Owning A Home Is Just Renting From The Bank

This is not my meme, nor do I feel like it suggests. I just came across it and it irritated me to no end! So instead of commenting on their post, and arguing with an internet troll who hides behind a fake profile, I decided to write my opinion here. I don’t know why it bugs me so much. Maybe its my utter dislike for the clown emoji. No, I’m not afraid of clowns. 🙂

This is not the first time I’ve seen this or similar. It keeps popping up in my newsfeed. It talks about how you own a house, but you have a mortgage. So really, you don’t own the house. The bank owns the house and you’re just technically renting from the bank. And it’s actually a great point of view, which I never thought of it in those terms, but I don’t actually agree with that sentiment. I just understand where it’s coming from. 

Disclaimer: Yes I’m a real estate agent and I get paid to sell houses. That’s my chosen career, but I won’t beat you down to get you to buy, especially if it’s not in your best interest. Some people don’t want to be homeowners and that’s ok. I’ve rented and owned, while I prefer to own, the times I rented made sense and I have no regrets. You will never hear me scream on the rooftops….Now is the best time to buy, because that’s a personal choice, not one that should be decided due to a particular real estate market or real estate agent that can climb rooftops.

Back to the meme….Renting and buying you have a monthly payment, unless you paid cash or paid off your mortgage. Or paid your rent in advance. 

Now as someone who has rented and has owned houses, I’m gonna be very blunt. I’m not renting squat with the house that I own now. Yes I have a payment on it, but in no way shape or form is it the same as renting. If I don’t pay, I don’t stay. That’s very true, but I don’t have to go to the bank and say hey bank, can I paint my walls coral, change my mind, because I hate the color, then change it again. By the way, that’s not me, that’s my wife. True story. 🙂 Or, hey bank can I rescue that 6th almost 7th, OK maybe almost 9th cat, and not have to pay a deposit. Can I go get a dog without having to ask permission from the bank? Can I upgrade my house? Put new flooring in, new cabinets new countertops, things like that without having to ask permission…….. no I don’t. I also am building equity in my house and yeah they’ll be times where the market is up or down but overall, if you keep your home for a long period of time you’re gonna build equity. I acknowledge with renting you have a lease you could be done in a year. No strings. You don’t have to worry about selling your house. It’s done. No repairs to worry about.

Storytelling time. Like I’ve mentioned I’ve rented and I’ve owned. The times that I rented there were specific reasons. When I was in high school my housing situation changed, and we had to move. I had to change high schools halfway through my junior year, and it sucked. New school, new friends, leaving my old friends, and the scenario behind that was not great, but the move was the best thing. So I already decided if I was to ever have kids that I would make sure once I get them to high school, if not sooner, they were gonna finish at the same high school. No matter what. We did end up moving at one point into a rental from owning a home. That’s another story. As years passed with that rental my daughter made friends and established where she was, so we stayed in that rental until about a month before she graduated. Then we bought a house and I just took her back-and-forth to school at that time. So for me if anybody came to me and said hey, you should buy a house, I’ll help you buy a house. I would be say no thank you right now. I don’t wanna move. I don’t wanna go out of the school district. I want to stay put. If some real estate agent was coming to me and kept on bugging me about buying I would get mad, because I had my specific reasons, and no one was changing that. So that’s how I approach things if you tell me that you’re wanting to rent for whatever reason, I’m gonna honor that and I’m not gonna beat you over the head about it.

So what’s your point Pam Graham? Well I’ll tell you if you’re seeing these memes too and it’s got you wondering if maybe buying a house isn’t right for you, but you’re kind of like on the fence. This post is for you. If you’re in a situation where you have to rent or you want to rent instead of owning, then hey I am not gonna knock you. Only you know what’s best for yourself. I don’t know that at all and I understand that there are times were renting makes way more sense than buying. If you change your mind you and you want buy down the road, shoot me any questions you have. My email is pam@pamgraham.com. Or text/call 904-910-3516.

In the meantime, feel free to grab this free ebook for buyers:

I service the areas of Northeast Florida, which includes Jacksonville, St Johns and Clay County .