Buying a multifamily home is not for everyone, but there certainly are benefits to this type of purchase for many people. If you have any desire to be a landlord and have a great investment in the real estate industry, a multifamily home may be the way to go. This type of purchase enables you to live in one unit while renting out the remaining units, which means the renters help you make your mortgage payment every month. If you do it right, you should have money left over after you pay the mortgage, enabling you to sock that money away for a future home purchase – say your dream home. Once you purchase your dream home, you can rent out the unit you live in and have the mortgage on that property completely paid for; or course you can save for something else if you wish to stay where you are. Either way, once the multi-family home is paid off, you have a serious investment in the real estate industry which can help you when you are in your retirement years, helping your investment to pay off in a big way.
The Other Benefits of a Multifamily Home
In addition to the money you will gain by purchasing a multifamily home, here are a few other benefits:
- Tax deductions – We are all interested in ways to decrease our tax liability and owning a multifamily home is a great way to do just that! Because it is a business, you get many tax deductions that you would not get if you owned a single unit.
- Helping others – It might not seem like you are helping others when you are in trying to make money, but if you are able to purchase a multi-unit property and help others have a place to live that otherwise would not qualify for financing, you are doing good for others.
- You can hire out – You do not have to have intense knowledge of home repairs; you can hire out for the things that go wrong. Just make sure you stay within your budget and you should be okay!
- Multi-unit financing is easy to obtain – It might seem like multi-unit financing would be harder to obtain than financing on a single unit, but the opposite is often true. This is the case if you are purchasing in an area where rents are high and rent is in demand. This is in contrast to a single unit property where the lender is relying on your income along to make sure the mortgage payment gets made.
- One property manager is sufficient – When you own several different properties, each of which that need to be overseen, you might have to hire several property managers, which eats into your profits. When you own a multi-unit property, one property manager is all that you need, which essentially saves you money.
Real estate investing is a gamble, just like any other investment, but when you purchase a multi-unit property, the risks are not as high as you might think. The tax deductions, savings you get by using one property manager, and the ability to help others in a less fortunate situation are just a few of the benefits of purchasing this type of home. Most financing options give you the ability to either live in one of the units or rent the entire building out, depending on what you need. If you choose FHA financing, however, you must live in the property initially as FHA financing is not for investment properties, but living in one of the units makes the property a primary residence for you.
Justin McHood is America's Mortgage Commentator and has been providing expert mortgage analysis for over 10 years.
