A Rant: Millennials and RE Culture

My Rant...

Cheesy intro/exit aside, this quick video touches on some common things I hear, see and experience working on the front line as an agent.

All to often I hear my clients, other agents or the market in general buying into this misunderstood notion that your home is your biggest investment. It certainly is a place where you'll have considerable liquidity tied up as long as you hold it, but it's not an investment unless you have a strategy going in on how you're going to make money from it. At the minimum you'd have a pro-forma of how this property will fit within pre-defined  criteria.

This is not to say you can't make massive gains (or incremental) through home ownership. The local market in Charleston has seen many cash in on the tremendous growth and attention the area has seen as a whole the past decade. However, I get worried when the HGTV culture my generation has grown up with makes everyone think by buying and owning a home they're going to make money. That narrative needs to change.

I want you to think of your home has the place you live (because you need to put your stuff somewhere) first. At best lets think of it like a savings account. With 20% down, proper up keep during your ownership, some improvements, minus closing costs when you sell in 5 years pulling anything from 21-25% back out should be a total win. Though I think many would be dissatisfied w/ such an 'unsexy' result. You want sexy? Go high risk and throw your cash into the next bitcoin.

Point being, your home is a place you live first and an investment second.