Buying with Cash vs Loan

Buying with Cash vs Loan

Member since 2019 · 6 posts · 2 votes

Hi there - I'm Stephanie, a relatively new BP member! After doing a lot of research, I'm at the point where I'm looking to start buying my first property. As I've started to think about how to finance this property, I'm debating whether it makes sense to buy in cash if I have the means to, or still get a loan to acquire the property if the eventual plan's to refinance most of the money out later anyway. (My current plan is to follow the BRRRR method and buy and hold for the long-term.)

With regards to cash, seems like advantages include: 1) making the acquisition potentially easier / more straightforward since I don't have to deal with financing, 2) lowering the cost of potential over-runs with rehabbing since I won't have to pay the additional loan interest in the meantime, but disadvantages include: 1) tax implications of drawing out more of my own money and needing to pay more capital gains on the stock I'd have to sell. 

With regards to getting financing, seems like it's generally flipped - advantages include: 1) using less of my own money upfront and being able to take advantage of more leverage, but disadvantages include: 1) making property acquisition more complicated + expensive upfront, 2) risking needing to pay more in interest if rehab ends up dragging out for longer than expected. 

Thoughts on going with either direction? Am I thinking of this the right way? 

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  • Rental Property Investor · RVA · Member since 2016 · 5k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    7y

    Debt is historically cheap right now, and as real estate investors, debt allows us to increase our ROI by increasing our purchasing power. Your interest expense does go up if you spend more on rehab. However, most failed flips are due to the investor running out of money and having to sell (or getting foreclosed on by a lender). If you go all cash, your reserves to handle overruns are that much smaller.

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