In the past year, the couple Avital and Yaakov Segan-Cohen from Haifa developed a new hobby: establishing a private real estate company. Avital, who was a guest on “Money in the Wall” – Globes’ real estate investment podcast – explains that their unusual step was accompanied by quite a bit of thought. “We are in our fifties, that’s why we decided to start right now and start a company that will own commercial properties.” The two, who are mainly familiar with the residential world, are now busy accumulating knowledge about the commercial field. “The state pretty much limits the ability to return on residential apartments, but in commercial real estate the game is different. We learn about the field in courses and by reading and listening to podcasts.”
In 10 years do you see yourself with a company that has profitable assets, and this will actually be your pension?
“Right. Our pension and employment.”
Why not do it the usual way, set aside for retirement and savings plans?
“Because it has no value. A training fund invests the money in the stock market and I don’t know what will happen in the future. Look now at the falls on Wall Street. I also don’t like to let other people invest for me. I invest for myself, and investing in securities is not the kind of thing I want to do In them now. Maybe the numbers registered in the bank tomorrow will be deleted, or the state will decide to give less to the elderly through social security. I don’t know what will happen. But if you have blocks – they are yours.”
“We build the program and then add the children”
Deputy Cohen tells about the beginning of the journey: “At a certain point we sat down with a sheet of paper and a pen and began to consciously plan how the group would get to the apartments for the children.”
Who is this group?
“The group is us – our nuclear family. We treat it as a business for everything. There are five people and we hold this event together. In the first stage, my husband and I sat down with a sheet of paper and a pen, and later on the children enter the program – to learn it, understand finances, understand banks and everything needed to produce this ‘building’ for them.”
And from paper to reality. In the first stage, the couple purchased an apartment with a benefit given to young couples. “Approximately 30 years ago, the state gave two gifts to young couples. The first thing is a state grant for those who buy an apartment in the outskirts and hold it for a certain period of time. The second thing is the possibility of taking 95% of its mortgage.”
With a little equity they bought an apartment in Karmiel. “We bought the apartment in Karmiel for about half a million shekels, and we sold it for a million. We bought two apartments in its place: one for 1.7 million shekels and another, smaller apartment in Nesher was purchased for about 600,000 shekels,” she repeats and explains that the small apartment was purchased on purpose in a location that is in the sights of students
“We belong to the old generation. And money is slowly coming”
In recent years, the couple and their two sons who have passed the age of 18 have purchased two apartments, mainly with accumulated funds and loans. “We belong to the old generation. We have been working for many years at our workplaces and little by little money is starting to arrive. We saved from salaries that started to rise, and once every six years there are training funds, from which we took the money,” she explains.
Alongside this, Avital says that in recent years the family members have specialized in renovation and some of the work they were required to do in the apartments they bought they did on their own, thus saving a lot of money, which among other things helped in the plan to purchase apartment number 3 that was bought for one of the children and registered in his name.
The fourth apartment was purchased for a son who is studying at the Technion, and its mortgage actually “replaces” the rent for them. Her mortgage is paid by Avital and Yaakov. “The youngest daughter is 16 and a half and I can’t buy an apartment in her name. We are currently waiting with more money sitting aside, and as soon as she turns 18 we will do the same process,” explains Avital. According to her, buying apartments and financing school fees are the basic things that parents should strive for for their children.
“The family needs to know how to create, among other things, the financial future of the children, not only at the level of building them a house, but teaching them to cook, teach them to sew, so that if they ever need to do something, they will not need a cleaner, a laundress, a caregiver, and in fact no one.” , she says and expands: “We’re not rich people. We just think it’s part of our parental responsibility.
“By the way, we are not saying anything special. The groups that we define as weak, such as the Arab sector and the ultra-orthodox sector, do this all the time for their children. There are groups that do not find it strange that when a child gets married, the parents take care of his housing, for example by building another part of the house It’s something ancient.”
A vision that is not suitable for every family Eric Mirovsky, Commentary
The state knew how to help the apartment buyers in the past. During the great immigration from the countries of the former Soviet Union, there was a space loan for those who purchased apartments in the periphery, part of which became a grant. There were also the Negev Law and the Galilee Law that gave income tax relief to those who worked and lived in the periphery.
Today, the benefits come in the form of subsidizing the price of the apartment through programs such as price for the resident and apartment at a discount. Only here there are certain limitations. You have to participate in the lottery, and you may not win or you may win a place you don’t want or an apartment of the wrong size.
Today people need to be more sophisticated. Avital’s story is very interesting. She took the family and tied them to some vision that suits them, but it doesn’t suit other families.
The family founded a company for the holding and management of real estate. It is not easy. It requires experience and expertise – which they have accumulated. Each of the family members has areas of specialization, so the family may have started with the idea that each member of the family would have their own apartment, but along the way they accumulated Significant skills for holding and managing assets that may later help them develop financially.
Avital Sagan-Cohen
personal: 50 years old, married + 3, lives in Haifa
professional: Supervisor at the Open University
Something else: Writes in a drawer, reads a lot, mostly science fiction