Pay For College Through Real Estate

Some students may not be able to afford to go to school. Colleges report financial aid requests are up sharply this year. According to Post and Courier, at The University of South Carolina there's been a 15 percent rise in the number of financial aid applications. Clemson says requests for help are up there by 30 percent. School officials say there's no way they'll be able to help everyone.
According to local financial advisors, parents and students need to get creative. For college students the thought of paying back all those loans can be daunting, especially considering the economic times when many people are graduating with out a job. Financial advisor Rick Abend says parents and students really need to be creative and take advantage of what's out there.
He says, "I had a student that actually graduated last year from law school. He now has 120,000 dollars in debt and he is figuring it out it may take his lifetime to repay those loans and he is questioning whether it was worth even spending that money." Abend works with the Zero College Debt Program. He says they will work with families starting in high school to develop a plan to help the students pay for college so they leave with little or no debt. He says, "I was able to work during the year and earn enough money to pay for college. That's not possible today." One way, he says is by owning property and generating income from rent while you are in school. It may sound scary considering the housing problems, but according to Abend college students and their parents can profit. He says, "Saving the cost of their student living in their property that somebody else is helping to pay for and then on the taxation side a lot of tax advantages. So dollars that they would have normally been paying in taxes can be helped to off set college." He also says they'll be first time home buyers so they can advantage of the new $8,000 tax credit. He says, "As they go through this process and graduate and get into the workforce it is an amazing change in these students and it definitely is life changing." So far he has more than one hundred students working with the program and says when they finish school they'll have less debt and an asset they can sell. If you are interested in the Zero Debt Program there is a free seminar in our area explaining the process and the team of people available to guide you.
The seminar will be at the Greenville County Library July 23rd starting at 7:30pm and 25th starting at 10:00am. It is located at 505 Pennsylvania Avenue Greer, SC 29650. According to the College Board the average yearly price for a four year in-state college including room and board is $13,589 dollars. That is up 6.6 percent in a year. For an out of state school the average cost is more than $24,000 dollars each year and it has gone up by 5.4 percent. If you are looking at private schools, the average yearly cost is nearly $40,000 dollars which is an increase of 5.9 percent.