Why Paying OFF A Mortgage Is NOT Necessarily Smart

[Wendell De Guzman]

For those of you fans of leverage or using the bank's money...here's a provocative blog post: Why It's Not Necessarily Smart to Pay off Your Investment Mortgage

What do you think @Brandon Turner , @Ben Leybovich and other landlords out there?

[Jerry W.]

In theory interest only is great, that theory kind of popped in 2008.  Without some decent equity guys with 200 to 300 houses worth millions went broke.  Why pull more cash out?  Why not pay down as much as possible every month.  When you need money for the next purchase use the equity you have built up by paying your loan down.  If you put it in the bank you earn maybe .25% interest in savings.  If you did loan pay down you saved yourself 5% interest on the principal you paid down.  Interest only is nice but fast loan pay down makes you more money in the long run.