5.19.2007

Cottage vs. Mortgage - PPV Fight

Earlier this morning, I was walking along the beach with my mom, and she told me, " There are two ways to get richer. Make more or desire less." Personally, I think it's actually easier to make more.
As we continued on our walk, Mom looked at lots of houses that she would have loved to own, but could not afford. So I set to work, thinking up different possibilities for each house or property we passed, thinking about how I could use the house and property to earn extra money, to help pay off a mortgage.

Something I noticed and had never really thought about before, was that lots of houses had little cottages that relatives would stay in when they visited. So what if you rented out your cottage? Lots of people will snatch up the chance to rent something at a low price (see example). But there are ways you can get around the "low rent or no rent" phase (I made that up, am I good or what?). A major thing that you could use for your advantage is that people will pay more if they're only staying there for short periods of time. An example is, you can fetch a room for a month for under 1,000 dollars if you rent per month, but if you stay in a hotel room for one night, it can easily cost 300 dollars. A third of the price, but a thirtieth of the time! So, instead of continuously renting out your cottage per month and only getting a little more than a thousand dollars, you can turn it into a B&B and make up to 150 dollars a day! But something more surprising: I did some research, and if you actually advertise the cottage instead of a B&B, you can make twice as much!
A cool perk that comes with the cottage package is that you'll able to brag to the Jones's about owning a cottage and a house! Don't let those Jones's push you around! Another perks towards owning a cottage on your property and renting it out is that you still only have to pay one mortgage! So you can make your regular payments, and then be able to add on the cottage's income and soon be mortgage free! Hopefully....

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

son your mom ain't too bright.

Its "small" things that make a big difference, not "make more" or "desire less".

Go grab yoruself a copy of the tipping point.

http://www.amazon.com/Tipping-Point-Little-Things-Difference/dp/0316346624/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-1294323-3409448?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179674831&sr=8-1

Anonymous said...

I find your blogs interesting and informative and was wondering your advice on an investment.
The Detroit housing market is low, would you recommend buying an investment property (only for land value) as a long term investment?