Real estate is often a person’s largest asset, but many homeowners never learn how to incorporate it into a broader strategy for building and preserving wealth.

In this presentation, Kurtis Kooiman draws upon 30 years of experience in residential lending and real estate to explain how homeownership, mortgage planning, investment property, and home equity can work together as part of a long-term financial strategy.

There is no single approach that is right for everyone. Paying off a mortgage may be appropriate for one homeowner, while another may benefit from maintaining liquidity, purchasing investment property, investing conservatively, restructuring debt, downsizing, or responsibly accessing equity. The appropriate strategy depends on financial habits, cash flow, risk tolerance, family circumstances, short and long-term goals.

In this presentation, attendees will learn:

• How real estate can help build, access, and preserve wealth

• Why the right mortgage strategy depends on more than the interest rate

• How liquidity, cash flow, appreciation, equity, and leverage work together

• The potential benefits and risks of refinancing and accessing home equity

• The differences among traditional mortgages, HELOCs, home-equity loans, and reverse mortgages

• Common misconceptions about mortgages and home equity

• How to evaluate whether buying, selling, holding, investing, downsizing, or paying off a mortgage makes sense

• The questions to ask before making an important real-estate or mortgage decision

Attendees will leave with a clearer understanding of the role real estate can play in their financial future and a practical framework for evaluating their available options.