I wanted to call this series, “The Trouble With Real Estate” but then most people know what the “trouble” is:

• tight lending requirements
• huge supply of homes in deteriorating condition
• lack of equity

I could go on.

But that’s not what I wanted to write about.

The Paradox

On the one hand, the media and just about eveyone else in the world talks about your home – the place where you live or want to live — as being the biggest investment of your life. Yet, the amount of cold hard cash you put into the home purchase isn’t that big, really.  And, is your home really an investment?

When I think of investments I think of the stock market or a coin collection or something where I have a reasonable expectation of making a profit and, more importantly, that’s the main reason I’m involved with it. Investments are more like things. A home I come to every night is not an investment. A home where I can raise a family or develop a hobby or get to know the neighbors or get involved in the kids’ school is not an investment.

More Than Money

It’s really something more.  It becomes an essential part of my life.  A home is just that…a home.  It’s not something I’m buying and selling like beanie babies or vintage comic books.

Yet, most people have been convinced that a house is something you must seek to buy at the absolute lowest, rock bottom price so that it will appreciate. The quicker the better.

There is something very wrong with that mindset and it is creating a poisonous atmosphere worse than anything the banks and mortgage companies could ever hope to do.

This mindset is creating an adversarial relationship where none need exist.  It is creating cut-throat competitiveness where cooperation and collaboration would create a better outcome. It is fostering mistrust among home buyers and home sellers and the professionals they rely on to help them through a complex transaction.

A house you choose to live in is not an investment. It will be your home.