Book Review > Buying property for dummies

My philosophy in investing is to keep things simple. As Julie Andrews once said ‘Let’s start from the very beginning.’

The 2nd edition doesn’t disappoint. It provides a step-by-step approach to buying property. Mostly geared towards first time buyers, it provides a wide range of tips from ways to find a competent buyer’s agent, buying a period home to renovating and building. Bear in mind that the book was written by Karin Derkley, a journalist based in Victoria so some examples provided may be Melbourne-centric.

It is organised into 4 parts:

1) The great Australian dream
2) Finding your dream house
3) Borrowing for, buying and protecting your home
4) Tips for first-home buyers

As a property owner, I did learn some new tips (questions to ask your mortgage broker) and discovered some useful websites. I would recommend this book for first-time property buyers and those interested in building from scratch. For the latter, chapter 9 provides a useful backbone for building your dream home.

First-time property buyers will find chapters 12 and 13 invaluable as it fills in the blanks on the buying process from negotiation to signing on the dotted line to closing the deal.  Part 4 contains lessons learnt and a checklist to objectively decide whether the features of the property fit your requirements.  Overall, this is a must-read for 1st home property buyers.

Teresa Lo is a member of the AIA.