Another house to buy
On Tuesday night I take the red-eye home. I'll take Wednesday off, and go back to work on Thursday. This will complete my 3 months of traveling. There was Florida, Utah, California, Florida again, and California again. I'm sure there were a couple other places thrown in there as well.
The last week and a half has been my first vacation this year, which means I still have 7 or so days to use before the year ends. I am planning on taking random days off here and there to burn them up. If I plan it right, using Christmas, New Years, and my every other Friday off, I could not go to work on any two consecutive days in December. I just might have to do that :)
My parents have talked me into buying my grandmother's Baltimore house from her. She lives in California with my aunts, and has been renting the place out for the past several years. It is only about a 5 minute drive from my parents place, and currently has renters paying $1200 a month. I haven't yet brought up the question of price. I sort of have an idea of what the houses in the area have been gone for in the past, but it is kind of hard to tell what it would go for now with housing sales slowing. I don't really think my grandmother needs the money, but at the same time, I don't want to be too cheap. The other thing is that since she lives here near San Francisco, she might have a higher expectation of what her house might be worth. Either way, as soon as I buy it, I start earning $1200 a month on it, so it isn't too bad. I could probably put 40% down and borrow the rest. Maybe this will kick start me on my plan to buy up real estate again. I know real estate isn't the best investment at the moment (or maybe it is since it is in a slump right now) but if I can get renters easily (the ad for a house for rent was only out a day on craigslist and we had a ton of calls for the place) then maybe it doesn't matter if the value of the place doesn't skyrocket. I would just need to make sure the rent coming in pays for the mortgage and hopefully a little extra to cover the taxes.
Actually, I just did the math, and if I took a 15 year loan at todays fixed interest rate, I would have monthly payments of around $850. That would give me an extra $350 a month. I could live with that.
Anyway, time to go get ready. I promised my grandmother I would drive her around today on her errands.
The last week and a half has been my first vacation this year, which means I still have 7 or so days to use before the year ends. I am planning on taking random days off here and there to burn them up. If I plan it right, using Christmas, New Years, and my every other Friday off, I could not go to work on any two consecutive days in December. I just might have to do that :)
My parents have talked me into buying my grandmother's Baltimore house from her. She lives in California with my aunts, and has been renting the place out for the past several years. It is only about a 5 minute drive from my parents place, and currently has renters paying $1200 a month. I haven't yet brought up the question of price. I sort of have an idea of what the houses in the area have been gone for in the past, but it is kind of hard to tell what it would go for now with housing sales slowing. I don't really think my grandmother needs the money, but at the same time, I don't want to be too cheap. The other thing is that since she lives here near San Francisco, she might have a higher expectation of what her house might be worth. Either way, as soon as I buy it, I start earning $1200 a month on it, so it isn't too bad. I could probably put 40% down and borrow the rest. Maybe this will kick start me on my plan to buy up real estate again. I know real estate isn't the best investment at the moment (or maybe it is since it is in a slump right now) but if I can get renters easily (the ad for a house for rent was only out a day on craigslist and we had a ton of calls for the place) then maybe it doesn't matter if the value of the place doesn't skyrocket. I would just need to make sure the rent coming in pays for the mortgage and hopefully a little extra to cover the taxes.
Actually, I just did the math, and if I took a 15 year loan at todays fixed interest rate, I would have monthly payments of around $850. That would give me an extra $350 a month. I could live with that.
Anyway, time to go get ready. I promised my grandmother I would drive her around today on her errands.