Book Tour and Review: "Renters Win Home Owners Lose" by Tom Graneau

Renters Win Home Owners Lose: Revealing the Biggest Scam in America
Author: Tom Graneau
Pubisher: AuthorHouse
ISBN: 9781438993188
Genre: Nonfiction, finance

About the Book


Tom Graneau, a financial management coach, pinpoints owning a home as the black hole for the American dollar. This timely masterpiece exposes the biggest shakedown in consumer spending—home ownership.

Driven by the American dream of grandeur and prosperity, buyers purchase their homes as “smart investments” when in actuality, the best they can hope to get is zero percent return. More commonly, owners lose an enormous amount of money on the deal, driving themselves even deeper into debt as they pour their hard-earned income in mortgage payments and maintenance costs.

In Renters Win, Home Owners Lose, Author Tom Graneau prudently shows readers how to avoid getting trapped in the biggest scam in the country, endorsed by national and local governments and the housing and mortgage industries. Tables, graphs, and various statistics are prominently laced throughout the book to expound the obvious, tangible advantages that renters have over anyone preparing to buy a home.

For those already owning a home—fear not. Graneau concludes by outlining winning strategies and solutions to make their experience a little more agreeable.

Renters Win, Home Owners Lose is a perfect eye-opener for renters, first-time home buyers, and those who plan to upgrade to a second or third home!

My Thoughts:

I found this book a fascinating read full of information from types of mortgages to making payments to owning or renting a home. There is a large amount of useful information throughout the book and even being what I would call a careful and informed buyer, I found things I didn't know.

Mr. Graneau has many valid arguments of why a home may or may not be a good investment, and he backs them up with some very good reasons. With that said, this books seems more pointed to a particular group of people - those with compulsive buying habits and those that don't seem to live in rural areas like we do. The areas he discusses where one can save money really doesn't save much (if any) over renting in our area.  Then again, my husband and I don't have our dream home - it is just a place to live and nothing fancy.

With all that said, I really did enjoy this book. It caused my husband and I to look at our current situation and made for some great discussions.

About Tom Graneau

Tom Graneau was born in Dominica, a small island in the Caribbean with a population of roughly 70,000 people. When Tom was seventeen years old, he and his mother immigrated to the United States. After two years in the U.S., he became acutely aware of his need for an education and aggressively began finding a way to be in school.

During his fourteen years of service in the Navy, he became increasingly concerned about his financial situation. Things became worse when he left the service. His house went into foreclosure. With added pressure from credit card companies, he ultimately filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.

Eventually, he found work as a Financial Management Consultant. In his last employment, Tom spent roughly ten years working as a financial management coach and educator. During that time, he conducted numerous workshops, presentations, and private consultation with members of the military, government employees, and others in the community.

Tom enjoyed working with his clients, but they caused him to wonder about the financial condition of Americans, as a whole. His research proved that money problems extend well beyond what most people are willing to admit or see.

In short, most Americans are broke. Various surveys have shown that roughly 90 percent of working Americans live from paycheck to paycheck, no matter how much money they make. In most cases, the problem is directly related to financial misconceptions, poor training, and lack of knowledge. Home ownership is one of the biggest financial misconceptions in personal finance. Hence the book, Renters Win, Home Owners Lose: Revealing the Biggest Scam in America.

You can visit Tom’s website at RentersWin.com

"Renters Win and Home Owners Lose" was supplied through Pump Up You Book for me to honestly review.