Mortgage-Free! : Radical Strategies for Home Ownership Book

This is a banker's worst nightmare--a book that tells you how to live without being enslaved to financial institutions.

Chelsea Green has produced a formidable series of books on innovative shelter. But every alternative building strategy, no matter how low-cost or environmentally benign, requires a complementary financial strategy. the accepted path is to go hat-in-hand to a big financial institution, such as a bank, to borrow a lump sum that is repaid over many years. By the time the loan is repaid, the homeowner will have paid several times the original amount in interest.

The literal meaning of "mortgage" is "death pledge." Author Rob Roy is offering an escape route from a lifetime of indentured servitude. Mortgage-Free! Radical Strategies for Home Ownership is a complete guide to strategies that allow you to own your land and home, free and clear, without the bank. Included is detailed advice about:

• Clarifying and simplifying your notions of what's necessary

• Finding land that you love and can afford

• Taking control of the house-building process, for the sake of sanity and pleasure

• Learning to take a long-term perspective on your family's crucial economic decisions, avoiding debt and modern-day serfdom.