When you bought your home, did you ever think it could be a financial tool? Many homeowners don’t know what they have in terms of their home’s value. As an indicator of how critical your home is to your financial portfolio, it’s something that factors heavily in your net worth.
If you’re a homeowner in financial straits, your house could be the very thing that comes to your rescue. In addition, your home can also be part of your retirement plan. The key is to know how to use home equity wisely and take advantage of the opportunities it provides. Your home isn’t merely an investment, but it’s also an investment tool. Continue reading to figure out how.
You can use your home to pay for your retirement while you live in it.
One of the things people most look to as they approach midlife is retirement. However, when you stop working, that doesn’t mean the bills will stop rolling in. Retirement is expensive, and without the income from working, you could find yourself struggling to enjoy your retirement. Even retirement funds have been known to dry up, and the Great Recession of 2008 depleted a lot of people’s retirement funds and pensions altogether.
With a reverse mortgage, you can get the funds you need for retirement by using your home to guarantee the loan. The amount of the mortgage loan depends on your home’s value.
A reverse mortgage is similar to a home equity loan in many ways, but the main difference is that instead of the balance of your loan going down over time, it increases. That’s because you don’t pay the reverse mortgage out of pocket the way you would make a monthly payment on a regular mortgage loan. Instead, borrowers pay for the reverse mortgage when they no longer live in the house. Whether you sell the home or live in it until your last breath, the home’s value is what pays off the balance of the loan. You do, however, still have to pay the homeowner’s insurance and property taxes.
It’s essential to be wary of reverse mortgage scams that prey on elderly people and on those who don’t know anything about home equity. There are even financial institutions who’ve been caught in scams where they strong-arm unknowing homeowners out of their equity in their home and then snatch their house right from under them by claiming foreclosure.
Before taking out a reverse mortgage on your home, it’s imperative that you do your due diligence before choosing a financial institution with which to use your home to secure a mortgage loan. Also, bear in mind that when you pass, you won’t be able to leave the home to your heirs. It will go to the company that extended you the line of credit.
Mortgages are also investment tools.
The mortgage market is one of the things that lead to the housing industry crash in 2008 and the subsequent great recession. However, the housing industry has made a comeback, and investors are once again buying mortgage loans from banks. This type of investment is known as mortgage-backed securities, and they work similarly to bonds.
When banks lend money to homebuyers, they have the ability to bundle mortgages into investment packages and sell them to financial institutions. When people make mortgage payments, the revenue goes to the financial institution rather than the actual lender.
Investing in mortgage-backed securities is a great and lucrative way to diversify your investment portfolio, but as we learned in 2008, it can be a risky investment strategy as well. When a mutual fund takes on a pool of mortgages, there’s the risk that the homeowners won’t be able to make mortgage payments. In this case, you lose your investment.
You can use your home equity to pay for home improvements, another property, or a vacation.
If you’re in the market for home improvements, home equity loans are one of the main ways people cover their renovations. The best thing about using your home equity to remodel your house is that you’re using your home to increase your home’s value. Many property investors also use their home equity to purchase an investment property.
Most people use home equity loans for larger purchases, but you can use them for anything, including seeing the world. If you’ve been wanting to take a tour of Europe, taste the cuisine, see the sights, do some shopping and go crazy on berets, designer shawls, and wide calf boots, you can use your home equity loan for that, too. However, you don’t want to be too frivolous as it is your home equity you’re spending. Even if you Loe those calf boots, they might not be worth risking the value of your home for.
If you’re going to use your home as a financial tool, it’s best to learn all you can about the pros and cons before contacting a financial institution, finding the best interest rate, and signing your name on the dotted line. Your house is probably the most significant investment you’ll make in life, and you don’t want the value of your home to go to waste.