Cut Your Housing Costs in Half

Serious shoppers wait for a 50% off sale to make the decision because of the bargain factor.  Renters who are serious about lowering their monthly cost of housing should consider buying with today’s low mortgage rates.  For an example, let’s assume a person buys a $200,000 home with 3.5% down payment on a 4.5% FHA mortgage for 30 years.

The total house payment would be approximately $1,508 per month.  However, once you consider the equity build-up due to normal amortization, a monthly appreciation estimated at 2% annually for this example, the tax savings and paying maintenance that a tenant wouldn’t be required to do, the net cost of housing is $772 a month.  This is almost half of the full mortgage payment.
If this person was paying $1,750 a month for rent, it would cost him almost $978 more to rent than to own. In the first year alone, it would accumulate to over $11,000 which is more than the down payment required of $7,000.

Owning a home is the largest investment that most people make and the down payment of $7,000 to purchase this home would grow to $58,837 in equity by estimating a 2% appreciation and normal amortization.

To check out what your real housing costs might look like, go to Rent vs. Own or contact your real estate professional.


Contact Marilyn Messenger for additional information about how a buyer agent/broker can help you manage the home buying process. Visit www.marilynmessenger.com to search for homes and find market reports for Wayland, Sudbury, Maynard, Stow, and Concord MA.

Refinance to Remove a Person

Most people are familiar with the various reasons a homeowner refinances their home which generally result in two major benefits: saving interest and building equity. 
2. Shorten the term
3. Take cash out of the equity
4. Combine loans
5. Remove a person from a loan


There is however another reason to refinance which may not be as common which is to remove a person from the loan. In the case of a divorce, when one party wants to keep the home and the other party wants their equity out of the home, it is possible for the remaining party to refinance the home. If the equity is sufficient to justify it and the remaining owner can qualify for the new loan, the refinance can provide the proceeds to buy out the other spouse.

Refinancing to remove a person from the loan could also involve a situation where two or more heirs jointly own a property and have differing opinions on when to sell. The same situation could apply to a rental property with multiple owners and the refinance would provide a way to buy out a partner.

Sometimes, it’s not about taking cash out of the home to buy out the other party. If a person’s name is on the mortgage, they’re responsible if it goes to default. One party may be willing to deed the home to the other party but it doesn’t necessarily relieve them of the liability of the mortgage they originated.
Many times, once a person has made their mind to move on, they’ll take the fastest and easiest way out. Removing a person from the deed or a mortgage is a reason to consider obtaining legal advice to protect your interests. Refinance Analysis calculator.

Reasons to Refinance

1. Lower the rate

The market has changed and if you need information about the current value of your home please contact me at 508-596-3501 or drop a note to marilynmessenger@realtor.com. I would be happy to provide you with the information you need.
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Check out the latest market reports for Wayland, Sudbury, Concord, Maynard, and Stow at www.marilynmessenger.com.

Who's Paying Your Mortgage?

As a homeowner, you obviously pay for your mortgage but as an investor, your tenant does.  Equity build-up is a significant benefit of mortgaged rental property.  As the investor collects rent and pays expenses, the principal amount of the loan is reduced which increases the equity in the property.  Over time, the tenant pays for the property to the benefit of the investor.

Equity build-up occurs with normal amortization as the loan is paid down.  It can be accelerated by making additional contributions to the principal each month along with the normal payment.  Some investors consider this a good use of the cash flows because interest rates on savings accounts and certificates of deposits are much lower than their mortgage rate.

In the example below, is a hypothetical rental with a purchase price of $125,000 with 80% loan-to-value mortgage at 4.5% for 30 years compared to a 3.5% for 15 years.  The acquisition costs were estimated at $3,000, the monthly rent is estimated at $1,250 and $4,800 for operating expenses.



Notice that both properties have a positive cash flow before tax.  The cash on cash return is the revenue less expenses including debt service divided by the initial investment to acquire the property.  The 15 year mortgage will obviously have a smaller cash flow and lower cash on cash but the equity build-up is significantly higher.

If the goal of the investor is to pay off the property to provide the highest possible cash flow at a later date, a shorter term mortgage with a lower interest rate will help them achieve that.  A simple definition of an investment is to put away today so you’ll have more tomorrow.  Sacrificing cash flow now, during an investor’s earning years, is a reasonable expectation to provide more cash flow in the future when it might be needed more.

Contact me if you’d like to explore rental property opportunities with an experienced buyer agent.

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Marilyn Messenger is an Accredited Buyer Representative and a member of the Real Estate Buyer Agency Council and has been representing buyers and sellers in Wayland, Sudbury, Maynard, Concord, and the towns west of Boston since 1993.

The Rules

The profit potential in single family homes for investment has been a consistently good long-term investment. They offer investors the opportunity of high loan-to-value mortgages at fixed interest rates for 30 years on appreciating assets, tax advantages and reasonable control that other investments don’t offer.
Last year, Warren Buffett said that if he had a way of buying a couple hundred thousand single-family homes, he would load up on them. Blackstone group L.P. (BX) has now purchased over 30,000 homes and American Homes 4 Rent (AMH) has more than 19,000 for rental purposes.
Individual investors actually have an advantage over the institutional investor but if they are not familiar with rental real estate, some basic rules could be very helpful.

1. Invest now to get more in the future.
   Whether it is time, effort or money, the prudent investor is willing to forego immediate gratification for something more at a later date.
2. Real estate is an IDEAL investment.
   IDEAL is an acronym that stands for income, depreciation, equity build-up, appreciation and leverage. 
3. Invest in single family homes in predominantly owner-occupied neighborhoods at or below average price range.
   This strategy should involve homes that will increase in value, rent well and appeal to an owner-occupant in the future who will pay a higher price than an investor.
4. Location, location, location.
   The same homes in different areas will not behave the same. You can improve the condition, modify the terms or adjust the price but the location can’t be changed.
5. Understand your strategy – buy and sell, buy and hold or buy, rent and hold.
   These three distinct strategies involve big differences in acquisition, management and taxation.
6. Know where your profit is coming from before you invest.
   The four contributors to profit are cash flow, appreciation, amortization and tax savings. They don’t contribute equally or the same in all investments.
7. Profit starts with purchase.
   Buying the property below market value builds profit into the investment initially.
8. Risk is directly proportionate to the reward involved.
   An investment that has a high degree of upside also will have considerable downside possible.
9. Avoid functional obsolescence unless you have a plan before you buy.
   The lack of usefulness or desirability of a home that exists when you buy it will still be there when you sell it. Unless it can be cured, it will affect future profit.
10. Good property + good tenant + good management = great investment.
    These are three solid components for a successful investment.
11. Problems left unresolved have a tendency to get worse.
    It is generally cheaper in time or money to fix a problem earlier rather than later.

If you’d like more information about the opportunities in our market, contact me.
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About the author: Marilyn Messenger, a broker associate with Andrew Mitchell and Company, Concord has been representing buyers and sellers in Wayland, Sudbury, Maynard, Stow and the towns west of Boston for 20 years. She is an area expert and combines personal service with cutting-edge technology and negotiating systems to maximize results and minimize stress throughout the home-buying and/or selling process. Visit: www.marilynmesenger.com to see homes for sale.
Connect with Marilyn Messenger on Google+

A Home is More Than an Address

A home is a place to call your own, raise your family, share with your friends and feel safe and secure. It is also one of the largest investments most people have.

Leverage is the ability to control a larger asset with a smaller amount of cash through the use of borrowed funds. It has been described as using other people’s money to increase your yield and it applies to homeowners and investors alike. Positive leverage causes the yield to increase as the loan-to-value increases.

Even a modest amount of appreciation combined with the amortization of a loan can cause a substantial rate of return on the down payment and closing costs. Homes build equity as the price goes up due to appreciation and the unpaid balance goes down due to amortization.












The example above indicates the yield on a home considering 3% acquisition costs on the home with a 4.5% mortgage rate and the resulting equity at the end of five years. The different down payments will affect the yield based on the leverage effect. 
Whether you rent or buy the home you live in, you pay for what you occupy. The question a person is faced with is whether they are going to buy it for themselves or their landlord. Take a look at the cost of Renting vs. Owning.

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Wayland Housing Market Update - What's It Mean to You?

Happy First-time Homeowners in Wayland!

June Closed Sales: There were 18 closed single-family home sales during June in Wayland compared with 23 in June 2012. Sale prices ranged from $390,000 to $1,220; the median sale price was $669,500, up from $507,000. The average sale price was $731,972, also up from June 2012 when it was $594,000.

Keep in mind that it takes approximately 30 to 60 days to close a sale. The buying decisions for properties that closed in June were made in April and May at the peak of the Spring market. Summer is a different market.

New listings in June: the number of single-family homes that came on the market in Wayland during June was almost the same as in June 2012 – 23; 22 in June 2012. Of the 23, there are only 9 that are fully active. 2 have accepted offers with contingencies waiting to clear, 10 are under agreement, 3 have already closed, and one of the listings has expired.

Current: As in most places, there are fewer homes on the market than last year at this time (8/1); there are 64 single-family homes for sale compared with 79 on 9/1/2012. List prices range from $219,900 for a 5 room house with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathroom to $11,800,000 luxury estate with 28 rooms including with a guest house, and barn on 11+ acres surrounded by conservation land. See the listings at www.WaylandHomeSales.com

The current median list price in Wayland is $822.000; last year on 8/1 the median list price in Wayland was $735,500. As in Sudbury, the price range with the most choices is one million to 1.499 million – there are 13 for sale. The average time on the market for these properties is 140 days; some of these sellers may be ready to make a deal and buyer, you have less competition - everything is on sale in August!

Condominiums (townhouses and garden-apartment style): There were 4 closed sales of condominiums in Wayland during June; there were 10 in June 2012. Sale prices were higher this year. The median sale price in June 2013 was $500,000 up from $456,250 in June 2012.

Current: there are 16 units for sale in Wayland compared with 34 last year at this time. List prices range from $279,900 for 3 bedrooms, 1 bath half-duplex, to $1,199,000 for a 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath luxury townhome at The Field. The median price for a condominium in Wayland is $662,450 up from $665,000 on 8/1/2012.

What's it mean to you?Price is key even in a hot market. Homes sellers who price their houses correctly are getting offers, multiple offers in some cases, and are selling quickly, sometimes for over asking; while those who were overly optimistic and went on the market too high are taking longer and they are reducing their prices. There were 23 price changes on 21 properties in Wayland during June. The average change was -4.26%.

People who are serious about buying are prepared and acting quickly, especially any who’ve already missed out on a house they wanted. Being prepared is more important than ever, however, it is still important to think things through and not to make costly mistakes like waiving the home inspection or offering more than you can comfortably afford. Contact me if you want an experienced buyer agent/broker to navigate you through the process. My clients have been able to get the house they want without over-paying.

For people who own a home and are not planning to move anytime soon, higher sale prices mean more equity in your property. Maybe you've been trying to refinance or take out an equity line to do some updates but your house wouldn't appraise. Mortgage interest rates are still historically low and this may be your window of opportunity. This is also a good time to consider a vacation home or income property. Prices are going up everywhere so why wait?

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Want to know more, call Marilyn at 508-596-3501.

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Will the "Good Life" Be Ready When You Are?

The Life of Riley was a TV show from the 50’s starring William Bendix but the title’s origin came from an expression meaning that a person was living the “good life.” Most people envision themselves living the good life by retirement but don’t really have a plan to get there.

There’s a rough rule of thumb used to estimate how much net worth a person would need by the time they retire to generate a certain income. The target annual income is divided by a safe, conservative yield to determine the investable assets needed.

A person who wanted $100,000 annual income generated from a 5% investment would need investable assets of $2,000,000. If a person had $500,000 now, they would need to accumulate $1.5 million more by the time they retire. If it was estimated to be 15 years away, they would need to save about $100,000 a year, each year until retirement.
It is a sobering example that could be depressing without a plan. It might be easy to say, “I should have started sooner” which may be true but there is still hope.

Gradually, over the next several years, accumulate rental property and allow the tenant to retire the debt for you. The equity in each property will grow from the amortization of the loan each time a payment is made. It also grows as the property increases in value due to appreciation.

Single family homes as rentals offer the investor an opportunity to meet their retirement and financial goals for the following reasons:

• The ability to borrow large loan-to-value mortgages
• At fixed interest rates
• For long terms (easily up to 30 years)
• On appreciating assets
• With significant tax advantages
• And reasonable control not offered by alternative investments.