The Expert Podcast

So do you think that you can't afford a house? Well, many people do believe that they're unable to buy a home and they have to continue renting. However, a recent survey found that 8 million renters could have bought a house with 30% of their income or less if they knew about the math.

Many people don't feel like they can afford a home because they think it's too expensive and they see that the pricing is, you know, $300,000, $400,000, $500,000 for a house, and the interest rates are high. But they don't realize that if you actually do the math, many times you can find a home in many markets that are affordable, that give you more space than your apartment, a yard for your dog, your family, your pets, your children, and you can still have a mortgage payment that's less than your rent.

And here's the thing: even if the mortgage payment is exactly the same as your rent or even $100 a month more, there are two huge advantages that are often overlooked. Number one is your rent can never go up. Once you buy a home, that mortgage payment is fixed; it stays the same. You never have to pay more money. Your landlord can't jack up your rent every year when you renew your lease. There is no renewing of lease—you own it.

The second thing that’s very, very important is some of that payment that you're making goes to yourself. It's not just going to all rent for that landlord to make a profit; it’s going to pay down your mortgage amount, it’s going to pay off your home, and build equity. That's not counting any equity that comes from the house going up in value. Your mortgage amount goes down every month, your principal.

It seems like it's an educational issue where many people aren't aware that you can actually be a homeowner for the same amount of money a month and have these other benefits. Now, there are some downsides to owning a home, which obviously people know about. If something breaks, you’ve got to fix it. If your sink breaks, you can't just call the landlord and say, "Hey, come fix my sink." But in reality, do they come fix it right away anyway? Is it inconvenient, and how often does it happen? The extra amount that you might have to put in for time or effort or labor to fix these things is certainly worth it in terms of the equity and the no rent increase.

The other thing that's important is it's harder to move. If you are in an apartment and you get a new job offer halfway across the country, you can cancel your lease and move. If you own a home, it’s a lot more complicated of a process. But hopefully, you would be buying a home in order to create more stability where you live and more ties to your community, and build roots with friends and neighbors and colleagues and have people that are longtime friends. If you're early on in life, maybe in your early 20s, maybe that’s not the case. But owning a home has these other financial values that build up over time.

If the only reason you're not doing it is because you didn’t think you could financially, take a look at the math. You can click the link below to look at some affordable homes that are available around the country and you can run some numbers on mortgage payments to see what that payment might be compared to your rent.

Thank you for watching. Remember, you can access live one-on-one personal consultations with a licensed private investigator, a licensed commercial insurance broker, a licensed certified real estate title examiner, a certified civil court mediator, and even a licensed building general contractor. If you have a need to talk to an expert in any of these fields, you can click the link below to arrange a live one-on-one, undivided attention with a licensed expert where you can ask any questions, get information about your situation, and we’d be glad to help.