[George Bieniaszek]

My thoughts on buying a pre-owned with a bond balance VS a bond payoff is as follows.

If you are looking at two similar homes, similar age, for example, 2 CYV's. One is listed at $180K with a $12K bond balance and another listed at $190K with a zero bond balance, what would be the better deal? The seller has invested $12K to pay off the bond and will be looking at recouping all or most of that investment. The buyer will look at the zero bond home and either pay the higher price or borrow $10,000 more to purchase the home.

As in any upgrade or additional investments in your home, putting money into an upgraded kitchen or bathroom usually gets close to 100% of your investment back when selling. The other upgrades net 50% or less, as a general rule of thumb. Bond payoff is definitely an investment or upgrade to your property and will be reflected in the selling price.

What would I do with the $12,000??? Pay off the bond?, buy a new golf cart?, birdcage?, landscaping? All these options are available to you and only you can determine what the best bang for the buck is and how you spend the $12,000.