Why waste money on rent when you can own?

We always need a place to live and there will be a cost associated with that.  However, we can turn the money we are speniding for housing into an invtment with potentially high returns bringing peace of mind for future. 

Here are some of points to keep in mind:

Renting:

- Money spent on rent is spent money.  Gone!

- Rents go up with time meaning you have to allocate an increasing amount of household income for housing budget

- There will never be a peace of mind of 'owning your own place'

Owning:

- Major costs of home ownership are: mortgage payments, property taxes, and maitenance.

- Initially, roughtly half of a mortgage payment goes towards interest, and other half goes toward paying down the mortage. As time goes by lesser portion of a payment goes towards interest and more towards equity in your home

- In most cases, if you combine interest portion of the mortgage, taxes, and maintenance, it will be lower than renting an equivalent home. That means cheaper cost of living

- As time goes by the interest portion of your mortgage decreases, so your home costs will continually decrease. Rents always go up.

- Through mortgage payments, you are paying some principal that goes towards equity in your home.  That means putting some money towards your savings each month

- And most importantly, your home is a highliy leveraged investment. If we assume home value apprciation is 5-7% in a normal market, based on 20% down payment, you are getting 25-35% return on the money you put as down payment. Not bad!

- Through principal payment and value appreciatiion, you are building a secure finciail nest.  So not only your housing is secured, you are building a secure financial future and retirement too.



The biggest hurdle of home ownership is coming up with the down payment. Although a challenge, but nothing that can't be overcome through good financial planning and decipline, and maybe support from family and friends.

I belive everyone has to own their own home and it is my passion to work with my clients achieve this goal.  No matter at which stage you are, feel free to call me and we can talk about how we can work together to make this dream come true.