Corporate Financial Advisers: Accelerators of Company Growth (Executive Briefings)

Customer Reviews:

Great Help.......2006-05-31

I used both the review books and the CD rom with practice exams and passed the first time!

BISK BEC Book and Software .......2005-11-04

I have serious issues with the quality of the BEC Review by Bisk. I have successfully used all four sections of Bisk's review, but I want to warn potential purchasers of the lack of quality in this volume. Sure, the BEC section is "new", but the editing was terrible on both the book and the software, simple mistakes as mentioned by the other posts. For the amount of money review materials cost - it should be mistake free. THE REAL PROBLEM THOUGH, is the lack of information in the IT section. They use AICPA developed questions for their practice sections, but fail to discuss nearly half of the answers in the text. I read the chapter two times before taking the practice questions, and had NO IDEA where some of the q's were getting pulled from. On the software, it has a link that says "click here for in depth solution." This takes you to the text where the answer is supposed to be found, many times, it was not there. Often times, impossible to infer the answer from the text as well. I would not waste money on Bisk's BEC section.

Better CPA review than most!!.......2004-07-27

For the money, Bisk is hard to beat. The strongest part of the Bisk review, in my opinion, are the Audio CD's. They don't just read from the book, like some audio CD's. They actually engage you in a friendly, often humorous, manner. This really helped me to remember key concepts. I believe Bisk has the best examples in their books of all the providers. Except maybe for Becker...but you can't buy Becker books without buying their WHOLE program. And you can buy these books dirt cheap on Amazon. Like any review program, it is only good if you use it. And if you don't put the time and effort into it, it won't work. I also take issue with the other reviews on the BEC book. I think Bisk has done a great job with the BEC section.

Errors galore.......2004-07-08

Yes, this book was very poorly edited. All the new parts such as Economics have incorrect answers in the back. Very distracting when you're trying to hunker down and study. There's one part where the answer key actually says 3 + 4 = 5 . Which, if you were just glancing over the answers, would really throw you for a loop. But on a positive note, i passed the BEC section with an 82.

Some mistakes in multiple-choice results.......2003-12-20

Some mistakes in multiple-choice results. This book really needs to be corrected. Also they don't send free stimulation CD as they promised when we buy this book.

Customer Reviews:

Not Very Well Written.......2004-09-15

As a big fan of L.M. Montgomery's books I looked forward to reading a book about her life hoping to get a better idea of what she might have been like. Perhaps it was the author's style of writing..lots of silly quotes about birds, trees, etc. Also very little about her family other than her husband's melancholy but hardly anything about her two sons. I hope the next bio will have more substance.

groundbreaking bio.......2004-07-16

This to date has been the best biography on L. M. Montgomery, as most of the others simply re-hash each other both in content and in photos. This one covers new ground though, and covers old ground in a new and more insightful and thorough way. I especially liked how Mollie Gillen brings out Maud's contradictory nature, showing us that the public Maud (cheerful dutiful wife of a minister) was often at odds with the private Maud, a woman who often felt repressed, depressed, and stressed over events in her life.

A new comprehensive biography for many years now been in the process of being written by Mary Rubio about the life of L. M. Montgomery, and I read somewhere that it's supposed to be published later this year. I can't wait. It'll be interesting to see how it stands against this book. I have high hopes.

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

Average customer rating:
The Wheel of Things A Biography of L.M. Montgomery
Mollie Gillen
Manufacturer: Fitzhenry & Whiteside Limit
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0SFJE

Average customer rating:
The Wheel of Things: a biography of L. M. Montgomery
Mollie Gillen
Manufacturer: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OPKZ60

Average customer rating:

Knowledge is power

an "A" for effort

Must Read Book for Anyone Buying Mfg Housing

Good source to compare MH manufacturers

If You're Looking for a New Home, Read This book!

The Grissim Ratings Guide to Manufactured Homes: The Essential Buyer's Resource, Listing Every Builder in the U.S., Their Histories, Products, Price Ranges, ... Need-to-Know Information and Much More
John Grissim
Manufacturer: Rainshadow Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

The Grissim Buyer's Guide to Manufactured Homes & Land: How to Find a Reputable Dealer and Negotiate a Fair Price on the Best-Kept Secret in American Housing

Prefabulous: The House of Your Dreams Delivered Fresh from the Factory

The Modular Home

Manufactured Home Buyer's Handbook

Modular Mansions

ASIN: 0972543619

Book Description

At last, the first comprehensive consumer ratings guide to every manufactured home builder and their brands, with at-a-glance up-to-date listings that provide key information home shoppers need to make an informed buying decision.

All 79 U.S. builders evaluated

More than 300 brands and series described. Plus,

An annotated construction rating chart with 56 criteria you can use to evaluate any home—before you buy.

John Grissim's bestselling The Grissim Buyer's Guide to Manufactured Homes and Land has been hailed as the definitive resource for navigating the tricky waters of the manufactured home marketplace. Now, he has written a companion guide that takes a close critical look at every manufacturer and the brands they build, providing up-to-date, essential information together with authoritative, no-nonsense insights that have made him a respected industry observer and voice for the home-buying consumer.

Each manufacturer's listing includes: • Company background/history • States where sold • Principal market niche/target customer • Retail price range • Who they compete against • Construction rating on a 1-to-10 scale • Brands and series described • Description of a popular model • What distinguishes brand from competition • Number of dealerships • Warranty structure • Availability of in-house financing/insurance • Web site rating and evaluation • Grissim's comments

Exhaustively researched, and containing much information that many manufacturers would prefer you not know, The Grissim Ratings Guide to Manufactured Homes not only tells you who's who in the manufactured home universe—enabling you to compare and evaluate their products—it will help you be informed, empowered and confident as you make the many decisions involved in the purchase of your new home.

Customer Reviews:

Knowledge is power.......2007-05-23

This seems to be an excellent book. The truth will be when I'm ready to buy a home. I feel so much more knowledgable! It's easy to understand and well illustrated.

an "A" for effort.......2007-04-13

we purchased this relatively inexpensive paperback--inexpensive, based on the effort this writer put into research and readable format--and based on the glowing reviews we saw here on amazon. i fully appreciate the need for this kind of book and for the writers best intentions.
however, i'm here as a reader who relied on his construction ratings (the introduction credits the writer for these construction ratings) to buy not one, but three 'homes of merit' manufactured homes. this enabled me to see that despite receiving a healthy construction rating (7) in the price range, the manufacturer wasn't able to sustain a consistent product in a) the plant where carpeting was laid crookedly in one home, and quality of kitchen counters were not matched from one home to the next, the refrigerators were not the same cubic foot size or manufacturer, leaving the impression they picked them up at a discount house, b) the placement of the homes on the property (one cannot be matched at the top where the two halves come together), c) the subcontractors who install air conditioners (with tubing reversed in one home so that exhaust was expelled into the home)--this after delivering the a.c./heat pumps much later than contracted for--awkward when renters are also contracted to move in. even more awkward when the steps are not delivered or built, and the keys either don't work or are interchangeable from home to home--all of these occurred.
this is only the beginning of a long list of things that are not rectified by a manufacturer who knew it was our intention to purchase more homes. so while i commend grissim for his efforts to catalog the myriad considerations in buying a manufactured home, based on my own experience, i have to say the construction ratings for homes of merit are optimistic, to say the least. let the buyer beware.

Must Read Book for Anyone Buying Mfg Housing.......2007-02-16

This book has excellent (and recent) information regarding all manufactured housing builders in United States and is exceedingly helpful by rating the builders as to how they construct their product. The history of each company also clears up a lot of the confusion in knowing what brand belongs with what builder. It even gives information about which model names are high end/mid/low range within each builders line of models. The helpful information about which options should be upgraded according to financial ability helps buyer have an idea what to consider when ordering their new home.

Good source to compare MH manufacturers.......2006-08-23

Excellent book for comparing different brands/manufactureres of New Mobile Homes. I've found it very useful while searching for a used home to buy. I would like to see something like this for older models and obsolete brands but this one goes a long way. I now know which manufacturers sell in my state, What their typical prices are, How well they are constructed on a scale of 1 to 10. It does not break the value down to specific models but there is a chart i can compare with what ever home I'm looking at to see how it compares with the others.
If I had found this book at the library I would go out and buy my own copy.

If You're Looking for a New Home, Read This book!.......2006-04-28

If you have any questions or doubts about buying a manufactured home, buy this book! I thought I had done exhaustive research (well, I had!) on manufactured housing, but this book is an excellent and necessary tool to use during the process. During a meeting with a dealer, I used the Guide as a reference and the dealer finally asked me if he could see it. He flipped through a few pages and then wrote down the author's name and the title and asked me where I bought it! After reading the Guide, I visited two dealers in New Mexico that I originally passed by and I am seriously considering the product of one. And, trust me, I am so well informed now by reading and studying this Guide and it's companion book, The Complete Buyer's Guide to Manufactured Homes and Land, that no dealer will ever think I'm a dumb broad they can take advantage of! Thank you, John, for writing these books.

The Grissim Buyer's Guide to Manufactured Homes & Land: How to Find a Reputable Dealer and Negotiate a Fair Price on the Best-Kept Secret in American Housing

Average customer rating:

Not Happy with the books.
The Grissim Buyer's Guide to Manufactured Homes and Land
Great Information
Great book!
A real eye opener

The Grissim Buyer's Guide to Manufactured Homes & Land: How to Find a Reputable Dealer and Negotiate a Fair Price on the Best-Kept Secret in American Housing
John Grissim
Manufacturer: Rainshadow Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0972543627

Book Description

The second edition of the best-selling consumer guide to manufactured homes and purchasing land or leasing a home site, providing up-to-date, essential information home buyers need to make an informed purchase decision.

Completely revised and updated, including a new, annotated Construction Rating Table with 56 criteria you can use to evaluate any home—before you buy.

The Buyer's Guide has been widely hailed as the definitive resource for navigating the tricky waters of the manufactured home marketplace. With this new 2006 edition, journalist, author and consumer advocate John Grissim (himself a manufactured home owner) has made many revisions and up-dates and added new material that make this invaluable resource even more useful to home shoppers.

Among the many additions are a greatly expanded discussion on selecting the right home, including a new glossary of common terms used in manufactured home construction, plus a new three-page Construction Features and Specifications Comparison Table with 56 criteria. This table enables you not only to identify what features are associated with different levels of quality but also to determine the construction quality (on a 1-to-10 scale) of any home you are evaluating. This is by far the most comprehensive detailed listing of construction features and quality ever provided consumers.

Among many topics receiving an expanded discussion is the installation (or set-up) process and the role of the set-up contractor, including a detailed installation check-list for home buyers. Warranty issues, and how to deal with them, receive added emphasis. Also included are tips to better calculate the fair asking price for a home, together with a simple formula for determining your offering price during negotiations.

Customer Reviews:

Not Happy with the books........2007-07-23

I was not impressed with the 2 books I ordered. There was not a lot of information that was helpful. I felt the books touched a little on everything but not enough that I felt I got anything from it. It was just a book talking about the things that could happen or might be but no concrete info that could really help you make a decision on which mobile home to buy. I would like to be able to return these books.

The Grissim Buyer's Guide to Manufactured Homes and Land.......2006-09-20

Contrary to most people's impression of manufactured homes as slipshod and flimsy, John Grissim found out that many of them are attractive, well constructed, and built to last. In this thorough and clear book, Grissim guides the reader through the tricky waters of the manufactured home industry, detailing how to find a reputable dealer and negotiate a fair price, what to look for in construction details, how to hire a contractor for assembly (or act as your own), and conduct an informed inspection of the finished product. Manufactured homes can offer substantial savings over site-built homes and I wouldn't consider buying one without this comprehensive book. See also Grissim's accompanying volume, The Grissim Ratings Guide to Manufactured Homes.
-Lloyd Kahn, Editor, Shelter Publications

Great Information .......2006-07-31

I learned a lot from this book. It was very helpful to me and my customers. !!

Great book!.......2006-03-16

We purchased the Grissim book and found it to be an excellent guide and well-written. It covered all the bases, including what to watch out for when looking for the right rental community, which we're doing. We also bought his second book, The Grissim Ratings Guide to Manufactured Homes. That book is like a one-man Consumer Reports on all the builders, with construction ratings, the good, the average and the cheap. A huge help in our search.

A real eye opener.......2006-02-24

I've just moved to a nwe state and I had never thought of buying a manufactured home. That was until I started to look through some of them at a few of the dealers here. I was impressed at the affordability and quality of the units. The problem was I didn't know where to begin. I had so many questions, what are the options that are available, what must you be prepared to do to develop the site, who does what and when, what to look for in choosing a reputable company and salesperson, etc., etc. I was a little overwhelmed at all there was to do and to know. That was until I read John Grissim's book "The Complete Buyers Guide to Manufactured Homes and Land". Extremely well organized and easy to read and understand. This book was just what the doctor ordered. The book is not just read once but after reading to use as a reference and guide throughout the process. I can now, with cofidence, move forward with the project of finding a parcelof land and placing a new manufactured home on it. A project I was totally ill equipped to tackle before I read John Grissim's book.
I should add here that Grissim has written a companion book "The
Grissim Ratings Guide to Manufactured Homes" that is an overview of the pros and cons of manufactures, types of products each produces and a table of features and specs with ratings. These books complement each other and in my opinion you should have both of them.

Manufactured Homes: The Buyer's Guide (Home Resources Series)

Average customer rating:

Another Industry Insider Sings Industry Praises
Industry insider
Inaccurate and shallow
A step-by-step guide for aspiring home owners

Manufactured Homes: The Buyer's Guide (Home Resources Series)
Steven Taylor
Manufacturer: Van Der Plas Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Buying & Selling Homes | Real Estate | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Consumer Behavior | Marketing & Sales | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Buildings & Construction | Home Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Home & Garden Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1892495422

Book Description

144 pages of sound advice for anyone contemplating to buy a new home and considering the savings offered by choosing a manufactured home.

The book covers everything from choosing a floor plan to arranging favorable financing, and from finding a site for the home to choosing options.

Customer Reviews:

Another Industry Insider Sings Industry Praises.......2005-12-12

I'll bet industry insiders really do love this book. It drastically overstates the number of manufactured homes being sold (as a percentage of all home sales), it drastically overstates their savings as opposed to site-built homes, brags about "strict" HUD requirements (which are anything but), etc. There is one factual error after another with nothing to back up the claims. Although Talylor stresses how much "research" went into this brief fluff piece, he doesn't site anyone or any study that I recall seeing. The worst part of the lies to me are his claims that "the vast majority of home sales professionals are well-intentioned and eager to give you sincere advice and service . . . Some of the finest individuals I've known make their living in the manufactured housing business." Well, that certainly conflicts with my experience when I went shopping at dozens of lots in two states, and it seems to be at odds with Consumer's Union finding that half of all consumer complaints involve fraud on the part of these "fine" individuals. I don't know where Mr. Taylor worked (he was an industry employee), but maybe it was on a different planet. The typical earthly dealership incarnation bears little resemblence to what Manufactured Homes: The Buyer's Guide describes. Specifically, Consumer's Union found several kinds of fraud prevalent (in the article "In Over Our Heads" / February 2002):
* the dealership substituted a different home (another model, year, or size) for the one the customer thought they were buying
* the dealership falsified information on the loan application (often lying about the down payment amount or accepting borrowed money as a down payment)
* the dealership ended up charging more for the home than the price they originally quoted
* the terms of the sale were changed on the customer midway through the deal (when momentum makes it hard to back out) and additional expenses were added like extra fees or higher interest rates
* the dealership refused to give the customer copies of contracts they had to sign

Wow, these guys do sound like the salt of the earth, don't they? In my on family's case, we were on multiple occasions asked to sign blank forms for our "conveinence." After the contract was official, and when we complained about things that weren't right, people from the dealership actually cussed us out!

Another extremely important point is the home's set-up. Even the best manufactured home can be destroyed by a faulty set-up, and it won't be covered by warranty. I think Taylor devotes 1 or 2 inconsequential pages to this very important topic. Wes Johnson devotes 25 pages to the set-up in his book on manufactured homes (The Manufactured Home Buyer's Handbook), and 7 more just on the foundation itself. In fact, Johnson's book is the only one I've read that actually tells it like it is. If you're considering buying a manufactured home, or even if you've already bought one, you should buy The Manufactured Home Buyer's Handbook (ISBN 0-7864-2209-2). While Taylor, Burnside, and Grissim are sugar-coating the industry and basically getting their facts wrong over and over, Johnson's narrative rings true to experience. He tells you how you can get a good manufactured home and save a ton of money without getting ripped off like so many others have.

Industry insider.......2004-03-28

After reviewing Grissom's and Burnside's books on the subject, I came across Taylor's version and found his book "Manufactured Homes: The Buyer's Guide" to be profoundly accurate and useful, not only for the buyer, but as a training guide for new sales staffers within our company. This book is user-friendly and literally packed with lists and charts, which make the decision-making process of buying a mobile home much simpler and logical.

Inaccurate and shallow.......2004-03-22

This lightweight booklet is terribly researched with numerous factual errors, particularly in the first four chapters. Later, when giving buying advice, it assumes you are a low-credit, high-risk buyer. A much better book is John Grissim's.

A step-by-step guide for aspiring home owners.......2004-03-07

Ably researched and accessibly written by Steven Taylor, Manufactured Homes: The Buyers Guide -- How To Realize Your Dream In A Manufactured Home is a "user friendly", step-by-step guide for aspiring home owners who are new to the phenomenon of manufactured homes -- domestic dwellings which are designed, cut, and constructed according to a standardized format. From surveying how such homes are built; to understanding warranties; selecting a floor plan; financing the new home; meticulously shopping for the right house in the right location, and more, Manufactured Homes: The Buyers Guide is a superb primer and introduction to preparing for home ownership before committing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Enhanced with lists of manufacturers, trade associations, state agencies, and federal departments relevant to manufactured homes, Manufactured Homes: The Buyer's Guide is the best introduction to the subject available to non-specialist general readers today!

Average customer rating:

Manufactured Homes, the Buyer's Guide: How to Realize Your Dream in a Manufactured Home
Steven V. Taylor
Manufacturer: Cycle Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1892495929

Average customer rating:

Buyer's guide to manufactured homes
Tom Philbin
Manufacturer: Hawthorn Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Manufactured home buyer's guide (Technical report)

Average customer rating:

Manufactured home buyer's guide (Technical report)
Jack C Harris
Manufacturer: Real Estate Center
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006R59EY

Average customer rating:
Richard Wagner His Life and His Dramas: A Biographical Study of the Man and an Explanation of His Work
W.J. Henderson
Manufacturer: G.P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NUN748

Average customer rating:
Richard Wagner,: His life and dramas; a biographical study of the man and an explanation of his work
W. J Henderson
Manufacturer: G.P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Wagner, Richard | Composers | Classical | Musical Genres | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00086Q7B2

Average customer rating:
Richard Wagner, His Life and His Dramas: A Biographical Study of the Man and an Explanation of His Work
William James Henderson
Manufacturer: Library Reprints
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Composers & Musicians | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Wagner, Richard | ( W ) | People, A-Z | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0722255780

Average customer rating:

My family's story

Bighorse Warrior Comes Alive

Easy read

Worth Reading

Bighorse the Warrior

Bighorse the Warrior
Tiana Bighorse
Manufacturer: University of Arizona Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Southwest | Native American | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

At the Hems of the Lowest Clouds: Meditations on Navajo Landscapes

For Our Navajo People: Diné Letters, Speeches, and Petitions, 1900-1960

Halo of the Sun: Stories Told and Retold

Sun Chief: The Autobiography of a Hopi Indian (The Lamar Series in Western History)

Conquest: Sexual Violence And American Indian Genocide

ASIN: 0816514445

Customer Reviews:

My family's story.......2004-01-23

Tiana Bighorse is my grandmother's aunt and the Bighorse of the title is my great-great grandfather. I love this book. It was such a find for me to finally read it. I do not speak Navajo being half Navajo and half Nakota Sioux, so this story was never told to me. And anyway, during short visits to my grandparents no one ever had time to talk this away about our family history. I love it that Noel strove to retain Tiana's voice. My grandmother, her niece, cannot actually speak English as does her aunt, so it was neat to see what she might sound like if she actually did speak the language I do! All in all a real treasure. True, it does not go into great detail about the horrors of the Long Walk, but I loved some of the nuggets of wisdom she passes down from my long-gone grandfather. One is how he urged, like a modern psychologist that survivors of the Long Walk (he did not walk it himself, but fought as a guerilla fighter against the Americans) talk about their pain and losses. So many kept it inside them and it killed them. I also love her message to the young Navajo people about how this Navajo homeland was not "given" to us but it was fought for and people died and suffered for. My family now lives in Cameron on the Western side of the reservation, but when I drove across the vast Dinetah, which is the size of Ireland or W. Virginia, it gave me a great feeling of pride to know my family had lived all over that land. From Mt. Taylor, where Bighorse is originally raised, to Navajo Mountain where he lived as a guerilla warrior and finally in the Tuba City area, where my mom's family live now. The best quote from the book and I am paraphrasing is what Big Horse told her about being a warrior, a warrior is the one who is still walking around, tending to the sick when everyone else is down. This is such a Navajo sentiment. My aunts and uncles are always urging me to stand up, keep moving, wake up early. And implicit in that urging is the belief that we all have the ability to access our inner strengths for the benefit of those we hold dearest to us.

Bighorse Warrior Comes Alive.......2003-04-30

I've met the author - Tiana Bighorse Butler. Her pride shines through as she tells the stories of her father. Written in Navajo english, the reader is taken into the traditional navajo way of life. Wonderful stories give an honest perspective and a clear understanding of warriors in that point of time. Buy this book!! Compelling reading that you'll never forget!!

Easy read.......2002-10-31

The topic which this book covers, the oppression of the Apache Indians by the American Government, particularly the Long Walk, is an amazing story of struggle and brutal oppression. However, this story, an account of the events from a family memeber of Big Horse the Warrior, leaves the reader feeling a little slighted. Very little detail of the horrific events is given and worse yet, the events end up sounding watered down, as if they really weren't that bad.

Overall, I feel the historical event of tragic proportion deserves a much better account which brings the readers into the emotional aura surrounding the events.

Worth Reading.......2001-11-20

This book reads just like a story with real life accounts. It's very entertaining and interesting, but not redundant and textbook-like. I recommend reading it! It's short enough to read in one night. It also provides great insight into the Indians and the suffering they had to go through. Great book!

Bighorse the Warrior.......2000-06-03

If you have an hour to two hours, and have any interest in Native American History from an Indian perspective, Tiana's story of Bighorse is a gem to find! Short, but sweet, this biography was told out of love, but also told because the the Indian's perspective of American History is often muted and/or erased. This book definitely keeps their spirit alive!

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books