Realty - Home is where the heart is - your very own castle, the great American dream. And in truth it is just great to have a place to call your own where you feel content, where friends drop in and you all have a great time. Having a patch of this great land to call your own really can bring a sense of security to you and yours.
Achieving the realty dream is not instant for most people, and can require plenty of belt-tightening and sacrifice. It can take ages to gather together the thousands you need for a deposit. Yet the longer anyone procrastinates over buying and continues renting, the more time they will be flushing their money down the toilet. Property is the kind of investment that you don't see any fruit from until you sell your house, but it's an investment none the less. If you don't buy then you are just earning money to fill the pockets of greedy landlords.
A good way to clarify the benefits of owning a home is for you talk to someone such as a Realtor, a licensed real estate professional, about your choices. A Realtor will help you plan to build the funds to make home ownership a reality. Sometimes, a Realtor will advise that you get your ducks in order first, meaning work on paying off other debts that count against your chances of qualifying for a home loan. Some loans require less down payment and some loans carry steeper conditions depending on your credit score. You can find out your credit rating online through the three main credit bureaus such as Experian, Equifax and TransUnion.
Should you find you have a happy credit score then start considering what kind of payment you can meet. This depends on your monthly wage, but also on the amount of your current rental payment. If the mortgage is going to be less than the rent then buying is bound to make economic sense - you'll be saving money each month and you will be building up your brick-and-mortar investment.
Equity, in everyday terminology, is the "portion of assets which are owned outright rather than through borrowing". For instance, if you purchase a home (an "asset") for $150,000 with $10,000 down, your home's mortgage loan (a "liability") will be $140,000. Then, (over and above your interest charges) upon making $1,000 mortgage repayments per month for a year, your mortgage loan will be down $12,000, reducing the "liability" to $128,000. At this one-year marker, your home equity becomes $22,000, which is derived from taking $150,000 minus $128.000 and assuming no change in property value. You can see why it's important to consider how long you plan to live in a home when you purchase it so that your home equity truly becomes an investment over time.
It's not all roses of course, and to read about some things to watch out for, research one or two of the large realtors. Try Coldwell Banker and Century 21 to get going. To find your nearest office, or easily access other information on real estate agents and realty investing, just visit http://www.realtywz.com
Copyright 2006 Sean Carrott. All rights reserved.
Sean Carrott runs Realty WZ a popular resource for realty related information. For further details visit his article archive: http://www.realtywz.com/articles/
Source: www.isnare.com
