The answer really isn’t yes or no, but it depends. It all depends on your situation. If you have some money saved up from living at home for years, then no. However, if you don’t have enough income built up to buy your dream home, you may want to look into a starter home.
Regardless, even if you’re in a position to buy your dream home, if you know how to navigate the real estate market and increase the value of a home, it may not be a bad idea to look into a starter home as well. It can only make you more money in the long run.
Whether you are navigating Arlington real estate or some other area, there will be options for both starter homes and forever homes.
Let’s dive a little deeper into why you might want to buy a starter home.
Can’t Afford Your Forever Home
This was already mentioned in the opening, but it’s the most common reason for buying a starter home. You can find a decently priced starter home that will equate to an affordable mortgage payment. What this does is allows you to still go out on your own, but still save money long term.
By doing this, a few years down the road you can possibly sell your starter home for more than you bought it for and move on to your forever home.
Which leads us to the next point.
A Desire to Invest in Real Estate
There is money in real estate. Some people say it’s a better investment than putting money into the stock market. In point one, you may end up killing two birds with one stone. You will save money and then make money.
Even if you can afford a home that you can see yourself in forever, it still may be smart to buy a starter home first. If you do some TLC to the starter home and increase it’s value, you may have just made yourself some easy pocket change when you go to sell.
This could even help you buy not only a comfortable forever home, but an actual dream home.
The Market Isn’t Desirable
The stock market and real estate market are unpredictable. While there are some people out there that study the markets and predict different things, it’s like the weather, nothing is for certain.
However different economic factors affect the market at different times. Take the COVID-19 pandemic for example. The market is hot and pricing is through the roof. It’s just not the right time to buy your forever home as it’s likely the pricing comes back down to Earth eventually.
Rather, you may choose the cheaper route and buy a starter home at a cheaper price.
