How have you used real estate to help your children?

[Kayla Johnson]

One of the reasons my husband and I are looking to get into real estate is to be able to give our kids a boost in some way. We’re new, like brand new, don’t have our first property yet (aside from our home).

We have a 17 year old and 3 between 1 and 6 years old. Since we’re just starting out, I don’t know that we’ll be able to do much for the 17 year old aside rent to her at cost for some time if we have an appropriate property for it. 

I recently learned that a contractor I play ball with has helped all three of his daughters buy houses at 18-19 years old, helping them to secure a good deal on a house needing work, at a price they could afford. (I got the impression that me made the majority of payments, but not because the girls weren’t, because he was able and wanted to.) He used his business to put in about $15k of work at cost into each house. If the girls lived in the houses for at least 5 years, they were allowed to keep all the profit when they sold the house. I thought this was a pretty great plan. He’s making sure the girls are in a nice house, in a decent area. They are “stuck” there for 5 years if they want that money, not moving around with roommates or boyfriends. They are responsible for maintenance and payments, and they come away with a good profit when they decide to sale (after at least 5 years).

I know one of the strategies for benefitting your children is to buy a house to be paid off when your kid turns 18 and sell it to pay for college. That’s also not really feasible for us. 

What are some other ways you all are using your involvement in real estate to give your kids a boost?