Mortgage break-even point is crucial Experts call it the time when amassed monthly savings exceed the amount paid in points. Bob Walters is willing to shell out cash to get a rock-bottom mortgage interest rate. That’s why he always pays discount points. “I have never, in my history of being in the mortgage business, gotten …
Category Archives: Investment Tips
Anybody Home?
Anybody Home? Lance Ponton Jr. was a condo developer’s dream. In September 2004, he put down 10 percent deposits on five Harbour Island condominiums before they were even built. Ponton, 27, hoped to sell them for a big profit as soon as the building was finished and his deals closed. “But when it was done, …
Seniors consider reverse mortgage
Seniors consider reverse mortgage The Martins had plenty of money in the bank. Or so they thought. Robert Martin got cancer, and the bills started to pile up. Insurance helped with much of the costs associated with Robert’s treatment, but some still fell to the septuagenarian couple. Reverse mortgages are loans taken out on home …
With a Little Estate Planning, Your House Can Stay in the Family
With a Little Estate Planning, Your House Can Stay in the Family – New York Times CAUTION: Reading this article may provoke self-inflicted slaps to the head and utterances of “Why didn’t I do this five years ago?” In 1999, Farhad Aghdami, a trust lawyer in Richmond, Va., suggested to Jim and Yolonda Roberts that …
Continue reading “With a Little Estate Planning, Your House Can Stay in the Family”
Vacation home not exempt from real estate taxes
Vacation home not exempt from real estate taxes DEAR BOB: I own a beach condo, which I rented out last summer through a rental agency. This summer I want to use it as my second home, but periodically allow family and close friends to use it at a reduced rental rate to help with expenses. …
Continue reading “Vacation home not exempt from real estate taxes”
Rents increasing as office, industrial space remains scarce around S. Florida
Rents increasing as office, industrial space remains scarce around S. Florida Office and industrial space will remain scarce across South Florida this year, leading to higher rental rates and giving landlords even more leverage than they have now, two leading real estate brokers say. “I think people who have historically signed three- to five-year leases …
Continue reading “Rents increasing as office, industrial space remains scarce around S. Florida”