HarryTheSpider

Not withstanding the information available in the BE wiki...

... and being careful not to solicit actual advice... lest somebody sue somebody else FFS...

if you were to turn to a book and/or web site to understand more about real estate so that you could ask informed questions, make informed responses, when doing all this for real...

... which sites/books would YOU turn to...?

CelticRover

http://www.azcentral.com/realestate/homebuyer/

Bob

Past threads...lot of advice have come up.

But there isn't much to understand except that it's all a con and everyone is evil...when you go in with that realisation, when that isn't the case, you've done well and been lucky

fatbrit

http://www.mtgprofessor.com/ is a pretty good primer on mortgages.

HarryTheSpider

Do I have to be equally evil?

I have a GCE in it - does it count over here?

md95065

Nolo Press for legal stuff ...

redglade

We bought Home Buying for Dummies (yes, seriously!)
Also, we used the services of a Realtor who was recommended to us. His knowledge of the local market etc was very helpful (for example, he steered us away from neighbourhoods which had had flooding issues in the past) and he helped us negotiate a good price. Best of all, his fee was paid by the Sellers (he split the fee with their Realtor.)
Finally, we found a mortgage through a broker, which made the process a lot easier. A friend who was in very similar circumstances went directly to a bank and was given the runaround.

Good Luck!

Bluegrass Lass

As far as I understand it, this is pretty much the norm. I've never heard of a buyer having to pay their realtor any fees, but I guess it could be different in some states.

Also seems to be why typical realtor commission fees are around 6% - so that both realtors get 3%.