Buying, selling and renting property in the USA

For everyone one of the single biggest and best investments they can make is in property. This assertion may sound trite but it is in fact a truism. The younger one starts buying property the better it is and the greater the asset one may be able to accumulate over one's life.

It is fairly self-evident that in the US property has appreciated at roughly 5% per annum. Some years it may be less and some years, like the last couple, house prices may even go into a decline, but they will always bounce back again and continue their steady rise.

For example a fellow of 55 years bought his house at 30 for the most he could afford and that was $100,000 in 1985. He put down 5% with Freddie Mac and got a 25 year mortgage at 2.8% This he paid off steadily so now, 25 years later he has paid it off and owns an asset worth at least $350,000 for which he actually only invested $5,000 and over the years paid less than $200,000.

In fact that would be a very rare as most people will upgrade from the first house they buy at least once. A further point is that if he hadn't bought he would have had to rent accommodation somewhere. The rental payments would have escalated over the years and at the end of it he would not have had any asset to call his own.

Thus it is highly recommended that everyone save for a deposit and as soon as they can afford the down payment, have stable employment and a credit rating above 700 they purchase the best piece of property they can afford. This should be done even if it is not their dream house and they know that they will want to move very soon.

Now the property market is full of houses. In every town and suburb of this great nation there are realtors whose job it is to obtain buyers for the houses that they have on their books. Not anyone can become a realtor as they have to pass exams to join the association. And they obtain a fee from every deal they do.

That fee has to be taken off the purchase price so if our 55 year old guy wanted to cash in he would lodge his house with a realtor who would do his best to sell it for say $500 and settle for an offer of $425k. From that comes the commission. Nevertheless the guy is happy as he has made a healthy gain and can use it for something else.

But in falling markets very often people who are selling look for ways to sell their properties on their own. Some very attractive Online property listings are there which allow, at a very modest fee, anyone or any agent to list their property to negotiate their own deals thus avoiding the Agents commission.

For agents it is an ideal way to advertise properties without having to pay the massive costs of newspaper advertisements.