A single woman's guide to buying real estate

New book touches on high-cost-area home purchases
By: Robert J. Bruss: Inman News
If you are a single female who wants to buy a first house or condo, "Buying Solo" by Vanessa Summers provides mostly excellent advice. The theme is "You can do it."

As I enjoyed the first part of this book, I thought even men should be allowed to read this great, new, home-buying book. It offers sage advice on what steps to take and how to purchase a home even in high-cost areas.

Summers first tackles topics such as "How much house can I afford? "How can I get a mortgage?" (she recommends getting pre-approved in writing rather than just pre-qualified) and "Should I work with a real estate agent?"

Although the author is a bit mixed up on how sales commissions are split among realty agents, it's nothing of major concern to home buyers.

However, the author then swerves into unrealistic suggestions such as "Get an appraiser to give you a comparative analysis of the upside of home values in each neighborhood, present vs. future." Appraisers don't have time for that nonsense, especially without payment.

Although the book cover is unclear about what Summers does in real life to qualify her to advise first-time, single, women home buyers, she offers mostly good advice for prospective home purchasers. In an attempt to be Internet-savvy, the author lists some Web sites. However, she obviously hasn't personally used all of them recently because www.norwest.com merged with Wells Fargo Bank years ago.

In the section about different types of mortgages home buyers should consider, I found especially valuable a little chart comparing the monthly payments on a $100,000 mortgage at 5 percent, 6 percent, 7 percent and 8 percent interest. The 5 percent loan costs $417; at 6 percent the payment is $500; at 7 percent the payment jumps to $583; and at 8 percent the payment is $667. The importance of getting a lower, fixed-interest-rate mortgage is emphasized by that comparison.

Perhaps I am too critical. This new book provides valuable information for first-time home buyers, whether female, male, single, married, or otherwise. However, it should have been "previewed" by a knowledgeable real estate expert who would have corrected the obvious errors and misleading information.

Topics include "Why a Home is the Best Investment a Single Woman Can Make"; "How Much House Can I Afford?" "Is My Credit Good Enough?" "What Kind of Mortgage Should I Get?" "What If I Don't Qualify for a Regular Mortgage?" "Should I Work with a Real Estate Agent?" "Where Should I Look?" and "How Do I Negotiate the Best Deal Possible?"

The idea for this book of giving encouragement and advice to first-time female home buyers is great. Unfortunately, Vanessa Summers was not the right person to write this book because she obviously doesn't have much real estate experience and she often provides misleading information. On my scale of one to 10, this disappointing book rates only a seven.

"Buying Solo," by Vanessa Summers (Perigee-Penguin Group, New York), 2005; $14.95; 175 pages; Available in stock or by special order at local bookstores, public libraries, and www.amazon.com.