Have you thought about buying your first home? A lot of people think about it but not everybody takes the steps towards doing it. A lot of people put the prospect of home ownership up on pedestal. They think that its an attainable goal. While that may be true in the Toronto area. The dream of home ownership is still very realistic here in the Barrie and Simcoe county area.
One of the biggest reasons you should buy your first home is so that you can stop paying someone else’s mortgage. Start paying your own! That way you can start building your own equity. The sooner you have your mortgage paid off the better off you will be.
Some want to wait to buy their first home until they’re married. Personally, if you have the ability to qualify for a mortgage I’d do it as soon as possible. You can start by living in the basement and renting out the main floor. That way you can possible even live in the house without paying anything. The people renting upstairs can pay your mortgage payments for you and you live in the basement. As your housing needs change you can move upstairs, take the larger space for yourself, and rent out the basement.
If and when you do get married and want to live somewhere with your partner, maybe you buy somewhere else. You may even be able to keep the current house and have a tenant in the basement and upstairs. Now you’ve started building your real estate empire!
Did you know that the majority of millionaires in the world got there by owning real estate? It’s not from starting a business that explodes. It’s by getting one property, then another, and another, and then slowly over time as those properties are paid off the owners are worth a few million. It doesn’t happen overnight, it can take decades. It starts with the first home.
Do you want a good example of this? Surprisingly it’s actually Arnold Schwarzenegger. He made millions from real estate before he did as a movie star. He started small, owning a duplex, living in one unit and renting the other. Then it went up and up from there. Obviously once he added millions from bodybuilding and movies to his real estate portfolio that it grew even faster but anyone can start with one eventually.
Speak to someone. Whether its your bank, a mortgage, broker, or someone like me. Get a handle for your situation and start building a plan so that ten, twenty, or thirty years from now you have a few million dollars worth of real estate to your name.
