Do I stop investing in real estate and buy my family a home now?
My wife and I took a chance in 2013 in buying a duplex as our first home in a not so good neighborhood in Vermont that has appreciated well. We fixed up our side quite a bit and dealt with evictions on the other side. It’s been stable now but we feel that we have out grown the duplex. The layout isn’t great and the neighborhood still has its quirks (drug dealing, theft, airliners flying right overhead). Since then, we borrowed against our equity to buy other another property eventually paying back our loans. This past summer we did a big rehab on a duplex that took a lot out of us emotionally. We have some money in our Heloc to either buy another investment property or just buy ourselves a house that does not need massive work, good neighborhood and is energy efficient. Price is around $400k for something decent right now locally. Taxes would be about $9k.
My issue is if we stop and move into a single family, our ability to continue to build our real estate portfolio essentially disappears. It would be a few years until we have enough of a down payment for another investment. My dream is to eventually stop working full time and retire us on the portfolio. My question for BP is, at what point do you reward yourself and put RE aspirations aside?
Concerns:
- Adding 5 years to our life goals.
- Rising Interest Rates.
- Less upside in a single family these days.
- Pulling back considerably on a comfortable lifestyle to make big mortgage payments.
Thanks in advance, BP.