Buying a House Is Actually A Dumb Idea

If you ask the average American about the ultimate dream, it’s like everyone’s reading from the same old script: “Get a good job, find a partner, buy a house, and live happily ever after.” But here’s a hot take: Buying a house part? It’s dumb. I know, I sound like all the internet gurus who promise you can manifest a Ferrari by meditating but hear me out. I promise I'm not about to sell you a course on making millions from your laptop while sipping a coconut on a beach in Bali. I'm just going to explain why buying a house in 2024 is a dumb idea.
First off, let’s paint the picture of the American Dream: You grow up, you land a great job, you buy a house, and you fill it with a couple of kids and maybe a dog. That’s the script everyone’s been following, grilled into us like a perfect steak at a summer barbecue. But what if I told you that steak is actually burnt? Yeah, it looks good on the outside, but once you dig in, you realize it’s tougher to chew than last year’s Halloween candy left in the back of the closet.
Human beings naturally lean towards owning something of their own-it’s like marking your territory without having to pee on it. For ages, owning a house was seen as the ultimate win. You weren’t just Mr. or Ms. So-and-So: you were Mr. or Ms. So-and-So with a house. It was like being a knight in the old days, but instead of a sword, you had a lawnmower.
This all made sense a couple of hundred years ago when land was plentiful, and people didn’t move around much. You were born, you grew up, and you got a piece of land where you’d build your castle (or, you know, a modest two-bedroom with a nice little garden). But fast forward to today’s world, and it’s a whole different ball game. Jobs change, careers evolve, and let’s be honest, who wants to stay in the same place for 50 years? We live in a time where people binge-watch entire TV series in one weekend-they’re not exactly known for their patience.
Now imagine this: You buy that dream house. It’s all fun and games until the first repair bill rolls in. Suddenly, that cute little fixer-upper is starting to look more like a money pit.
Now, let’s talk numbers, because everyone loves numbers. Say you buy a house for $300,000. Classic move. You put down a nice 20% because you’re responsible like that. That’s $60,000 gone-poof! Just like that. But hold on, it doesn’t stop there. There are closing costs, realtor fees, maybe some new furniture because your old apartment sofa looks sad in your sprawling new living room.
But wait, there’s more! Property taxes, homeowner's insurance, HOA fees if you made the brave choice to live where someone else can tell you what color your mailbox can be. And don’t forget maintenance. The average homeowner spends 1 to 4% of their home’s value on maintenance each year. For a $300,000 home, that's up to $12,000 a year. That’s a brand-new economy car you’re spending every year just to keep the place from falling apart.
And here’s the kicker-appreciation. Or should I say, the mythical dragon of real estate. “Houses always go up in value!” Sure, Jan. What about 2008? Ask those folks how their home values did. Markets can crash, neighborhoods can change, and what was once the up-and-coming area is now the down-and-going-fast area.
But beyond the money, let’s talk about freedom, or your sudden lack of it. Buying a house ties you down to one location. Got a killer job offer across the country? Too bad. You’ve got a house anchoring you down like you’re a hot air balloon trying to take off in a tornado.

[@Chilos49]

From someone who recently shifted lots of stocks to real estate, this guy is spot on. RE is a joke compared to S&P 500 Mutual Funds.

[@harambae7014]

Bro is pretending that a landlord's home ownership costs like repairs, taxes, HOA fees etc aren't built into the rent paid by their tenants.

[@Horace1993]

Mental gymnastics. Many properties are not cashflow positive, however for some that is still OK for their investment strategy

[@Armyboy-wq6rf]

@@Horace1993 In many cities, this is true.

[@austingeorge6659]

He said twice in the video that the decision you should make whether to buy or remt shouldn't be made on a brainwashed basis, but a basis considering what your GOALS and lifestyle you want.

[@nestharus]

HOA for the propert I live in is $1200/mo. I also get free electricity, sewage,and trash. Property is 1780 sq ft and is in a highrise condo downtown in a very nice area :). I only pay $2200/mo in rent. Tell me if you'd rather own or rent in that situation. Unless I paid all cash I wouldn't come out ahead owning. Even with all cash it'd be 30+ years before I broke even.

[@Sh4rK280]

Homeowners are definitely not recouping all of their monthly costs in the rent. Our landlord pays a minimum of $300-$500 out of pocket every month. We just pay the majority.

[@FishSauc]

I agree stop buying and rent from me

[@currency2266]

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@totallynotthebio-lizard7631]

“Freedom of unexpected costs” You can’t be serious

[@damien4401]

This video was definitely created by someone who doesn't own a home.

[@Sh4rK280]

And this comment was definitely created by someone who has bought into the lie.

[@withoutwroeirs]

Saucer of milk for table 2.

[@totallynotthebio-lizard7631]

@@Sh4rK280 what lie? His sources are literally made the fuck up. If houses were a stupid investment, blackrock wouldn’t even bother.

[@mph5896]

"just the facts" is the name of the Chanel. Not sure how I got here, but this video is well put together. Unfortunately it is only one sided on the pitfalls of home ownership. Looks like pro propaganda for the rental industry.

[@Sh4rK280]

Because we all already know the other side of the argument so it’s unnecessary to state those points.

[@BertieJasokie]

One thing i found to generally be true wherever you go is that 1. buying houses is mostly for people who are already well off and don't have to take out massive loans. 2. building on an empty plot on the outskirts of populated areas is the most accessible way of owning a home, but people rather not live hours away from where they work. This investment may potentially have massive appreciation if the area around your home develops further. 3. buying/owning a home is not for you if you cant/aren't willing to roll up your sleeves every now and then to fix things, most of the points made here are about the inconvenience of maintaining. 4. I'd rather work hard and leave something for my children as being a beneficiary of inheritance, I already don't have most of the worries that my peers do. I wish the same for my kids.

[@harambae7014]

Not everybody wants to be a rootless corporate nomad hopping from city to city for job opportunities, leaving friends and family behind.

[@Horace1993]

Not everyone gets to choose. In fact most will be stuck with this.

[@CountJeffula]

Sitting out on the patio of the house I own with a perfectly manicured lawn and thinking about what future improvements I can make to MY home is worth it to me. When I was renting, I didn’t see any money being spent on repairs. Zilch, zero. They made every excuse to delay and force tenants to do repairs or put up with it. Good luck investing all your extra money! None of my renter friends seem to be doing well, but maybe their fortunes of liquid wealth are growing unbeknownst to me and others.

[@Mearcliff]

an essay to myself to justify why I will never own a home LOL

[@marcsarfati3291]

I have cousin who rents an apt for 10k a month. He invested his money in his business and made more

[@trynnicus]

buying is changing your high rent to low mortgage and that going into your equity of the property. "that's just $60,000 gone" is not seeing it correctly. it's essentially putting your "rent" and "savings account" together in a typically low-risk move. and most of your complaints about "unexpected costs" still apply to renting.

[@austingeorge6659]

I've happily rented for 9 years and never once had an "unexpected cost". What are you on? Where do you live that the landlord requires you to pay for repairs? That's illegal in the US.

[@Longlostpuss]

What unexpected costs for renting are you referring to? I've paid the same relatively low rate of rent for the past 8 years and not one additional cost.

[@trynnicus]

@@austingeorge6659 charging for damage to the property caused by you is not illegal in the US. we have something called a "deposit" when you rent that most ordinary repair costs come out off to restore the property to the state it was in before you occupied. It's amazing that you have never been denied your deposit back, usually there's paint touch ups or carpet/floor damage, maybe a hole in a wall. If damage exceeds the deposit amount, the landlord can generally file in small claims if they want to, but most of the time they don't want the hassle. If we want to get into anecdotes about unexpected costs though, my dad's apartment had the second floor toilet had the grommet holding the water hose snap causing the whole apartment to start flooding and caused a ton of water damage. This was not caused by him and would not be charged to him, and the hose got replaced quickly. This water damage affected his computer setup, his work computer, college and work notes, his bedding, and a lot more that are generally smaller. While renter's insurance covered a lot of replacing that, he still had a cost to it. any major repair issues with a residence will potentially have unexpected costs, whether it's repairs or not.

[@austingeorge6659]

Nice vid, but at least for me, this could have been condensed down to 3 minutes. I skimmed through the first half of the vid and then it got good. Totally agree with the video; i love renting! No annoying neighbors with dogs barking all day!

[@Pacifist322]

Videos like this are useless if you're just presenting one side of an arguement

[@austingeorge6659]

Because the alternative has already been so insanely proliferated.. so we all know what the counter argument is.

[@Sh4rK280]

@@austingeorge6659exactly. I was just going to say the same thing. If you don’t already know the arguments for homeownership you are new to the world.

[@emorphous2]

The only good point here is that buying a house reduced your options to move for a job/family event/personal choice. Everything else was uninformed and short sighted.

[@Squeezyness]

The only REAL shitty part of homeownership is the interest on a mortgage. Owning a house is more like being a knight now that it's ever been. Also, your 60k down-payment didn't just disappear. Keeping your assets liquid is a crummy decision, so tying it into real estate isn't that bad. Also owning a house isn't THAT restricting. You can rent out your house if you want to live wherever for awhile.

[@Longlostpuss]

If you go into negative equity, your hard earned down-payment can disappear.

[@Bullminator]

Buying and renting is stupid overall. Building a new house that you have full control over it its much smarter. Having a high tech house will cause it to last at least 80 years and it can be passed on family. However you also need a location to build that is natural disasters proff (and human). If possible, build the house on a hill that is just above the water lvl as the lower area will get flooded, while your house on hill will survive. Also you should buy plot of land araund the house as this will prevent other person building near you. Also the more away you are from city, cheaper the prices on food usualy is, as main citys usualy have a special hidden tax in all products.

[@CoryPchajek]

I don’t think it’s black and white. Will a house built from lumber derived from new growth forests really last over 80 years?

[@austingeorge6659]

Building new is the best option all around, but who has that money? Statistics show the vast majority can't afford that right now.

[@Bullminator]

@@austingeorge6659 This is mostly due to culture. You have to be schrogee mcduck and not spend money on every shit you see.

[@omnitone]

when you say "build a house" are we talking paying a contractor and workers or are you literally saying, buy land, buy materials, and make everything by hand including the foundation and plumbing? no one has all of those skills at once, so it sounds unreasonable or even impossible.

[@CoryPchajek]

@@omnitone believe it or not, there ARE people that have all the skills necessary to actually self build a house. It’s very rare though. In fact, if you DO have the ability, the overall quality will probably be far better as contractors all over the place these days are known rushing and half assing things - especially with parents pressuring their kids to go to college last few generations, resulting in severe labor shortages in the in the trades. By “build a house” I assume most people would mean “hire a contractor”, which could also be a pain in the ass.

[@mattcannon2]

Landlords arent non-profits. Maintenance, tax, mortgage interest and HOA fees are built into your rent. AND the landlord is making money off you, probably 5%, maybe more. Breakdowns still happen in rentals, you just have no agency to solve them, speak to anyone who has ever had a bad landlord. If you own, perhaps you can use it as an excuse to upgrade something. "I cant go out because a plumber is coming", as if when you rent you just let tradesmen into your home unsupervised? The only halfway sensible argument this video makes is the flexibility to move city. The flipside of this however is the instability of the landlord evicting you whenever they want.

[@FeasyFren]

Better then renting frfr at least i own it and dont have to move yearly because the landlord ups rent by 50% lol

[@Sh4rK280]

Yeahhh that doesn’t happen. I’ve rented for… almost 20 years I guess? The biggest rent increase I had was 12% and they had to apply for special permissions from the Residential Tenancy Branch to approve it based on higher-than-average annual costs. You’re also forgetting that every 5 years you are at the mercy of the Bank of Canada/Federal Reserve to determine the interest rate you’re going to pay for the next 5 years. A 5% interest rate up from 2% is going to hurt a hell of a lot more than a 3% (annual average) increase on your rent.

[@wavestation999]

The bank owns it until you pay it all off or sell it

[@user-tx4yn7en9u]

don't buy it now lol it is a bubble

[@scottfoster3548]

WHOA how did this get out SHHHH be quiet LET them all keep trying to copy or buy or do something I dont know about a dream? Weird what young person has a dream, what is their dream BUT in ALL of them trying and miserably failing and classifying oppressed/opesser, multiple genders it cumulatively brings their entire generation (and I will say everyone under 50 really) down. That is where us old nothings come in and become richer and richer due to our hard work and competence. Young people you are doing fine keep up the good work.

[@edwardflorence5460]

Most people don't get this video because they believe the spin from friends family and sales people. Owning a house is a large liability unless you are making monthly profitable income on it. Some people even believe owning your vacation (timeshares) is a smart decision

[@harambae7014]

Bro what? Property is an asset, not a liability. Yes there are ongoing and sometimes hidden costs, but it's still an asset when you're building equity vs paying off a landlord's mortgage. Unless you're very unlucky your house is also going to increase in value over time, which is effectively profit if you're willing and able to wait out the returns, just like any other investment.

[@cheif3870]

That’s 60,000$ dollars invested into a home you can then leverage if and when it increases in value. I see what you mean but if you rented for a modest home for a reasonable 2 grand for 4 years boom poof that’s almost 100,000 grand gone that money has and will never do anything vs the money put into a home you own it all

[@Imsemble]

I mean, not everyone is aiming for that flexible, travel, fly across the world and move every year kind of lifestyle. I have strong roots in my region and wouldn't want to live or accept a job anywhere else. Plus I tried living in a big city for a while, it's just not for me, and that's where most of the rentals are where I live. So please don't say it's dumb to buy a house, it's just not true. It really depends what kind of person you are and what you aim for.

[@samatar-T]

Been thinking about for the bast 2-years. Then bought BTC.

[@yuriysemenikhin302]

For Me! Buying a house is a dumb idea. True 👍 For a family of four, living next to their family and friends, who don't care about extra few grand they might be making on the other side of the country, enjoying making their own house into a home, being able to send kids to visit grandparents for a week end 👉👌..... Let Me Guess 🤔 NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!! True????? 😱

[@kurthellis]

i love all the comments. just a bunch of homeowners all pissed at the mere suggestion that their choice wasnt pure genius

[@trynnicus]

This entire video screams "insecure" and "I'm smarter than you because if I did the same thing it would be dumb" rather than address why it's actually dumb. everything he says against it is really not seeing the full picture of what homeownership means. As a renter myself I hate that I can't add value to what i own from paying rent. there are valid problems with homeownership, this person didn't mention one of them because he's rather live an untethered lifestyle and is trying to use his insecurities to make other people insecure and it seems to have worked really well. there's a lot of valid philosophies on what to do here, but calling any of them dumb is the true stupid answer.

[@austingeorge6659]

​@@trynnicusYou didn't watch the whole video. He mentioned living a life that's actually enjoyable to you, so if house buying or renting accomplished that for you, then do that. His video is just providing an additional picture of what life could be like. There are even very wealthy people that prefer to rent. I love renting and never having to worry about anything other than vacuuming, dishes, and clothes. Also, renting a house is vastly different than renting an apartment.

[@trynnicus]

@@austingeorge6659 actually I did, but the vast majority of the video he's trying to justify buying a house being a stupid idea rather than suggest it's not the best goal for everyone. saying your actual view then trying to justify telling critics they didn't watch the whole thing for the one sentence that says "I didn't mean it" doesn't mean his actual view wasn't what's presented, it just means he doesn't have a backbone to mean what he says. he makes no mention of apartment or house so I'm assuming he's talking about either. in both you'd have to plunge the toilet which is one of his actual reasons to rent, so you don't have to do that. That's a poor example to really poke at, but he's also assuming that there's absolutely no maintenance or property damage you have to pay for or fix yourself if you rent. overall, he did a poor job of arguing his point, he either left out or didn't understand quite a few concepts that happen with homeownership (i.e. equity from mortgage payments) leading to poor arguments about "that's $60k just gone". it sounds like someone not understanding the topic trying to explain their viewpoint, which is still valid to have, but usually will be picked clean by vultures. hope he researches better in future videos because he's really good at making a video.

[@juandrevandenberg20]

How do you only have 166 subs? This is quality stuff. You could go for millions of views

[@andrer4046]

Lots of opinions for a channel called @JustFacts