Housing by campus

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There is this condo buidling being built beside my universiy campus, and I am thinking of buying a condo as an investment. I could rent it out for more than a room on campus is worth simply because it is extremely close to campus (2 minute walk max from bedroom) and is not a part of campus, so campus policy is not enforced in the building.

If I rent this out, I could make enough money to pay the morgage and than some, and I could live in it during school terms if I had to. Now I just have to talk to my dad about getting the condo, and research the costs.

I'm buying one as we speak, 2 bed, 2 bath and a garage. Overall pretty nice.

Fee's include actual cost - plus taxes on the land, plus Mortgage insurance, and don't forget your HOA fee.

But basically I'm getting the condo about half price. So my payment for everything (water, insurance, and taxes included) .. is around 500$ a month.

But lately things are starting to move, people are buying... houses are selling. Construction is restarting. If they're building those condo's they probably expect prices will be going back up on real estate and such (that is if they did go down in your area). So if you wait 6 months until they finish you might end up paying quite a few pennies more for them... *shrugs*

Mortgage insurance, do not get it through the bank, the banks are notorious for the way they underwrite so that they never have to pay out. Go look at mortgage insurance through a group like Sun Life. I would link you a video of how the banks do mortgage insurance, but I don't have the video bookmarked. Basicly banks do underwriting at death, so if at any point right up until you died, if you could be disqualified you would, and the questionaire they give you for making your profile is purposely made misleading, so you fill it in with errors so they can disqualify it, and there is a lot more. See someone from a group like Sun Life just to see what they offer and compare it to what the banks offer in your area. Insurance is designed to take away the financial pain when some passes/gets ill, so that the family can mourn the emotional pain without worrying about how they are going to be able to recover finanially. The banks where I am are absolutly notorius about insurance. Do your research before you get that.

Actually as far as I know PMI is what I pay so the bank is safe. Funny, huh? If I die it doesn't help anyone, other than the bank if no one takes over the payments.


PMI plays an important role in the mortgage industry by protecting a lender against loss if a borrower defaults on a loan and by enabling borrowers with less cash to have greater access to homeownership. With this type of insurance, it is possible for you to buy a home with as little as a 3 percent to 5 percent down payment. This means that you can buy a home sooner without waiting years to accumulate a large down payment.

(source :---------------http://www.frbsf.org/publications/consumer/pmi.html#benefits)

When I purchase the home I'll probably have 22% equity already, so I'm hoping to actually cancel out the PMI before I even get into the home. Dropping my payment to 450 with everything (hoa, insurance, water, etc)