Thursday, February 16, 2012

Jim: Love's his bank, but they can't "get" what he wants to do...

Have you ever gone into your bank and the banker didn't understand what your financial goal was?  I'm working with Jim, a professional who wants to keep the current property he lives in as a rental and then buy another, more modern home to live in.  His bank couldn't understand why he wanted to do that.  Of course, Jim's a smart guy because he knows that the rental property will help him financially with his retirement.

When Jim came into see me (a referral from a local lawyer), he was frustrated and was almost ready to give up on his plans.  About a half an hour later we determined that he had about $55,000.00 equity that he could extract from his current home valued at $270,000, and put about 10% down on the next house he wanted to buy.  The great news for Jim is that he made a wise decision when he bought his originally house 6 years ago.  The house was in a perfect spot for a rental - close to most amenities and centrally located.

Within another half hour we determined that the rental should have a longer amorization, to keep the cashflow high and also to limit the tax implications sometimes associated with the principal pay-down on a rental.  A five-year fixed rate was a good choice here. For his new primary residence we set the amorization shorter to help him pay this mortgage off in 20 years on a weekly accelerated basis.

What took Jim almost 2 weeks to negotiate with his bank, took me about 1 hour to do.  Let's just say Jim's story has a happy ending! :)

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