Real Estate

[greatsnake]

Should your first house be your dream house in which you see yourself living in for a long time or look at it as an investment?

 

[Tenacity]

Should your first house be your dream house in which you see yourself living in for a long time or look at it as an investment?

There's no cut and dry answer to this. Investing in real estate is, and always will be, an individual-based analysis/situation. For me personally, it makes no sense for me to buy any real estate as a primary residence right now (for reasons I've detailed on this forum prior).

Just make sure that your decision is based on your OWN individual based analysis/situation, not some cut-n-dry infomercial like pitch that says:

- Real Estate will always appreciate
- You can't lose with Real Estate
- Real Estate is always better than Stocks/Bonds
- You can become a Millionaire "easily" with Real Estate
- Go into high leveraged DEBT (operate in the red) with Real Estate because you will always win at the end
- You can "easily" buy properties with no money down or using other people's money, and get rich

Anybody who presents Real Estate to you in this fashion is a scam artist. Matter of fact, most of them have financial services related FRAUD on their background and have been to prison for it (including some on this very board). So be CAREFUL.

With that being said, there is a lot of opportunity in Real Estate, Stocks, Bonds, Owning A Business, and other types of investment vehicles. You should do your OWN research and craft your own individual plans, and if ANYTHING sounds too good to be true, it more than likely IS.

 

[sazc]

Investment.

I've always heard 'purchase the most inexpensive home in the community you are planning purchasing in" because your home will benefit from the other home values.

If I was purchasing my own place right now, and I wanted to be start a family at some point, I would be looking for a smaller property right now that I can rent eventually. Take out a 15 year loan if you can so you pay it off quicker. Then, when you are finally looking for that larger, more family oriented place (or not) you can refi your current home, pull out the equity and use that for a down on your next place. Then you keep your first house as a rental.

Things to remember - 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms make good rental properties. Someone has to clean the house you purcahse, so keep your square footage small enough so that you can keep it relatively clean and fix it when needed. I have 6 ceiling fans...ceiling fans are no fun to change when needed. 1600 sq feet is good for a 3/2 rental. 2k sq feet should probably be the max.

a 3/2 condo about 1600 sq feet would be a great first purchase. Less expensive then a single family home, the HOA will most likely take care of the outside of the building, and it will rent when you are ready to get your next home. Just make sure your HOA doesnt have restrictions on renting.