You have decided to buy your first home in San Diego. This is great news! The first thing that comes to mind is, should you buy a Single Family Home, a Condo, or a Townhouse? These are all great options but let’s not forget about another great option. What about buying a Duplex or a Triplex? These are great investment strategies to think of.
There are a lot of advantages in homeownership with buying a Duplex for Sale in San Diego. Having someone else help pay for your mortgage is one of these advantages that owning a Single-Family Home does not have.
Below are some of the reasons and advantages and why you should consider buying a Duplex instead of a Condo, Townhouse or even a Single-Family Home:
Mortgage Relief
When you apply for a mortgage, banks will have lower interest rates if you will be occupying the home as opposed to someone who is buying a home to rent out. Also known as a non-occupied loan. When you apply for a loan to buy a Duplex or a Triplex, they still consider this an owner-occupied loan since you will live in one of the units. You will also qualify for a larger loan because the other units will be helping you pay the mortgage loan.
Tax Write-Off
One of the beauties of homeownership is writing off the mortgage interest when having an owner-occupied property. However, if you own a Duplex or a Triplex, you cannot write that off on the units that you don’t live in. Still, you can write off other things such as the cost of any repair done to the other units, the cost of managing the other units and the costs that it takes to get those units rented out. Other costs would include if you share the electric, cable/internet, and water.
Short Term Rental Vacation Rental
You may not want to be a long-term lease landlord. Being a landlord is not for everyone. You may not want to live in such close quarters with a tenant. Another option is to use the other unit/units as Vacation Rentals. This side business can bring in a lot more money than a regular long lease tenant would. It would also give you the flexibility of not having the same tenant for such a long period. You can even open it up to family and friends who would like to visit town and visit on occasions. You may also want to keep it as a home office. This, of course, takes you back to tax savings and something to discuss with your accountant.
Duplex Investment Strategy
Ok, so you’ve lived in your home for 2 years, and you feel good about being a landlord. You can now go out and buy another duplex or triplex home and use the rental income from the other units to qualify for the loan. As long as you will move into the new property, you can get another owner-occupied loan and benefit from the lower interest rates. This is a great way of creating and building wealth for your future with residual income.
Buying a Duplex with 3.5% Down Payment
You can buy a Duplex Home with as little as a 3.5% down payment. As long as you are going to live in the home, you can apply for an FHA loan, which is a great way of getting into the market. Yes, they have MI (mortgage insurance)that you have to pay, but this is the cost of doing business. Once you can prove that you have 80% equity in the property, you can speak to your lender and re-fi out of the FHA and eliminate the MI insurance.
For more information on how to get started with buying your first Duplex or Triplex home in North Park, South Park or any other neighborhood in San Diego, contact the McT Real Estate Group right now.
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