Women and Real Estate

If you don't already own a home, there are so many reasons to from a financial perspective: 

• build equity
• save money on taxes and use your equity as back-up security 

Equity is the ability to increase the difference between your home value and the amount you owe on your mortgage.

Moreso, as a woman there is an even important reason, it is a tremendous source of security for your future. 

Many women that own real estate have seen success in other parts of their financial lives as well! 

This could include renting out spare rooms for additional income.

If you already own a home, you should think about paying down your mortgage a bit more each month or year. 

If you are married, this will only increase the value of your assets towards your retirement. 

In fact, it is an opportunity to become more active within the financial realm of your life. 

By becoming interested in the insights of the financial details of how it works (i.e. through paying off your mortgage earlier, refinancing when rates lower or appraising the home when values rise), it can lead to taking more of an interest in other areas of your family's personal finance. 

For women that end up alone, either through divorce or widowed, owning a home can provide tremendous financial security. 

It provides options that provide security later on in life such as: tapping into the value of the home, getting extra income or taking advantage of the increased value. 

Since real estate prices have gone up so much these last few years, partially due to low interest rates, you might be thinking that you can't afford to get into the real estate market where you live. 

You can look in other areas. 

For example, central CBD locations have become prohibitively expensive. 

Therefore, many people are buying homes in the outer suburbs and have already seen property values rise. 

Or you might be thinking that you don't have enough saved for a down payment. 

Many people don't believe in mortgage insurance, the reality is that this may be worthwhile to enable you to purchase a home. It is likely you will see this money returned as the value of your home may have gone up so the insurance is money well spent.

If you don't do anything about it, you still won't have enough saved for a down payment. 

The alternative options is that you could buy a small 1 bedroom apartment and rent it out. It doesn't always have to be the home you need to live in.

My first investment property was a 1 bedroom apartment in a boutique development in Melbourne's CBD in Australia. I have since purchased further investment properties and have not lived in any of them.

I am a "rentvestor" which means that I rent myself and buy houses to rent out to others.

If owning a property is aligned to your goals, the key is to just get started!