Getting Started - Should You Be Interested in Real Estate?

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!