real estate

The Pros And Cons Of Living In A Smaller Home

05.01.2013
The pros and cons of living in a smaller home

Last week, I got an email from Laura who is currently having a little difficulty with living in a small space. So something I’ve been dealing with is that we live in an apt in a 4-flat we own in ******, OO. It’s been great financially but now we have 2 little kids – 2 and 4 yrs old. I’m starting to go crazy (mainly in wintertime) for the lack of space… She asked me to write about the pros and cons of living in a small space and I’m happy to oblige a mom with 2 little kids. It’s [...]

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Owing a 4-plex can be a pain…

04.05.2013
owning a 4 plex can be a pain in the ass zillow

Owning a 4-plex can be a PITA Owning a rental property is one of the most popular ways to generate passive income, but it’s not always easy. We purchased a 4-plex through a short sale process in October 2011 and my rental income projection was quite wrong. I finally finished our 2012 tax return and I can share the details from the 4-plex now. I’ll put it next to my original projection so you can see how wrong I was. Rent Let’s start with the good news. We actually collected more rent that I projected. I assumed 5% vacancy rate [...]

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Should you pay off your mortgage if you could?

03.04.2013
should you pay off mortgage if you could?

Last week I got a couple of emails from our readers asking some questions about mortgages. …you have a mortgage in both your condo and rental property. I would like to know what your thinking process was. Why not payoff the condo? Also, why the investments in the market instead of paying off the real estate? Another reader – Is the tax deduction high enough to justify the risk in the market?…Financing when the cash is available goes against my “sleep well at night” beliefs and everything I have read about the topic.  First of all, it’s confession time for [...]

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Why choose a 15-Year over 30-Year Fixed Rate Mortgage?

09.03.2012
15 and 30 year fixed rate mortgage history

Last week, Savvy Financial Latina asked why we chose a 15 year Fixed Rate Mortgage (FRM) when we purchased our first home in 2000. There are many reasons why we picked the 15-year mortgage, but the most important factor was that we could afford it. We were both making reasonable incomes and the house was more affordable back then. There were also other reasons to go with the shorter term. We could build equity faster; We would pay much less interest compare to a 30-year loan. The 15-year loan also had a lower interest rate; We would own the home [...]

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