Buy Small, Earn Big
In today's real estate market, a hands-on real estate investor can make money with smaller properties that are easy to acquire and manage. Here are some suggestions to get started:
• Rent out a part of your own home for $400 a month and use that money every month to pay down mortgage principal. Shaving 10 years from a $350,000 30-year mortgage will reduce total payments by more than $165,000. And you’ll be able to write off all your costs on your income taxes, including depreciation on the unit, up to your actual rental income.
• If buying a single family home, make sure you can put 10 percent down and rent the property for more than your monthly payment, interest, taxes, insurance and a $200 expense budget. Purchasing a foreclosed home owned by a lender is one way to find such a property.
• Consider buying a two-family home, where you’ll make nearly twice as much in rent for a property costing little or no more than a single family.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
• Rent out a part of your own home for $400 a month and use that money every month to pay down mortgage principal. Shaving 10 years from a $350,000 30-year mortgage will reduce total payments by more than $165,000. And you’ll be able to write off all your costs on your income taxes, including depreciation on the unit, up to your actual rental income.
• If buying a single family home, make sure you can put 10 percent down and rent the property for more than your monthly payment, interest, taxes, insurance and a $200 expense budget. Purchasing a foreclosed home owned by a lender is one way to find such a property.
• Consider buying a two-family home, where you’ll make nearly twice as much in rent for a property costing little or no more than a single family.
Source: The Wall Street Journal