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REVIEW:

Mortgage Free!
Radical Strategies for Home Ownership

By Rob Roy
A Real Goods Solar Living Book
White River, Vt.: Chelsea Green Publishing, 1998
368 pp., $24.95, paper; ISBN: 0-930031-98-9

If you think the idea of seriously considering owning a house without a mortgage is only for wealthy types, sixties back-to-the-earth leftovers, or impractical visionaries, Rob Roy, author of Mortgage Free! Radical Strategies for Home Ownership, may persuade you otherwise. Anyone who has a mortgage and most homeowners do (or have had one) probably avoids thinking about the actual cost. We've all seen those charts that show how much interest we pay to the bank or mortgage company, and of course when we signed for the debt the lender had to tell us what we'll actually pay in 25 or 30 years. For instance, as Roy illustrates, if we borrow $75,000 over 30 years at 9 percent, we're actually going to pay our lender $217,249. And, think of it, we probably had to get on our knees to get the loan. Of course interest rates are a couple of points lower right now, but you get the picture. It's not for nothing that the origin of this word "mortgage" from the Old French, "mort gage," means, literally, "death pledge."

Here is an inspiring book that is really about freedom not only from the "quiet desperation" of mortgage debt, but from overconsumption and from excess. You may not be intending to build your own home, mortgage-free, and if you are a committed city-dweller, the how-to portion of this book isn't for you. But the book's first part, which includes discussion about mortgages and the amount of space we think we need to live in is enlightening and worth reading just for general interest. It may seem like a very radical idea to own a house without a mortgage, but Roy shows that it can be done, with enough detailed guidance to make it persuasive.

The introduction and about the next 25 pages present the logic for becoming mortgage-free; the rest is practical information, design ideas, and illustrations and examples of Roy's own and five other couples' experiences (including a "comparative strategies" chart), beginning with the "grubstake" identifying an initial source of money with which to begin and moving on through chapters about buying land, constructing a temporary shelter, and designing and building a low-cost home.

Roy offers substantive guidance in the selecting and purchasing of land, with plenty of information about contracts, researching deeds, surveys, costs of temporary shelter, the "paper realities" of building and zoning regulations, and even the drawbacks of acquiring land at "tax sales."

Included are plans and advice for building "temporary shelter" while saving to buy land and building materials. The cost to build a "no frills" shelter is surprisingly low, and without rent or mortgage to pay while you are building, you can invest all your cash in land, tools, and supplies. (Anyway, he points out, big savings accounts are a poor hedge against inflation.) Temporary shelters can later be turned into guest houses or, even later, saunas.

Roy's outlook and style are influenced by Thoreauvian economics (he always seems to keep his sights clearly focused on the "necessaries of life"), and he draws inspiration as well from Helen and Scott Nearing and the homesteading movement of the 1970s. The book is well designed (though the illustrations vary considerably in quality) and well ordered; and Roy's conversational yet quietly simple style is reminiscent of Thoreau's. He takes his time, seeming to be in no hurry to skim or gloss details. And the simplicity of style reflects a honed-to-practical outlook expressed in his four "basic planning principles": (1) keep it small; (2) keep it simple; (3) tailor the floor plans to the structural considerations and the available materials, not the other way around; (4) consider all the living systems at the design stage, not just shelter requirement. The chapter headings and the arrangement of material also reflect that simple framing of ideas: the Mortgaged Home; the Grubstake; the Land; the Temporary Shelter; the Low-Cost Home; Our Own Story; Mortgage-Free People. Contained within, however are such complexities as rubble trench foundations, masonry stoves and photovoltaics; site integration, heating systems, and land contracts; septic systems, heat loss comparisons, and thermal mass.

This book seems to cover all the ground, and it should be essential reading for anyone considering the possibility of building on a pay-as-you-go basis, who will likely be inspired to begin planning. With a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor (Roy doesn't mind sharing his mistakes or admitting previous follies), Mortgage Free! is a genuinely engaging read.

— Kathy Cone

Available from:
Chelsea Green Publishing
P.O. Box 428
White River Junction, VT 05001
(800) 639-4099

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