Why You’re Better Off Paying a Mortgage Than Paying Rent

If you’re still renting, it’s much more financially beneficial to buy a home and take on a mortgage payment. Here’s why.

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Did you know it’s more beneficial for you to take on a mortgage payment than it is a rental payment? It’s true, and today I’ll explain how by using an example from my own life and adjusting the numbers for an interest rate you can secure today.

Follow along in the video above to see an in-depth, side-by-side comparison of a rental payment versus a mortgage payment. For your convenience, I’ve provided timestamps so you can skip ahead to various sections at your leisure:

0:52—The numbers at a glance: $1,300 per month in rent versus $1,929 per month for the mortgage (at today’s interest rate)
1:36—The drawbacks of the rental payment and the benefits of the mortgage payment
1:57—How the mortgage numbers are divided up  
4:07—How your tax credit reduces your overall payment
5:22—When factoring in your increasing principal and decreasing interest, in less than a year, your original $1,929 monthly payment will be less than $1,300
6:36—Why your rental payment will only go up 
7:10—Wrapping things up 

As always, if you have any more questions about this or any other real estate topic or you’re thinking of buying or selling a home, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I’d love to help you.

My Advice on Handling Lowball Offers on Your Home

If you receive a lowball offer, I don’t think you should flat out reject it. Here’s what you should do instead.

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Let’s say you have your home on the market for $300,000 and an offer comes in at $250,000. You’re hoping to get at least $280,000, so you have every right to decline the offer right then and there.

However, you can also counter this lowball offer. I would typically advise at least trying to counter in this kind of situation. Here’s why. A lot of buyers, especially first-time buyers, have the mentality of “let’s see what can happen” when they’re making a lowball offer. Someone with that mentality will typically bring their price up more than you think after negotiation. They may come up to $260,000 or $275,000 quicker than you think. 

I would advise at least trying to counter.

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This happens pretty frequently. A lowball offer gets countered, then the buyer comes up to an area where the seller would accept it.

If you have any questions for me about this specific situation or about anything else related to selling your home, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

How to Reduce Your Property Taxes

If you think you may be paying too much in property taxes, there are two ways to go about reducing them.

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How can you reduce your property taxes? There are a couple of easy ways to do this. 

The first way is to make sure you are receiving all the exemptions you qualify for. There are many that could apply to you.

The second way is to speak to an attorney about appealing your taxes. If you look around your neighborhood and think “I may be paying too much,” ask your Realtor about this. A Realtor will take a look, and if we get the idea that you may be overpaying on your taxes, then we’ll take that to an attorney who specializes in appealing taxes and ask them to take a look at your case.

The attorney will usually do an initial evaluation and determine whether you’re paying too much. If you are overpaying, then ordinarily that attorney will handle all the paperwork and processes for you. They will take it to the county assessor, and they should get your property taxes reduced. Often, you won’t owe them anything unless it’s a successful appeal. But how you pay will depend on that specific attorney. 

If you look around your neighborhood and think “I may be paying too much,” ask your Realtor about this.

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So if you think you’re paying too much in property taxes and would like to look into that, give me a call. I can get you on the right path. If you have any other real estate questions, you can also give me a call or send me an email, I would love to help you.