Maybe You Shouldn’t Take Advantage of the Down Market

Yes, that’s right, maybe you shouldn’t take advantage of the low prices and interest rates currently bringing the price of real estate to an all-time low. Why someone would tell you not to buy if you have the income and credit rating might be strange, but it’s true. Sometimes it’s better not to buy in a down market.

A market like this one is ideal if you want to live in your home for a few years, at least, but it’s an awful time to invest in a home if you think you will be moving on and don’t want to risk renting the place. Unless it’s a luxury home, it’s got a good chance of selling for less than you bought it, leaving you thousands of dollars in the hole.

This is also not a great time to “flip” homes. Everyone has a friend who has a friend with a cousin who “made a killing” by flipping homes. That might have been true several years ago, but it’s not necessarily true now. You would have to make serious improvements to quickly increase your equity on a home these days, and unless you put your money where it will do the most good, many of these “improvements” may never pay off in terms of selling price.

If you can handle a few months of no income, you could try renting homes, but if this is your “get free money” idea, forget it. Rental properties require regular maintenance to remain in good shape in the best of times and the risk of bad renters or no renters can make this difficult. You can’t be living from month to month, depending on the proceeds from the rent to pay for a property; you need to have several months’ worth of mortgage payments to stay safely prepared for when there are no tenants or renters damage the property.

If you have a good plan for your property and the wherewithal to carry it through some lean times, you will probably find property ownership to be well worth your time and expenditures. However, if you enter into property ownership thinking that you are going to “get rich quick”, your property will not be such a blessing. While it is tempting to buy now, when the home market is becoming more accessible to people with tighter budgets, you must examine your motives carefully and see whether they are going to result in the outcome you desire.