Absolutely! Real estate as an investment or just to purchase your one and only home (which is still an investment!) is a very smart move. Real estate, overall, is a fantastic investment. Even if you had property during the worst real estate crashes in the 80's, those same properties have since more than recovered their losses and today would sell for huge profits. Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad, Poor Dad) have created their empires all with real estate.

And being able to purchase your first home is getting easier and easier. You can purchase a home with a very small down payment, or even no down payment at all. If you have bad credit, there are still plenty of mortgages available to you. You could even borrow against your retirement accounts (ie - 401k) to use towards your first home purchase without a penalty (speak to your accountant!).

So, let's take a closer look at some of the details. To start off, if you're renting a house or apartment, and do not own real estate, then you should seriously consider purchasing something. Anything...as long as you can afford it. There are several reasons for doing this:

Rent is a waste of money, wouldn't you rather make those payments towards your own property? All you're doing is paying off someone else's mortgage! Mortgage Interest is tax deductible - what this means is that most of your mortgage payment will be a tax deduction. So, the net effect of this is you're paying less taxes and you can adjust your withholdings with your employer to receive a bigger paycheck (in anticipation of paying less taxes). So, rent of $1,000/ month could be comparable to a mortgage of $1,300-$1,400/month (this depends on your tax bracket, etc - an accountant can run numbers for you). You have great leverage with real estate as an investment - I'll discuss this a bit more later on, but what this means is that you don't have to put in a lot of money to be able to make a lot of money. For example, you could put as little as 5% down on a house, yet when you sell it, you get 100% of the appreciation. Once your property appreciates, you have many more options - refinancing and consolidating your debt, refinancing and taking cash out (to purchase another property!), etc.

Ok, so hopefully you're getting the picture and recognizing the benefits of owning real estate. I started my real estate adventure at age 26, when I purchased my first house, and it was the best thing I could've done. Peruse my personal stories, hopefully you'll learn a couple things. And if you're interested in learning more about the types of mortgages available, bad credit mortgages, refinancing options, current mortgage rates, mortgage payment sizes, etc. - just submit your contact information here and Jon Bustos, Mortgage Broker Extraordinaire, can answer your questions and hopefully hook you up with a great mortgage perfectly tailored to your needs. I've exclusively used mortgage brokers when purchasing or refinancing property because not only can they shop across multiple banks and financial institutions to find you the right mortgage, they can also get you a better interest rate than you could on your own. They get a small fee for their services, but it's well worth it, they'll end up saving you money. And if you have bad credit, or whatever, Jon's creative financing can find a solution - trust me, he's the guy to work with if you get serious about making a move. We've all used Jon's services here, so we're happy to get his name out there. Drop off your info here, and Jon or one of his colleagues will help you. And if you'd like to discuss any of the topics on this website, feel free to visit our Discussion Forum!

Hi, my name is Mike, and welcome to Refinance-California-Mortgage! In a nutshell, Refinance-California-Mortgage.com was built to help you, the average Joe, improve your financial position through California real estate, mortgages, and/or refinancing in California - whether it's to get control of your finances, or to build up wealth and financial security.

I'm 34 years old, and have recently (2005) left my job as the Director of Technology for a Los Angeles, California based company. And I was able to walk away (without another job waiting!) because of the moves I had made in the California real estate market, the mortgages I chose to purchase them, and the refinancing options I utilized to make the most of my investments. You could say I'm semi-retired, with real estate investments being my main source of income. Today, I have property in both California and Arizona, and am always looking for a good deal.

I run another website, a poker-hobby site, and my friends over there had asked for my advice regarding real estate, mortgages, and refinancing, which I started to compose, and thought, well maybe this information could be helpful towards a wider audience... so here we are!

This is my perspective, based on my knowledge and my real world experiences. I'm not a professional financial advisor, real estate agent, or mortgage broker. But I've worked with many and have picked up a few things that have really helped me in my life. You're never too young or too old to start looking at real estate and mortgages, and refinancing as tools to improve your financial well-being. So read on, and I hope some of this information can help you.

Taking a step back - so why is real estate a good investment? Because you can make a lot of money with not so much money.

Let's take the case of the guy who's renting for $1,000/month. If he purchased a $200,000 house, with 10% down, his payments would be about $1,400/month (assuming 6% interest rate). After taxes, the actual out of pocket difference is minimal between the mortgage payment and rent. It's worth pushing yourself a little bit here. The payments may start off a bit difficult for you, but they get easier as you adjust and make more money. Work for that raise or promotion!

So, this guy needs $20,000 to start. But there are loans where you can buy a house for as little as 5% down. The monthly payments would be higher, but now you only need $10,000 to start.

Now, in a hot real estate market, that $200,000 property could go up $50,000 a year. Maybe even more. Year after year. And even though you've only put 5% or 10% down on the property, you get 100% of the appreciation. That $10k could turn into $100k after a few years. That's a lot of leverage. And the risk is low. Real estate inevitably goes up over time. In the worst case scenario of real estate taking a nosedive, well you still need a place to live anyway, so ride it out. Even in the area I live, which was thought to be topped out, I read in the paper that real estate appreciated 11%... in September, 2005.

So, compare this to the stock market. Let's say you invest $20,000 into the market, and your securities go up 10% for the year. That's a great return and you've just made $2,000. Now compare that to the scenario above. You use the same $20,000 as a down payment, and your house appreciates 10%. You've made $20,000, or 100% of your investment! Not to mention, if the house is your primary residence, you won't have to pay taxes on your gain for up to $250,000 worth of profits, unlike stocks where you will have to pay taxes on any gains you make.

But certainly, real estate is an investment, there is risk. Do your homework and scope out different areas, their rate of appreciation, jobs moving in, the city improving or expanding. Look for a place that you can fix up a bit and immediately increase the value of. As you've heard, location is important. And a rundown place in a great location is ideal - new paint, carpet, tile, etc. is cheap, but somehow increases the value of your place by tens of thousands immediately.

Half of the "so-called" experts say the market is heading down. The other half say the market is strong and will stay that way for a long time. The real estate market is comprised of local markets. Any statement made about real estate in general doesn't make sense to me. There are always spots that are appreciating like crazy, while other spots are stagnating. Granted, rising interest rates can slow down housing in general, but guess what. If rising interest rates make loans too expensive, then people end up renting. Now the rental market strengthens, and if you own rental properties, well your appreciation may be slowing but you can raise rents.

My next post will be about the mistakes I made on that first purchase. Even though I made money on it and it would help me with my next move, I should have done things differently. Lessons learned coming next.