I hope everyone had a lovely Easter and Spring Break! I'm so ready for this warmer weather! Tis
the season for Home Shopping! In this issue of "Have you Heard?" I'll be discussing the reasons
why you could own instead of rent as well as easy ways to save a little cash. Find a delicious
spring recipe on the back page, and the Active and Closed stats for your neighborhood. I hope that I
am providing some useful information. If I can be of any service to you, please do not hesitate to
call, text, or email.
,
434-203-3904 (Cell)
[email protected]
Text “BHHSJessicaHeard” to 87778 to download
my FREE mobile app!
Jessica Heard, Realtor
110 Oakwood Drive, Suite 110
Winston-Salem, NC 27103
?
W ITH J ESSICA H EARD
R ENTING VS . B UYING
FOR YOU ?
A HOME :
W HICH
IS BEST
Sara Woznicki, a 25-year-old Richmond, Va., native, How can you decide if you're financially and
spent most of her young adulthood sharing rentals mentally ready? "Before you consider buying a home,
with two or three roommates. When she realized it speak with a mortgage banker," says Ann Sugai-
was time to go out on her own, Woznicki crunched Inouye, a Chase mortgage banking retail executive.
the numbers and found that a mortgage payment "They are the experts and can show you how much
would be about the same amount as paying to rent. your housing expense will look like compared to your
For Woznicki, making the leap came down to income."
mathematics and one big question: "If I liked However, she points out that it's not simply an
Richmond enough to want to live here for a few more apples-to-apples comparison between your current
years. I realized that I did, and I was emotionally monthly rent and what a potential monthly mortgage
ready to buy," she says. What also prompted her to
take the leap: the investment value of becoming a
homeowner. "Rather than pay over $1,000 to a
landlord, I am essentially paying that to 'future me.'"
Sometimes, the numbers work out in your favor
when you upsize to a home. According to Trulia's
Rent vs. Buy Report, buying a home turns out to be
23 percent less expensive than renting in 98 out of
100 of the nation's top 100 markets.
Crunching the numbers
So what does that mean for you? Renting versus
payment will be. "When you're buying a house, you
do want to have some money set aside for repairs
and maintenance," says Sugai-Inouye, something
renters generally don't have to worry about.
"Financially, it makes more sense for me to rent than
buy," says Staten Island, New York resident
Christine Goutmann. "Because my rent is less than a
mortgage in my area, I can use my money toward a
better quality of life and to travel. Plus, as a single
person, it's also nice to have a landlord to fall back
buying is a very personal choice. But set emotion on, like when your hot water keeps disappearing and
aside. "As soon as you get a mortgage, you become a it turns out you need a new water heater," she says.
real estate investor," says Whitney Nicely, a
Tennessee real estate expert, adding: "You're
building your portfolio every month, paying the
principal of that house and building long-term
equity."