Is it the Right Time to Buy a Home?

June 21, 2012

With both home prices and mortgage rates still near historic lows, is now the right to buy a home? That’s a question many would-be first time home buyers are asking themselves, myself included. For most of the first few years of my career, I was working on a full-commission basis and my unstable income and need to maintain a large savings account balance made me reluctant to commit to the upfront costs and monthly mortgage payments associated with home ownership. By the time my income was more stable, I was living in NYC, where buying just didn’t make sense to me, and then I was in law school with barely any income at all. As a result, I missed both the rise and the collapse of the real estate bubble. Continue reading “Is it the Right Time to Buy a Home?”

Remodeling – Will You Get Your Money Out of It?

May 07, 2012

My husband pulled a “home makeover – bathroom addition” on me!  Knowing I was traveling on business, my husband thought it would be the perfect time to put new floors in our bathrooms, kitchen and entry ways.  Now, he is a smart man so he didn’t totally surprise me with new floors – we spent many hours choosing the perfect color together.  He did schedule them to be installed when I was away. Continue reading “Remodeling – Will You Get Your Money Out of It?”

Rental Property in an IRA?

February 22, 2012

The second week of April is Spring Break for our kids so this year we planned a family vacation to Amelia Island, Florida.  We’ve never been there before so after perusing several possible forms of accommodations, we settled on a condominium close to the beach.  As expected, the owners of the rental property requested one half of the rent up front and then the remainder at the time of occupancy.  What made this particular request a little different was who, or in this case what, we made the check payable to.  Usually you make a check out to a person or to a rental management agency but in this instance we made our check payable to the property owner’s individual retirement account (IRA).  Huh? Continue reading “Rental Property in an IRA?”

So You’ve Decided to Buy Investment Property, Great! Now How Do You Decide Which Property to Buy?

February 10, 2011

Last week I tackled the question of what to consider before buying investment property and whether or not it could be right for YOU.  You may also recall that I stated that the actual property to buy was not necessarily a major driver of the decision – initially.

That said, the property you decide upon becomes a very important piece once you have made the decision to buy.  Some things to consider (in order of importance) before signing the purchase contract are: Continue reading “So You’ve Decided to Buy Investment Property, Great! Now How Do You Decide Which Property to Buy?”

Why We Practice What We Preach (Part II)

July 22, 2010

Welcome back. I hope your time away from my blathering was enjoyable. So where was I? Oh that’s right, my wife wanting to retire in 5 years. Now keep in mind that as I was telling her we certainly could review where we are at and if it was possible, my internal dialogue was saying “Why bother? We don’t have enough money set aside yet.” But I shook off my negativity and started running our numbers. Continue reading “Why We Practice What We Preach (Part II)”