Price, condition and terms are factors that any owner must consider when marketing their home. Price is usually the easiest to adjust to compensate for shortcomings in location or condition of the home. Improving the condition of the property is more time consuming but updates to kitchens, baths and [...]
The Federal Reserve Board's Triennial Survey of Consumer Finances recently revealed the net worth of a homeowner was $231,400 compared to $5,200 for a renter. The net worth of homeowners increased 15% from 2013 to 2016 while renters' decreased by [...]
There is a little-known mortgage program that could provide the vehicle for the right person to get into a home. If a person sells their home to another for less than the fair market value, the difference in the appraised value and the sales price is considered a gift of equity for the [...]
It may be natural for first-time buyers to be unsure of the process of buying a home because they haven't been through it before but even repeat buyers need to know changes that have taken place since the financial housing
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It's been said that if you can find a home that has most of what you want, you should go ahead and purchase it. Many first-time buyers are using everything they have for a down payment and closing costs and would have to "live" with the less than perfect home until they can save the money to make the [...]
Finding the right home is still the biggest challenge buyers are faced with in today's market as is shown in the latest Confidence Index Survey. Assuming the buyers find the "right" home with determination, perseverance and the help of a real estate professional, 88% of all transactions last year required [...]
As storybooks go, the character is introduced, they meet their love interest, a villain thwarts their intentions, true love overcomes, they marry and live happily ever-after. It's a very familiar formula.
Similarly, there is a formula that couples follow in real life. They go to college, get a good job, rent a home, fall in love, get married and buy a starter home. They start a family, move into a larger home, save for their children's education, start planning for their retirement and if they live within their means, they invest their surplus funds.
An alternative to this might be to start investing in rental homes early in their adult life before their standard of living becomes so expensive that they don't feel like they have the money to purchase rentals. There are infinite possibilities but let's say a single person, after getting a good job, buys a small three or four-bedroom home with an owner-occupied, minimum down payment. They move into the home and possibly, rent out the bedrooms to other singles who need a place to live.
At some point, they decide to buy another home to live in with a minimum down payment and either rent out their bedroom in the first home or rent the whole home to a tenant. And they repeat the process again with the second home.
This could continue until they acquired several homes. Let's say, that in the meantime, they have met their love interest, decide to get married and together, they buy a starter home for them to live in.
This concept advances the investment in rental homes from the latter part of their lives to the early part of their life. The early investment gives them more time for appreciation and wealth accumulation. A simple principle of investing is that sooner is better than later. By delaying gratification to own your "dream home" early, a person may be able to accumulate more net worth in the same period of time.
Buying a property initially as owner-occupied permits a lower down payment of 3.5% compared to a typical down payment for non-owner-occupied properties is 20%. By using more borrowed funds, leverage can increase the yield on the investment.
It may be too late for some people reading this article to adopt this strategy but if they have kids in college, it may be something for them to consider.When the standard deduction for married couples filing jointly was increased from $12,700 to $24,000 for 2018, there was some speculation that the bloom was off the rose of homeownership. The thought was that if the tax benefits from being able to deduct the property taxes and interest was less than the standard deduction, that maybe, the buyer would be better off continuing to rent.
With mortgage rates as low as they have been for the past eight years, payments have been lower and so has the amount of interest that was paid. This and the fact that sales and local taxes, which include property taxes, are limited to $10,000 a year on the Itemized Deduction form have made it harder to reach the increased standard deduction.
The reality of the situation is tax benefits are only one of the components that make a home an excellent investment and it probably contributes the least of the top three benefits. Principal reduction and appreciation build an owner's equity in an automatic way that is like a forced savings account.
In today's market, it is common for the total house payment to be lower than the rent a first-time home buyer is currently paying. As a homeowner, the buyer would have additional expenses like maintenance and possibly, a HOA.
To illustrate the net effect, let's look at a purchase price of $275,000 with 3.5% down payment on a 4.75% 30-year FHA loan. We'll assume the home appreciates at 3% annually and the buyer is currently paying $2,000 a month rent.
The total payment is $2,115.44 including principal, interest, property taxes, property and mortgage insurance. However, when you consider the monthly principal reduction, appreciation, maintenance and HOA, the net cost of housing is $1,205.72. It costs $794.28 more a month to rent than to own. In a year's time, it would cost $9,531.36 more to rent than to own which is more than the down payment required to buy the home.
In seven-years, the $9,625 down payment would grow to over $101,000 in equity. The equity build-up far exceeds the tax benefits which some people would have as an additional incentive. Use this Rent vs. Own to see what the net cost of housing would be using a home in your price range or call me at (941) 366-7673 and I'll do it for you.
In September, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates for the third time in 2018 and they're expected to go up one more time this year and three times next year. If you have a Home Equity Line of Credit, HELOC, you're paying more to use that money and it is going to become more [...]
FHA allows owner-occupants to purchase up to a four-unit property with a minimum 3.5% down payment. The rent collected on three units could be used to make the payment and the owners' pro-rata share would be less than ¼ of the payment [...]
