mortgage-financing

I liked this book because it's useful for people with various levels of structured finance knowledge. The first few chapters explain the thought process behind the rating process and provide an introduction into the structured finance world of thinking. The second half goes into more depth about actual rating processes. The third part addresses asset specific issues (auto, airlines, etc...) While the last few chapters of the book review more advanced methods of analysis.

For people with little or no knowledge of the structured finance field, the first half of the book will provide a good understanding of the subject, the 2nd half of the book will probably required more time and effort to fully appreciate its value.

This intense and well-written book is actually two distinct pieces, appealing to two different audiences. Both are effective, but separate in most cases.

The book's aim is said to be (to show) "that presented with a capital-efficient, unified analytic approach, the market will find.....the motivation to operate at higher standards of precision, making the prospect of real commodity credit risk management is possible " (ref: Preface, (ix)). In Part I, The Contemporary Framework, Part II, Analyzing Structured Securities and Part III, Applications of Numerical Methods to Structured Finance, the authors present a succinct and very readable overview of structured finance, its major elements, risks and analytic tools. In Parts IV and V, Case Studies and Advanced Structural Features, they provide an alternative approach which should permit the desired new "credit risk management" paradigm.

Experienced practitioners will likely skip over the first three parts. To the beginner (like the reviewer), the reading was invaluable. The last two parts are provocative and potentially revolutionary, but require a degree of knowledge and experience which limits their readership to a relatively small group of market practitioners who actually understand the "guts" of their speciality. It is this dichotomy which leads to the proffered description of the book as being two pieces for different audiences.

That having been said, if the reader has the time (or the need) to go from the elementary to the complex, the entire journey of the book can be achieved . In many cases, the authors would help the beginner by including more cases studies or detailed expositions in the appendices and citing references to relevant readings. I took off about six weeks from the book to study the introductory topics in greater detail. And I found there was a sufficient mass of such material that the authors might consider breaking the book into two and expanding the first part into a larger introductory text book. The transition to the second part made me encounter heavier reading and I freely admit to requiring multiple rereads (and not an insignificant number of references to my graduate school quant books). In the end, I did grasp the message the authors intended (I hope).

Overall, I feel that of the literally ten thousand plus pages I have read on this subject in the last 6 months, the four hundred odd pages of "The Analysis of Structured Securities" represent the best investment of my time.

The authors present not only new paradims for people in the security field but introduce ways to make maestros out of simple musicians This book should be in the library not only of securities' analists but of bankers, realtors, mortgage grantors or anyone in the finance business.

Pierre-Emanuel de Gaspe

I suppose this reference work is very informative to the home buyer ... if perhaps a bit too much to digest for the average casual reader. For an intern loan officer in an agressively propserous mortgage brokerage, the book provided some key information, but not the depth I had hoped for. Is it worth getting if your a mortgage professional? Yes, most definately. So much of the do's and don'ts of this industry are shrouded in statements like "well, we always did it that way" rather than simple straight forward explanations. This book was a breath of fresh air when I was floundering in my first year as a loan officer. Now, as a Senior Loan Officer at my company I still find myself referring to it from time to time for some of those elusive little details that always seem to arise in the loan process. Go ahead and get a copy. Either you'll learn something new or your boss will think you're applying yourself at home as well as on the job!

I'm a programmer analyst for a mortgage company. However, the one year experience I had working for a mortgage company with all the ongoing trainings and mortgage software application designs are nothing compared to this book. This is a great book with all info you need to know about mortgages. Would recommend to anyone.

All I can say is this is a great book, that is equivalent to 3 years of mortgage experience.

This book is a great book for consumers as well as real estate professionals. You will definitely want to keep it close by to reference information about FHA, VA and conventional loans. It is easy to forget some of the details about differnt loans but Ms. Garton-Good has made it easy to look up information such as who can pay closing costs on VA loans and does the veteran have to pay the funding fee. Having a list of closing costs FHA borrowers are allowed to pay or not pay is also very helpful. This book answers a lot of questions you probably wanted to know but may have been afraid to ask!

I would recommend anyone thinking about buying or selling real estate and all real estate professionals make this book a part of their reference library right away.

This steaming heap of information was UNcarefully gathered from the Internet (by some type of automated, grab-it-all crap program) ... dumped UNedited into giant PDF files and burned to CD. It is less useful than a simple hyperlinks to HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. I can't begin to tell you how ugly this is. I haven't seen information this DISorganized since the streets of NY filled with paper showering down from the horrific World Trade Center disaster. Absolutely worthless. Trash. Avoid this at any cost.

Warning! This is nothing but a reproduction of thousands of government agency WEB PAGES, all available FOR FREE to anyone with internet access. It is NOT INDEXED, meaning you have to search the entire disc for words or phrases you're interested in JUST LIKE YOU WOULD ON THE INTERNET. I am returning this at once!