by HouseHunting604 » Fri Feb 20, 2009 03:15:12 PM
I'm not much of a math whiz/number cruncher, so if anyone can offer any advice I would appreciate it.
My fiance and I have $120,000 we would like to invest in real estate in the Vancouver area. I'm wondering if anyone can advise what would (probably) be the best option financially up the road. I should add that we are paying a mortgage in the condo we live in and paid $90,000 as our downpayment (bought condo for $349,900 a year ago).
Option #1: buy a house that we would want to move into in a few years (when we have kids) and rent it out until then. Use rental income to pay mortgage. When the market recovers, sell our condo and use the proceeds to renovate the house. This would enable us to wait and sell our condo in a seller's market, without having to buy a house in a seller's market.
Option #2: buy a house that we would not really want to live in, that is on an extra large lot. Rent out to pay the mortgage. When the economy recovers, either sell the property or knock the house down and build something we'd want to live in. (Potential problem: often extra large lots in our price range have tiiiiny houses on them, so it could be hard to get enough rent out of them to cover the mortgage).
Option #3: take the $120,000 and pay cash for a condo. Rent it out and put the proceeds into a term deposit (or something). When market recovers sell this condo and ours and use the profit to buy the kind of house we want then.
Sorry if I sound clueless - I'm just trying to find our best option.