Should your first house be a duplex?

By Dane Smith
There is a lot of talk about getting your first house. It’s part of the American Dream to get a house and maybe get a dog named Rover. But maybe someone’s first home should instead be a duplex. Why would I propose such a thing? Is it possible I am a secret Russian spy that hates American pie? No, there are simply too many advantages to buying a duplex first.Buying a duplex has a number of financial advantages over buying a house. A lot of people assume that duplexes would sell for about twice of what a house sells for in the same neighborhood. This is rarely the case. Duplexes are more frequently about 1.5 times the price of a house in a given area. So to pick an easy number if a house is selling for 100k then a duplex should be selling for 150k. So let’s compare buying a house to a duplex. To keep things the same let’s assume we have 20k to put down and we are looking in the Austin real estate market so that the taxes are 2.5 percent of the purchase price and insurance is 0.4 percent of the purchase price. 1. Lower Monthly PaymentTo start off with let’s look at the house. For the house we are going to have a 6.5 percent interest rate. We can use this mortgage calculator100k house price20k down paymentMonthly Payment = $747.32Moving on to the duplex. Since duplexes usually have higher interest rates we are going to assume a 7 percent interest rate. We are also going to assume that the other side of the duplex is being rented for $650.150k duplex price20k down paymentMonthly Payment = $1184.18Rent Payment minus 5 percent vacancy = $617.50Monthly Payment minus rent = $566.68The monthly payment on the duplex comes out to be 31.8 less than on a house. You might get different numbers based on your area. In most areas a duplex leads to a lower monthly payment but there are a few real estate markets where the opposite is true do always run the numbers. 2. Increasing Your Future Real Estate Purchasing Power Besides the advantages due to a lower mortgage payment there is another advantage over buying a duplex first. Buying a duplex first allows you to make additional purchases while buying a house first can negate your ability to buy additional properties. To understand why this is the case we need to understand a few rules about how banks determine whether or not to provide loans. When you are purchasing your first investment property banks will usually not count the rent as income unless you have owned investment properties for over 2 years. So if a buyer first buys a house and then wants to buy a fully rented duplex they will need to be able to qualify for the full price of the house and the duplex combined. This can be difficult especially for someone in the beginning stages of their career. If a buyer purchases a duplex first, in 2 years when they are looking for a house they can count the rent from the duplex as income which can help them qualify for the bigger house purchase. 3. Faster Payoff Another interesting way to look at it is that if instead of simply spending the saving you incurred by owning a duplex if you were to pay off your mortgage faster. So if you applied $747.32 to your house it would take 30 years to payoff. But if you paid your duplex of $566.68 and then took the additional $180.64 and applied it to your mortgage you could pay off your duplex in 18.5 years. So in 18.5 years you would have a $150k duplex paid off instead of a $100k house partially paid off. 4. Greater Benefits of Mortgage Payoff Not only will you pay off your duplex faster but once you paid if off you will be in a better position. Once you pay off your house you are living mortgage free but not payment free. Based on the original assumptions (Austin Texas 2.5 percent tax rate and 0.4 percent insurance rate) you are still making a payment of 241.66 a month for taxes and insurance. In contrast once the duplex is paid off you are not only living in your duplex for free you are actually getting a profit of $255 a month. Buying a duplex is not for everyone. Some people do not want the hassle of managing a property. And our article is not proposing that everyone should buy a duplex. But there are financial benefits to buying a duplex so take it into consideration.
If you are looking to purchase a home or duplex in the Austin Real Estate market Ki can help you in your search. Ki is an Austin Realtor with a long history of helping clients purchase personal and investment properties. His website has a search of the Austin Homes.
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Dog Training - Sick Dog Symptoms

By John Williams
Every dog has to go through it, every dog most probably hates it as much as anyone else does, but the fact of the matter is that your dog will show sick symptoms once in a while and will become ill. This is natural for a dog or any other animal, they all get sick and there's nothing anyone can do to prevent it. On the other hand there are ways in which you can ease the suffering a bit for your dog and help them get the fast paced recovery they deserve. There are probably many different home remedies for helping you dog get better, but often if any are going to work then it will be the suggestions or medication your vet will give your after a diagnosis of your dog, so when you fear your dog is ill you should take them to the vet as soon as possible. Ok, so let's now look at some of the more popular of the hundreds of symptoms that your dog may be feeling. Not wanting to move Many dogs when ill wont want to move very far, have pain in moving, refusing to exercise, limping or has signs or injured paw/leg, or just general decreased agility. Theses can all be signs of illness or injury and should be watched out for. Discharge This may seem an obvious choice but many dog owners fail to notice discharge from eyes, nose, and ears. These should only normally be a worry if the discharge is coloured. Appetite A dog's loss of appetite is a good well recognised symptom of illness as well as over eating without weight gain, sudden weight loss, or diarrhoea. Keep an eye on your dog's diet and food habits to make this easier to recognise when it happens. Itching and Scratching Itching or scratching and trying to rub themselves up against furniture can be symptoms of bad skin or new pests on the scene. At this time your dog may be feeling ill or unwell or have it to come. Mouth Problems Bleeding or soar looking gums, along with discoloured teeth or teeth loss all need to be diagnosed properly by a vet and could be due to a more serious illnesses.
John Williams website owner. For more information on dog behavior training visit the dog-behavior-training.co.uk website at this link...Dog Training.
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How to Remove Dog Ticks

By John Williams
Ticks are a nasty little arachnid pest that attach to your dog and can be very irritating and soar for your pet. They carry many different diseases that can be mildly dangerous to your dog and other members of your household. Some diseases take up to twenty four hours to pass on to their host so getting rid of the pests easily and quickly is essential. There are a lot of ways that you may have been taught as a child to get rid of ticks from the skin, the most popular is probably to burn the tick into releasing his grip of his own accord so no further problems can arise of having the jaws still stuck into the skin. The second way often taught to get rid of ticks is to smother them in oil based liquids of Vaseline to help take the tick out in a similar fashion to the way noted above. These ways are both wrong and can be very dangerous, the first is dangerous, can be painful for your dog and will more than likely scare your dog into behaving in a bad manner. The second is also dangerous and unneeded, the idea is to keep your skin and around the area of the tick as clean as possible to avoid further infection or disease. The way to remove the tick properly and with little damage or pain is to use sterilised tweezers to dislodge the critter, it takes patience if the tick is stubborn and doesn't want to move but it is the safest way to remove the pests. Be careful not to pull on the ticks body wile pulling him out, if you pull too hard on the body it will come off separate to the jaws and mouth of the tick causing it to be harder to dislodge. Start by cleaning the tweezers with alcohol or burning over a flame if alcohol is not available. You may want to also put alcohol around the area in question to keep it clean. Once this is done try to get as close to the skin of the dog and grab the tick at the jaws, to do this you will need to place the tweezers from the side into position. If the tick refuses to budge, try moving from side to side to unhook the jaws wile pulling away from the skin. Doing this and keeping constant pressure on the tick will cause him to tire and give in, releasing the tick in one go. Finnish off by cleaning the area with alcohol or soapy water and you job is complete.
John Williams website owner. For more information on dog behavior training visit the dog-behavior-training.co.uk website at this link...Dog Training.
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