Rigby5
Diamond Member
Several of my tenants can afford to buy their own home, it's just they don't want to.
Home ownership comes with responsibilities, something our government has been stripping away from Americans for a long time now. People who rent don't want to deal with a broken toilet, a clogged drain, replacing a hot water tank, doing yard work or clearing the drive from snow. They just want to put their briefcase into the closet at the end of the day, put their legs up, and relax in front of the big screen; let those other menial chores be the responsibility of somebody else. They don't want to haggle with prices, they don't want to get estimates, they just want to call one phone number (the landlord) and all their problems are solved.
My nephew went to college. Graduated with a Masters and was already working a job he stayed with after graduation. He's a brilliant guy, but I doubt if he even owns a screw driver. He couldn't adjust a toilet handle chain if his life counted on it or snake a kitchen drain. He is renting a townhouse for $1750.00 a month, easily a mortgage payment. But in spite of his education and income, he doesn't have the ability to fix things around his house. The rent he pays takes care of all his problems.
Sure sometime renting makes more sense, like if you are only going to be living in that city for less than a year.
But frankly, anyone who can't use a screwdriver or a snake, can't be very bright.
Knowledge is accumulative from all aspect in life.
If you really know abstractions, then you can't help but also either understand or want to know everything to a degree.
Dealing with a clogged drain or replacing a leaking hot water heater is so obvious and practical compared to giving your money away to a landlord, that he has to have something wrong with him.
It is not a question of knowing how, but that you get mortgage payments back, with interest, due to general real estate inflation.
Paying rent instead is just the dumbest thing anyone could ever do.
That is voluntarily buying the house and giving it to the landlord.