Next Time I'll Call a Lawyer

Janet Collins is a freelance writer in Sechelt, British Columbia.

Anyone looking for advice about buying or selling a home could do better
than consulting this book. Not that there isn’t valuable advice given
in its pages—it’s just that the advice is too well hidden.

The frustrations McNeill and her husband felt when several open houses
failed to elicit a purchaser for their home and the gyrations the couple
went through to ensure they didn’t lose the new house they’d
purchased unconditionally can only be matched by the frustration of a
reader having to wade through the minute details of their family life.

David Chilton successfully took a “novel” approach to the teaching
of financial planning in his popular book, The Wealthy Barber.
Unfortunately, McNeill’s effort gets too caught up in the story and
forces the lessons of buying and selling a home to take a backseat. For
example, the whole of page 2 is a line-by-line conversation about what
each family member wants for breakfast.

If McNeill had titled her chapters or added an index to help guide
readers to advice or experiences that might pertain to their specific
situation, it would have added greatly to the book’s usefulness. But
as it stands, the book is little more than a story about a family—and
a rather tedious one at that.