[ZTWsquared]

2001 ZTS,Apr 24 2007, 10:48 AM Wrote:If I were in the market I wouldn't hold off to get a 25% or even 20% downpayment, go for it as soon as you have 10% together would be my recomendation especially with the interest situation.

I was considering a second property myself in the west end just last year.
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x2 ... with a caveat ... don't wait BUT do whatever you can - and I mean whatever - to reduce the amount of time it takes to pay off the mortgage.

Shop rates aggressively ... get a smaller house ... buy a fixer upper ... move further out of the city ... double your payments (or max pay whatever they allow) ... pay weekly instead of monthly ... a year or two saved will result in tens of thousands in your pocket and not the banks.

A second property is a good thing to consider as in investment, especially if you can avoid the tax implications of it not being your primary residence.

My wife and I have two rental townhouses that we bought using the equity in our primary residence ... they basically pay for themselves and at the end of the day we will own property that cost us essentially just the down payment, and it will have increased in value according to the real estate market ... and it won't be long before we can use the equity in those properties to buy more ...

but all that was predicated by being very aggressive about reducing the time and therefore the interest paid.