Rent Vs. Buy

Why Rent When you can buy?

Look at How Much You Are Spending On Rent!!!

RENT 3 YRS 10 YRS 15 YRS
$900 $32,400 $108,000 $162,000
$1,000 $35,000 $120,000 $180,000
$1,100 $39,600 $132,000 $198,000
$1,200 $43,200 $144,000 $216,000

Did You Know...
For the same amount of money that you are spending on rent you can be the owner of your own home? So Why waste money every month? We can make this dream come true, even if you have had credit problems in the past.

Other benefits of owning a home...TAX BENEFITS. When you rent you are only giving your landlord a bigger refund because he can expense everything (well almost everything) on his taxes. If you buy a single family home you can file schedule-A and expense your mortgage interest, annual real estate taxes, charitable donations and medical & dental expenses. If you buy a two family home, if you occupy one unit, you could claim any expenses related to the property from the percentage (by square footage) that is rented. For example: 55% of the home is rented and you pay all the utilities for the entire house which totals $3,600 then ($3600/55%=$1980), $1980 would be the amount claimed for utilities. Other expenses you can claim (besides utilities) for a multifamily home is advertising, repairs, cleaning/maintenance fees, insurance, management fees, supplies, taxes, mortgage interest and you can also depreciate the property.

AND now for 2008 you would be able to claim the $7500 First-Time HomeBuyer Tax Credit. You can read my tax blog to get more info on the Tax Credit. So as you can see it is very beneficial when it comes to taxes to own a home besides renting.

Prices have dropped. Don't think because the economy is suffering right now that it will be like this forever. Real estate is the best investment you can make. Records show that real estate almost always doubles in value if kept long-term. If you buy in this down market when the market turns around again you will be sitting on a pot of gold.

FHA has great loans that are government insured. They are fixed-rate programs that allow Not so perfect to qualify. And if you can't qualify on your own they allow more than one co-signer. The minimum you would have to put down on a FHA loan is 3% of the purchase price. But in reference to closing costs, depending on what type of home you decide to purchase, we can include the closing costs for the seller to pay so you don't have to pay them out of your pocket. I will have to go over the different types of homes (Re-sale, Short-Sale, & REO) in another posting.

Just to give a little background, I am also a tax preparer. I have been providing tax preparation since 2004. You can talk to your preferred tax preparer or CPA in reference to what type of deductions are allow when owning a home.

If you have any questions, click on the comments icon and post away!

**Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed