paperwork can cost you $100,000 or more.*

*Enjoy Real Estate Smart!*

©2015 Matt Parker (P)2015 Matt Parker

Great Pearls

Very thought provoking read. It’s less of a checklist of how to go through buying a home. It’s more of contemplating what your needs and wants are and how to smartly achieve those goals. I’m glad I got this title.

Required reading for first time buyers

Wisdom (based on science) is what you get here. If only all professionals considered the psychological implications of their client’s decisions the world would be a better place.

This a life book and less of a real estate book

Author gives life tips on going beyond real estate and thinking about any property decisions as life decisions. Interesting topics like why kitchens is the most important room in your house to why you should travel.

Tips to buying the "right" house

What did you like best about this story?

This is not a book about the actual steps of buying a house, this is a book about how to pick the "right" house for you. My husband and I are looking for a house and I realized after listening to this book that I was really not looking for the "right" house for us. I was looking for the neighborhood I wanted, but the house we could afford would not be a house that could let us live the "life" we wanted. For example, the "perceived" safety of the neighborhood on your children's childhood activities was very helpful. I wanted to buy a house in a safe (low crime) neighborhood with great schools. But the neighborhood has had a lot of car accidents with pedestrians getting hit by cars. I realized that any house I might be able to buy in this "low crime/good school" neighborhood would be at the expense of my kids being able to ride bikes or play outside in the neighborhood. That would mean that my kids would be more likely to have to stay inside (or play in the backyard only) and that would likely result in them consuming more media (TV and video games) because that is "safer" than playing on streets where they may get hit by a car.

This book got me thinking about the bigger picture of what it means to buy a house on the next several years (maybe decades) of my life and what I want that to be. I had been looking at the city, school district and how many rooms the houses had, now I am looking at houses with a whole different eye to what is important. I highly recommend this book to anyone considering buying a house.

different view on home buying experience

As my headline stated this is a different view on the home buying experience. Took a dark turn at the end. Will be looking for another book to expand my knowledge to prepare myself for buying a home.

Great starting point

This book went beyond financial considerations for buying a home and had some interesting metrics related to time allocation, location (noise, nature, neighborhood) and what to value in a home including material belongings.

Interesting

This book is very interesting; learned a lot; useful and practical information that I can apply.