Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, where we answer your real-world money questions. In this episode:
Learn how to think about major homebuying decisions like shopping for title agencies, managing home equity, and when to buy a house with cash.
How do you choose the right title agency for your home purchase? Should you buy a house outright with your savings or take on a mortgage? Hosts Sean Pyles and Sara Rathner discuss the pros and cons of these key housing decisions to help you make smarter choices. They’re joined by housing Nerd Kate Wood to demystify title agencies, offering tips on what they do, how much they cost, and why most buyers don’t shop around for them. Then, they discuss the risks and benefits of tapping into home equity or using savings to buy a house outright. They explore strategies for weighing mortgage options, the importance of maintaining an emergency fund, and balancing emotional and financial goals when purchasing a home.
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Episode transcript
This transcript was generated from podcast audio by an AI tool.
Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast. I’m Sean Pyles. Today we are reaching into the special Smart Money archival box. It’s acid-free and lined in gold. Just kidding. Our archives exist in digital only. And we wouldn’t waste our hard-earned and well-saved money on gold lining anyway, right? If you are a loyal listener, you would know that we would never do that. But this month we are bringing you some of the highlights from 2024, some of our favorite listener conversations and favorite coverage for a special series that is the best of Smart Money.
Today we’re looking back at the issue of housing. High prices and high interest rates have kept a lot of folks on the sidelines this year, but we followed all the trends and provided a ton of advice on how to navigate the market. So here’s a review of what we all learned and need to know about housing as we head into 2025.
Welcome to NerdWallet’s Smart Money podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius Nerds. I’m Sean Pyles.
And I’m Sara Rathner. If you have a money question for the Nerds, call or text us on the Nerd Hotline at 901-730-6373. That’s 901-730-NERD. Or email us at [email protected].
Follow us wherever you get your podcasts. And if you like what you hear, please leave us a review and tell a friend. This episode, we are taking on a few of your housing-related questions in a lightning round, and we have housing Nerd Kate Wood joining us for this nerdy journey. Kate, welcome back to Smart Money.
Thank you so much for having me back.
All right, let’s get into the first question. This one comes from Mark who sent us an email. Here it is.
“When buying a house, we carefully selected a Realtor, then carefully selected a bank to originate the mortgage. Then when the Realtor draws up the offer paperwork, suddenly there’s a new company in the mix, the company that will handle escrow and the title transfer. The paperwork will tell you that you don’t have to use the title agency the Realtor is recommending, but when you’re getting ready to sign the paperwork, it’s too late to step back and see if the title agency is a good one and if what they’re charging is reasonable and competitive. On the last offer I made, I even had to sign a disclosure that the realty company and many of its employees have a significant financial stake in the title company. I’d love for Smart Money to talk about this and how to shop around for a title agency in advance just like we do for other companies involved in the transaction.”
Buying a house is a complicated process in part because there are so many people and companies involved. Can you please quickly explain the role of the title agency in the homebuying process?
Sure. So in a nutshell, the title agency goes through public records and they just make sure there is nothing fishy with the home’s ownership. They’re looking to see that the house or the home has a clear title, which means that it is the seller’s house to sell, no one else can make a claim to it.
So when I was buying my home, actually, the title agency found that there was a former occupant who owed a bunch of back taxes, which was a big yikes. Luckily for me, it turned out that that person had just lived there. They didn’t have an ownership stake, they weren’t on the title. But if they had been, I could have been dealing with the IRS and a tax lien, and it would’ve been a lot hairier.
It would not have been fun, no.
No, not at all. And so this is kind of what you’re paying for with the title company. The listener mentioned the company handling title and escrow. So title companies sometimes do escrow, which is just being the third party that holds onto your deposit during closing, but that is not always the case.
Title insurance, which they don’t mention and which is related, is something else that title companies are often involved with. And that covers any title claims or defects, anything that would come out after the initial title search is done. That way you can’t have someone crawling out of the woodwork later, claiming they’re like a long-lost heir of the previous owner and it’s really their house. And there are usually two separate title policies. Lenders generally will insist on lender’s title insurance in order for the transaction to go through. Buyers title insurance is more optional, but it’s generally recommended.
And how much does the title agency typically charge?
Title fees vary pretty widely because it depends on what’s being included. So the home seller is actually usually going to pay for an initial title search, and that’s pretty minor. That’s like $75 to $200. What the buyer is going to be paying for is the title settlement, and that can cover a lot of different things. So as mentioned, that could cover escrow, which comes with a bunch of fees. It could cover notary fees, preparing the deed, real estate attorney fees. For me, that was the thing I paid the most with.
And you might or might not see those itemized when you’re looking at the bills. So depending on what’s included and also the complexity of the search, that all could run to a thousand plus dollars. Title insurance is separate. So again, there’s lender’s title insurance, owner’s title insurance. Getting both of them from the same company can sometimes save money. And the total cost of both those policies is usually like 0.5% to 1% of the sale price of the home. So say it’s a $300,000 property, that’s $1,500 to $3,000. So all in, you’re probably looking at a few thousand dollars. That’s a decent chunk of your closing costs. But again, it’s going to vary depending on the cost of the home, the complexity of the title search, and what services are included.
We talk a lot at NerdWallet about the importance of shopping around when making a financial decision, but the homebuying process is so lengthy and can be so exhausting that many might not want to shop around for yet another person to do this relatively small part of the process. Do you think it’s worth shopping around for a different title agency? What do people really stand to gain?
Saving some small amount of money, having some small amount of peace of mind, but very few people are shopping for the title agency for all of the reasons that you mentioned.
So when you are looking at your loan estimate, you will see all the estimated title costs listed under the section that says “services you can shop for.” So it is like, yes, you can go out and see who you want to work with. But again, hardly anyone is shopping for these because once you’ve had an offer accepted, your mortgage application’s been submitted, all of your incentive, all that energy is really going toward closing the deal, just like, “Get to closing.” And so taking the time to suddenly step back and research a title company or research something like a home inspector, these different providers that kind of show up during the closing process, you just don’t have the time, right? And you often don’t have the energy.
So if this is something that you really want to do, you are actually much better off doing it well before you’ve reached this stage so that you’re not holding things up so that you can research. In the case of a title company, you’re researching a company that’s going to do research.
So while you’re kind of still in that daydreaming phase where you’re just spending a lot of time scrolling through houses online, spend some of that time going through these different companies, look into different title companies, look into home inspectors, look into these different service providers so that when it does show up, you kind of know what you’re looking for or what you’re not looking for. You can have some kind of preference when the different things are being suggested.
The one other thing that I would mention that the listener brought up was their example of the real estate agency and the title company having some kinds of financial ties, anything like that where there is that kind of conflict of interest. If that’s coming up during any part of the homebuying process, that could possibly raise some red flags for you, it is okay to step back and be like, “Oh, hold on, maybe let’s not go there. Let’s hit pause.”
That’s fair. But otherwise, for most people, this is going above and beyond the regular shopping around for a mortgage, real estate agent, that type of thing.
Okay. Well, I think we should all be honest here. You guys are homeowners. I’m a homeowner. Did you shop around for your title agents when you bought your houses?
Nope, not at all. As I mentioned, I had a positive experience with my title company. Everything worked out for me, but absolutely, absolutely not. I don’t remember who they were.
Honestly, you have so much decision fatigue that I didn’t shop around for one blessed thing. I just let the Realtor lead me around like a confused baby lamb.
But hey, you got your house.
I got my house and I’m happy. And we refinanced later on. It was fine.
I shopped around a lot for my mortgage. I got five quotes. It was also the pandemic, so plenty of free time on my hands. But the title agent wasn’t even on my radar of things to shop around for in part because I hadn’t been through this process before. I didn’t know that I would need to consider a title agent. And honestly, when I buy my next house, whenever that happens, if it ever happens, I don’t know if I’ll shop around for it because decision fatigue is very real. You got to prioritize the important things, not something that isn’t as significant, potentially.
All right, well let’s move on to our next question in this lightning round, which comes from Amy who emailed us a voice memo. Here it is.
Hi, Sean and Sara. My name is Amy, and my partner and I are looking for advice on real estate investment. In February 2020, I bought my first home. All things considered, it’s an older home, but it has worked for me and now for my fiancé. The 3.75% interest has made it a great living situation for us, and I even get to do some gardening, which I need and love.
Fast-forward to this fall when I was offered a sort of dream job in Seattle, Washington. Compare that to where I’m living in Albany, Oregon, which thankfully does not have Portland prices. The Seattle job’s pay is technically better, but it doesn’t quite make up for the cost of living difference. The dilemma we’re facing is what to do with our first home. Ideally, we would want to keep it as a rental home to allow the investment time to grow. The problem is that we don’t have enough in savings to put money down to buy our next home. We’re actually renting in Washington until we figure out our next steps.
So my question is this: Since I purchased the home, it has grown in value by more than $100,000. It’s now worth almost double what I have left on the cost of the loan. Is there a way for me to use the equity in my home towards the down payment on another home in Washington without having to sell? And even if there is a way, is it even advisable?
We decided to rent out our old home for the next year, then we’ll reevaluate our situation and hopefully have a better idea of our homebuying expenses in 2024, 2025. Saving has been challenging for us, and because of this, we’re looking at the equity in our old home as possibly the only avenue to afford a new home in Washington. While homebuying is a major goal of ours, I also like the idea of keeping our old home as an investment for our future family. So what are our options and which options make the most sense? Do we need to try to decide soon before rates go down and the market is flooded with buyers? All of these are questions that we have. Thank you so much for your help.
All right, Kate, let’s start at a high level. What do you think about Amy’s investing idea? Is it wise, or is it potentially risky?
Anything involving home equity is inherently risky because we’re talking about loans where failure to repay could result in losing the home. But if you are on the wealth-building side of TikTok, you might be hearing this and thinking using equity from house one to buy house two is something that people do all the time.
Yeah, that said, it’s not totally unheard of. And Amy’s situation reminds me of something that I heard Barbara Corcoran from Shark Tank say one time, and it’s that one of her only regrets in her career is selling properties that she could have held onto. Because you have this asset, you might as well make it work for you. But that said, it is quite risky as you pointed out, Kate. And if I was in this listener’s situation, I would want to make sure that I had a really, really beefy emergency fund before I did this — enough to cover all of my expenses, including this additional debt, for at least six months.
Well now let’s turn to the main part of Amy’s question: how to tap the equity in their home. What options does Amy have?
Pretty much the standard options for accessing equity. So one is to do a cash-out refinance. That’s where you refinance your original mortgage for a larger sum and then you get the difference between what you owe on the original mortgage and that larger mortgage in cash. The other option would be to take out a second mortgage. And so second, mortgage-wise, we’d be talking about a home equity line of credit, commonly called a HELOC, or a home equity loan.
The biggest difference between doing a cash-out refi and doing a second mortgage, whether it’s a home equity loan or a HELOC, is that with a cash-out refi, you only have one loan. But interest rates have gone up a lot since 2020, and Amy’s going to lose that 3.75% mortgage rate since prevailing rates are higher now. Cash-out refi rates also tend to be higher than purchase mortgage rates since cash-out carries more risk for the lender. So it’s going to be a higher interest rate on a larger loan amount. With a cash-out refi, you are going to have refinance closing costs as well. That’s usually 2% to 6% of the amount that you’re borrowing. So that’s that total larger amount again. Closing costs with a second mortgage, with a home equity loan or a HELOC, are usually lower. They’re about the same percentage-wise, but because you’re borrowing a smaller amount of money — since the cost of your original mortgage isn’t included — 2% to 6% of, say, $50,000 is usually a lower sum.
So how else does a cash-out refinance compare with a second mortgage?
Well, with a second mortgage, as the name implies, you now have a second loan. So in this case, Amy would be keeping that original mortgage that has the low interest rate but would now also have another loan on that property. And that loan would probably have a higher interest rate, both because prevailing rates are higher and because lenders consider second mortgages inherently riskier. So again, they tend to have higher rates, too.
Like I said before, that interest is on a smaller sum of money. So there’s some math to consider here. In terms of if we’re looking within second mortgages, the differences between a home equity loan and a HELOC: A home equity loan is like a one-time lump sum payment that usually has a fixed interest rate. It’s pretty much a straightforward loan. The biggest difference is that it’s secured by your house.
A HELOC is a revolving line of credit, and so that’s usually more meant to be used over time. You have a credit limit, you borrow money as you need it, you repay it over time. And HELOCs usually have variable interest rates, so that can kind of fluctuate as the market goes up and down. Because of the sort of “Oh, pay as you go or take money as you need it,” people most often use HELOCs for big renovations or a lengthy home repair where it’s like, “Oh, something else comes up and now we have to pay for that too,” that kind of thing. Whereas with a home equity loan, you’re saying upfront, “Okay, this is how much I know I want to borrow and I’m borrowing all of it right now.”
So Amy could use something like a HELOC for a down payment on another house. And, I mean, this sounds like it could be potentially a savvy financial move, but again, also risky, and this is not something I’ve ever done myself, so it’s a total mystery to me other than the stuff I see on TikTok. But what questions should Amy and their partner work out before they make this decision? What’s their budget for housing? Do they want to be landlords? All those types of questions.
So there’s definitely a lot for them to consider because I just went through a whole bunch of stuff, but that was just how can you access the home equity. And that might actually be the easier part of the equation here compared to using it.
So I was mentioning renovation, and usually with a cash-out refinance or a second mortgage — because your home is securing the loan, because there’s that foreclosure risk — at NerdWallet, we do tend to recommend using liquidity from home equity to accomplish goals that put you in a stronger financial position. And so things like a home renovation, something where you’re working to increase your home’s property value, rather than something like going on a bucket-list vacation.
Right. And buying another house could be a move that puts Amy and their partner in a stronger financial position.
Oh, I mean, potentially, yes, absolutely, right? Buying a second home, having that first home as an investment property, could totally put you in a stronger financial position. But using your equity to buy the second home is a whole other deal. That’s kind of where my hesitation is coming from here.
So even if you’re keeping the first home as an investment property and the second home’s going to be your primary residence, to a lender, when you’re going to get that loan to buy your new home, that is still a mortgage for a second home. So that’s more risk for the lender. That’s a higher interest rate. Even though it is going to be your primary residence, this is not a distinction. They’re not going to split hairs with you on this. This is a second home. So you are going to be held to higher lending standards. You’re going to need a higher credit score. Both people, assuming both people are going to be on the mortgage, both people are going to need really strong financials. The lender might require a larger down payment, so having cash on hand from accessing equity could definitely help with that.
And because they’ll already own the first home that they’re keeping, that home, which also might now have two mortgages on it potentially, or one very large mortgage if they do a cash-out refinance, you’re now carrying a lot of debt. And so in order to offset what might now be a fairly steep debt-to-income ratio, Amy might need to be able to show the lender that they can get significant rental income from that first home in order to offset that debt. So ideally, that would be something like a signed lease, which they might have because it kind of sounds like they were renting it out now. It could also be a rental appraisal of comparable properties in the area, “This is kind of what rentals are going for, this is what we’re going to be able to get hopefully.”
That’s a really good point about carrying a lot of debt. Amy and her partner could potentially have three mortgages if they go this route. And even one mortgage can feel like a lot to stay on top of. But beyond that, they would also be a landlord, which is its own set of responsibilities.
Absolutely. There are so many sort of “Do you want to be a landlord?” questions. Do you want people calling you in the middle of the night because something’s gone wrong? Do you want to be driving back to Oregon to deal with a maintenance issue? Or do you want to be paying someone in Oregon to be the person who answers that phone, who deals with those maintenance issues, who does all that for you, and then that’s eating into the income that you’re getting from that property?
So not to answer for you, Kate, and put words in your mouth, but reading between the lines here, it seems like you are a little wary of this idea.
I’m not trying to be discouraging. I just want to be realistic that this isn’t just like an, “Oh, easy money” kind of thing, right? No matter what you might’ve seen from, like, a finance bro on TikTok. Again, we’re talking about maybe having two homes with three mortgages, a lot of money borrowed. We’re also talking about a lot of interest. And so even though your first home was an inexpensive home, once you’re borrowing against it, that inexpensive home is now more costly, right? Because you’ve got a larger loan and you’re paying more interest. So really kind of doing that short-term math and that long-term math, figuring out what’s going to work for you.
Yeah. And like you said, Kate, this is not an easy route to go. And this could be a moment where Amy would want to consult with a certified financial planner, especially one who is experienced in real estate investing. This would help them get another person’s perspective on what opportunities and risks are part of going this way. And it will show them whether it’s really feasible with where they are right now or if they might be better off going a different route.
Well, Kate, thank you so much for coming on and talking with us.
No, thank you for having me. Always a pleasure.
We are back in a moment with more Smart Money. Stay with us.
We’re back and answering your real-world money questions to help you make smarter decisions about your money. This episode’s question comes from Lena, who emailed us their question. Here it is.
“My husband and I are hoping to buy a house and stop renting, but the interest on houses is very high. I hate to see how much of the mortgage is going to the interest on the loan. We do have the opportunity to buy a house outright, but it would take all our savings in our high-yield savings account. We’re getting about $350 a month from interest in our savings. So using that money to buy a house would get rid of that, but we wouldn’t have rent and we could save up very fast to get that money back where it was probably within a few years. I know it’s not ideal to put most of your money in a house, but in our situation, do you think this is better than paying a high monthly mortgage for 15 years? Thank you for your help. Love the podcast, and I hope you all are doing well.”
To help us answer Lena’s question, we are joined by mortgage Nerd Kate Wood.
Thanks for having me back.
So we’ll get to Lena’s anxiety-inducing question about using all of their savings to buy a house outright in a moment. But first, I want to talk about interest rates. That’s been the big story in the housing market over the past few years.
I really feel like we need to let go of the idea that mortgage rates could go to rock bottom again at any minute or that that’s where they should be. This was really an anomalous circumstance during the pandemic. And for what it’s worth, interest rates on mortgages are still among some of the lowest interest rates that you’re going to get if you’re borrowing money.
I get where our listener is coming from, though. And another big factor that makes the current interest rates intimidating is that homes have just gotten so much more expensive over the past few years, so I don’t want to minimize the impact of interest rates on affordability, but Kate, you are right that compared to historical rates, what we’re seeing now is not unheard of.
Yeah, I mean if I could jump in for a second, something that I keep trying to emphasize to people is that yes, mortgage rates are bad, but rates are just the storyline villain here. Home prices are the actual villain, right? If you want to look at something over time and how it’s changed and is it way out of whack with what should be reality, it’s home prices.
So going back to individual home buyers, for many, a difference in interest rates of just a few points can mean the difference between being able to afford a house or not. But if our listener is in a place where they can buy a house outright in cash, I’m wondering if they may be getting a little too hung up on the interest rate thing. What do you think?
In a word, yes. Although I think also, too, something that’s getting lost here is the decision about where to live isn’t just a financial decision. Obviously, it’s a financial decision in that this is a tremendous amount of money. It might be the largest transaction you make in your life. But it’s not only a financial decision. It’s also a really emotional and really personal one because this is your home, this is where you’re going to live, right? It’s not just an investment.
Yeah. I also think it’s worth thinking about how an interest rate is really just the cost of having a loan. And in the case of having a mortgage, that would mean that this listener would be able to hold on to some of their savings and, I don’t know, maybe enjoy their life, go on vacation, fund the inevitable repairs that come with owning a home instead of having all of their cash tied up in a house.
Okay, well, let’s address the big question head-on. And since we do not give specific personalized financial advice on this show, I’m going to turn the question over to you two, Sara and Kate. Would you spend all of your savings to buy a house outright instead of maybe getting a 15-year mortgage? And why is the answer a resounding no?
Well, there are kind of multiple reasons that it’s a resounding no. And I would point out this isn’t about, “Oh, that we’re using cash to make this purchase.” This is about the idea that you would be using all of your savings, that you’d be using all of your money.
So even if we’re talking to folks who are getting a mortgage and they’re just considering, like, “Well, in order to afford the house I want, I’ll pay for the down payment, the closing costs, all the other things that come up. I’m going to be spending every single dime of my savings to do that,” our general advice is like, “Don’t do it, buddy.” Because there are, like Sean was just saying, so many things that come up when you buy a home, whether it’s unexpected repairs or just a billion trips to the home center because you need more painter’s tape or potting soil. The expenses just mount and mount. And they might not be huge dollar amounts, but you need some kind of income to deal with them. So really, whether you’re talking about buying a house in cash, which if you can do it, that makes you a super competitive buyer, or if you are saving up to buy a house with a mortgage, our consistent advice is that you don’t want every last dollar tied up in that because life happens, things happen.
Yeah, I cannot stress enough not just how expensive it is to buy a home in the first place, but to maintain the home, to furnish the home. If you drain your savings just to get into that home, it’s going to sit empty and broken until you rebuild your savings back up.
And the listener does mention, “Well, if we don’t have rent anymore, we can build our savings back up pretty quickly.” And I don’t know what their full financial picture is, including income and other sources of funding that they have, but for, let’s say, the average person, you’re not going to be able to build your savings back up as quickly as you might think because there’s always another crisis. And it’s not just with your home, but also just your life. There could be a medical crisis or something else that eats into your savings.
Keep in mind that typically, rent is the most you’ll pay for your housing in a month, not including utilities, whereas a mortgage is typically the least you’ll pay. Add onto the mortgage the utilities, the maintenance, the repairs, even just the nice decorative stuff that you want to do — it’s constant. The money is constantly bleeding from your account.
I also don’t want to give the impression that it’s never a good idea to buy a house with cash. If you have enough cash to buy a house and plenty of other cash sitting in a savings account that is liquid and accessible — first of all, congratulations, I’m a little bit jealous of you — in that case, you might be fine. But with this listener’s situation, they’re discussing draining all of their savings to buy a house, which is extremely risky. If you don’t have any cash in your savings, you’re basically asking the housing gods to flood your basement or drop a tree limb on your house or something. It’s just always a smart idea to keep a decent amount of savings liquid for the inevitable repairs that do pop up when you own a home.
Absolutely. I mean, the other thing to think about too, so say someone in this situation were to move forward with buying a home and getting that 15-year mortgage. Given the amount of income or savings that they’re talking about — of being able to buy the home outright — they could make a very substantial down payment, right? They could even go above 20%. They could make a 25% down payment. At that point, you’re not dealing with private mortgage insurance. You are probably, assuming their financials are solid, potentially getting the best rate that any lender is going to give you.
And when you are paying down that mortgage, you can keep paying extra toward the principal to pay it down even faster and start cutting months and even years off that loan. But at the same time, because you did not put every single dollar that you have into that house, you can be dealing with anything that happens. You can be dealing with a non-negotiable like must-pay-for-this-now emergency like a plumbing catastrophe, or thinking about longer-term goals, like making sure your retirement is fully funded, right? But you’ve got that money to use and to do things with.
So Kate, our listener is focused on two options that you mentioned just now when it comes to paying for their home. Option one is buying a house outright, and option two is getting a 15-year mortgage. But these are not the only ways to buy a house. So can you talk through some of the other options that our listener has for financing a home?
Mortgage-wise, there are other options. So if their priority is strictly, “I want the lowest interest rate that I can get in this current environment and I want to pay off this home as rapidly as possible,” they could potentially talk to a lender and get a mortgage term that is as short as 10 years. Now, that is going to come with, again, assuming your other financials are very solid, probably the lowest rate that a lender will be willing to give you because that’s not a lot of time for them to have that funding tied up in the loan.
But at the same time, remember that the monthly payments then are going to be extremely steep because you’re paying off a larger price over a much shorter term. When Sara was talking about the difference between rent payments and mortgage payments and how much those would be, that’s really with a 30-year traditional mortgage because when you’re spreading out your cost over decades, it’s going to be a lower cost per month.
Well, let’s talk about that traditional 30-year mortgage. How does that fit into the other options?
A 30-year mortgage is actually still a pretty good option. Like yes, your interest rate will be higher than if you had a shorter-term loan, but your required monthly payments are again going to be significantly lower because you’re spreading out the cost over such a long period of time. And that can actually allow for someone in this situation where it sounds like there’s potentially a good amount of income, a good amount of assets, a fair amount of flexibility. So if you’re having a month where you’re like, “I really didn’t spend that much, I’m feeling good about everything,” you could just pay down a big chunk of your principal and just immediately be like, “I’m knocking out part of this mortgage. I’m taking down the amount that I owe.”
But if you have a spot where you’re like, “I kind of need the money for something else,” whether it’s something dire and crucial or it’s like, “You know what? I really want to take an awesome trip, and it would be great if I could just buy these tickets outright instead of putting them on my credit card,” then you can do that, and you are still making your required monthly mortgage payment, which is nice and low and super, super manageable.
So because the required monthly payment on that 30-year loan is going to be a lot lower than what you get with a 15- or a 10-year loan, you’re going to have that sort of extra cash on hand, and it could help you feel more flush.
All right. Well, Lena, if you’re out there, I hope we have given you some things to think about as you make your decision when it comes to whether or not to buy a home or to keep renting. So Kate, thank you so much for joining us on Smart Money.
No, of course. Thank you for having me.
And that’s all we have for this episode. Remember, listener, that we are here for you and your money questions, so send them our way. You can call or text us on the Nerd hotline at 901-730-6373. That’s 901-730-NERD. You can also email us your questions at [email protected]. Visit nerdwallet.com/podcast for more info on this episode. And remember to subscribe, rate, and review us wherever you’re getting this podcast.
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