OWN YOUR KID'S COLLEGE HOME ONE PARENT'S STORY: $4,000 FOR 3 YEARS OF HOUSING KATHY FETTKE & DONNA BEHRENS
Kaaren Hall of Irvine, California, is a
single mom with two kids in college. Her
business, uDirect IRA Services, helps
people selfdirect their IRA’s to invest in
alternative assets, like real estate. She’s
seen many investors get creative with
their investing, so decided she would
too.
While she has a successful business
helping people selfdirect their Kaaren
Hall: Hall has 20+ years of experience in
mortgage banking, real estate and
property management. In the midst of a
recession
and
mortgage
market
collapse, she founded uDirect IRA
Services to help people “selfdirect” their
IRAs.
Her daughter Lauren is going to UC Berkeley outside of San Francisco, and her son Mitchell is going to
Kansas State in Manhattan, Kansas. While she couldn’t find a solution to the high cost of living in the San
Francisco area where starter homes cost about a million dollars, she was able to help her son buy a home in
Kansas for $144,000. And because Kaaren was a former mortgage broker, she also knew how to get creative
with loans. She and Mitchell only had to come $4000 outofpocket.
Financial Solution to College Housing Expenses
The low home price is only a small part of this financially elegant
solution to her son’s housing needs. Their story begins two years ago
in 2015. They bought the house with 3.5% down on an FHA owner
occupied loan. Mitchell was the primary borrower and Hall was the
nonoccupant coborrower. They offered $147,000 on the home, got
accepted, and put down $1,000 in earnest money. The additional
$3,000 was used for closing costs. The total upfront cost was just
$4,000.