About the Authors
Eric Tyson is a syndicated personal financial writer, lecturer, and counselor. He is dedicated to teaching people to manage their personal finances better. Eric is a former management consultant to Fortune 500 financial service firms. Over the past three decades, he has successfully invested in securities as well as in real estate, started and managed several growing businesses, and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics at Yale and an MBA at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
An accomplished freelance personal finance writer, Eric is the author of four other national bestsellers in the For Dummies series, including Personal Finance For Dummies, Investing For Dummies, Mutual Funds For Dummies, and Real Estate Investing For Dummies (which he co-authored). Eric was an award-winning journalist for The San Francisco Chronicle/Examiner. His work has been featured and praised in hundreds of national and local publications, including Kiplinger’s, The Wall Street Journal, Money, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, and on NBC’s Today Show, Fox News, PBS’s Nightly Business Report, CNN, The Oprah Winfrey Show, ABC, CNBC, Bloomberg Business Radio, CBS National Radio, and National Public Radio.
Eric has counseled thousands of clients on a variety of personal finance, investment, and real estate quandaries and questions. In addition to maintaining a financial counseling practice, he is a much sought after speaker.
You can visit him on the web at www.erictyson.com.
Ray Brown is a veteran of the real estate profession with more than four decades of hands-on experience. A former manager for Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Company, McGuire Real Estate, and Pacific Union GMAC Real Estate, as well as a founder of his own real estate firm, the Raymond Brown Company, Ray is currently a writer, consultant, and public speaker on residential real estate topics.
Ray knows that most people are pretty darn smart. When they have problems, it’s usually because they don’t know the right questions to ask to get the information they need to make good decisions themselves. He always wanted to write a book that focused on what you need to know to make sound house-selling decisions — a book that kept people from manipulating you by exploiting your ignorance.
On his way to becoming a real estate guru, Ray worked as the real estate analyst for KGO-TV (ABC’s affiliate in San Francisco) and was a syndicated real estate columnist for The San Francisco Examiner. For 16 years he hosted a weekly radio program, Ray Brown on Real Estate, for KNBR. In addition to his work for ABC, Ray has appeared as a real estate expert on CNN, NBC, CBS, and in The Wall Street Journal and Time.
That’s all fine and good. Ray’s three proudest achievements, however, are Jeff and Jared, his two extraordinary sons, and over 50 years of nearly always wedded bliss to the always wonderful Annie B. Jeff’s wife, Genevieve, and his grandson, Aidan Joseph Brown, are a continuing delight. Jared wisely married Jennifer Kirby in 2013 to complete the Brown dynasty.
Dedication
This book is hereby and irrevocably dedicated to my family and friends, as well as to my counseling clients and customers, who ultimately have taught me everything I know about how to explain financial terms and strategies so all of us may benefit. — Eric Tyson
This book is lovingly dedicated to Annie B, who makes my heart sing. — Ray Brown
Authors’ Acknowledgments
Many, many people at Wiley helped to make this book possible and (we hope in your opinion) good. They include acquisitions editor Tracy Boggier and development editors Vicki Adang and Linda Brandon! Thanks also to everyone else at Wiley who contributed to getting this book done and done right.
Extraordinary acclamation and copious praise are due to our brilliant technical reviewers, Kip Oxman and Steve Dickason, who toiled long hours to ensure we didn’t write something that wasn’t quite right. We owe a profound debt of gratitude to Paul Bragsted for his incredible Internet insights; the inimitable Patty Oxman for her staging tips in Chapter 9; Victoria Naidorf, who developed the list of troublemakers included in Chapter 12; Sam Carlise, Martha Nakagawa, and Susan Hanna, Old Republic Title Company, for their insights about the complexities of title insurance and escrows; and last, but not least, Warren Camp, Camp Brothers Inspection Services, Inc., for providing the exemplary inspection report included in Appendix B.
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
Senior Acquisitions Editor: Tracy Boggier
Development Editors: Victoria M. Adang, Linda Brandon
Copy Editor: Christine Pingleton
Technical Editors: Kip Oxman, Steve Dickason
Production Editor: Siddique Shaik
Cover Image: © Feverpitched/iStockphoto