BIRDHOME Austin Real Estate Consultants | Keller Williams Realty

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Breaking Free From Low Interest Rate Shackles: Creative Solutions for Homeowners

A few alternatives to selling your home amidst higher rates.

Have you heard anyone talking about the low interest rate golden handcuffs? Essentially, there are a lot of homeowners that would like to move, but they feel trapped by their sub-4 % interest rate that they don't want to give up. It's a big issue affecting our market right now. 90% of mortgage holders have an interest rate below 3.5%, which is about half of what interest rates are now. Therefore, let's talk about three things you can do instead of selling: 


1. Become a landlord. You can keep your current home with a low interest rate and then just rent out the property. Then you can buy a new home, and there are a lot of deals to take advantage of in today’s market. Plus, there are a lot of tax incentives involved in being a landlord. Overall, it's an amazing way to build wealth.

“You have options if you don’t want to sell.”

2. Get a home equity line of credit (HELOC). This is essentially a loan against the equity you have in your home. This could help you buy an investment property or even improve the home that you’re in. 

3. Build an auxiliary dwelling unit (ADU). This is essentially building a guest house on your property. These can help you build wealth without having to sell your home. Therefore, sometimes this is a better way to go. A lot of older homes already have a way to add an exterior entrance to a couple of rooms. Then you have two doors for the price of one. 

As always, if you want to know more about these strategies, don't hesitate to call me. I look forward to talking with you soon!