Below are informative videos designed to help anyone better understand local real estate market conditions and real estate investment opportunities.
Free College for Your Kids
Click here to see the model of how to pay for college through real estate
Transcript:
It’s your granddaughter’s 3rd birthday party. As she’s blowing out the candles on her cake, you remember just how quickly children grow up. Soon, she’ll be going off to college, and trying to cope with its cost.
It is estimated that in 15 years, when she arrives on campus, 4 years of college will cost $190,000
How can you help her pay that enormous cost?
Even if you were to invest 40 thousand dollars in a CD at a bank at today’s best rates, it would only yield 60 thousand dollars in 15 years, not enough to pay for even 1/3 of you granddaughter’s education.
Bonds are also likely to result in a disappointing performance, and with your granddaughter’s future on the line, stocks may be riskier than you are comfortable with.
Instead, consider investing in real estate. Here’s a scenario that will pay for her college. Use that 40 thousand dollars as a down payment on a $150,000 home.
Today in Anoka County, which is suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota this middle class house will rent for $1,400 per month. That’s enough to cover the payment on a 15 year mortgage and all the other operating costs.
By purchasing that one house today, and selling your investment in fifteen years, you would earn the $190,000 after taxes, among other benefits. This is enough to pay for all four years of your granddaughter’s education.
Now I’m sure you’re concerned with the hassles of being a landlord. Renting out a property involves finding tenants, collecting rents, making repairs, and other responsibilities.
Fortunately, we at Greenwell can help you find the right property and handle all of these duties manangement duties too. We’ve been Realtors and managing rental properties for over twenty years, and we do it well.
You can to have as much or as little involvement as you wish in the management of your property.
Best of all, the management costs have already been included in the calculations in this senario, as have allowances for vacancy, repairs and capital improvements.
In a nutshell, you can park 40 thousand in a properly chosen house today and in 15 years it will likely grow to 190,000. With good management these are solid, realistic expectations.
I have personally used this plan to pay for both of my children’s college education.
This is a house I bought when my son Jeff was seven. A late start. Nevertheless, here he is now, about to finish at SDSU.
His college is paid for, and so is the house. And, I’m still collecting over fifteen hundred dollars a month in rent with no mortgage payment.
This house I bought when my son Sam was three. He is starting at the University of Minnesota in this fall.
The house is paid in full, and if I sold it today it would pay for Sam’s 4 years plus a master’s degree.
Right now, in particular, this opportunity is especially vivid. In recent years, home prices have declined big time. Now we have perfect storm of low house prices, extremely low interest rates, and a surplus of quality homes and a surplus of quality tenants.
If you chose to do this your granddaughter doesn’t even have to know. Imagine the joy at her high school graduation, reading your letter about how the house you bought on her 3rd birthday will pay for her entire college education.
By taking action now, you can know that your granddaughter can go to college.
Please contact us, or click the link in the description, to see detailed documentation of the assumptions and calculations used in this scenario.
Dont Get Caught in the Pricing Trap
Transcript:
It is a fact that most property owners will choose to work with a real estate agent that provides the highest suggested list price for their home. Because realtors are paid on commission, real estate agents compete vigorously for your business. In the midst of this competition, many agents will, intentionally or not, suggest high initial market prices to their potential clients’ properties. Often, these prices are higher than their clients’ properties are actually worth.
As soon as an agent has signed a listing agreement with a client, the agent can work to lower the market price of the property as the seller becomes weary over time. Ultimately, a pricing trap results in longer marketing times, higher seller frustration, and a lower average sale price. When choosing a realtor, don’t lured by an inflated sale price.
Instead, choose the realtor with the most knowledge, experience, and skill. A professional agent will do his or her best to provide accurate price analysis from the start of the relationship, whether competing for the listing or not. Although a lower suggested sale price may not be what you, as a seller, want to hear, the fact is that, armed with actual information, you will have less frustration, sell your home more quickly and at a higher final price. As the seller, you ultimately set the listing price on the property. However, your agent will offer you pricing suggestions.
So, what is your best protection against a pricing trap? Examine the data a prospective agent presents you and ask tough questions to make them defend their recommendation. For many reasons, you may decide together with your agent to start the list price high intentionally as part of a marketing plan. However, you will be doing so fully informed, with full knowledge that a high price is part of your deliberate marketing S\strategy.
The pricing trap is a pitfall which all potential sellers need to be wary of when choosing an agent to responsibly represent their interests. By avoiding the trap of inflated price suggestions early on, you will experience smoother sailing throughout the selling process.
