My first experience with renting anything on my own was during my junior year at college. It was a small room on the 3rd floor of an old mansion. I had access to a refrigerator with 15 or so other ladies and the thing actually had locks attached to it to prevent thievery of your food. The room was clean and comfortable...a place to call my own. Well, not quite.
A couple of years and one small apartment later, my new hubby and I moved into 'married student quarters' just outside the main University campus. I was thrilled to be able to have my own home. Undaunted by the fact that we possessed a very limited amount of furniture, I determined to make the best of it.
The old tile floor had not been properly cared for. We stopped by a flooring place to ask for advise and left with 3 large bottles of commercial cleaners and solvents. I immediately went to work scraping off all the old wax that had built up over the years, then cleaning the floor before applying a new coat of wax. The end result was a floor that gleamed so brightly, you could literally see your reflection in the shine. No kidding!
But once again...it wasn't mine. But when the building inspector checked us out of the unit before we moved and told us that this was the 'best kept apartment' he had EVER inspected for final check-out, I simply beamed with pride and STILL didn't get it. It wasn't mine.
It would take 2 more apartments over the next 6 years to summon the gumption to get a home of my own. Luckily, we were still relatively young. The purchase of that first home made me a landlord overnight and ended up being cheaper than renting. In fact, my new home PAID ME to stay in it and the created a pool of CASH which we used to move up into our next home.
This story in a nutshell demonstrates why it is amost ALWAYS better to own property rather than rent. Simply stated, it's about OPTIONS. When you own something, you have the OPTION of benefiting directly and completely from your hard work. In real estate, it's called EQUITY. You also have the OPTION of selling your property for a profit or loss. You have the OPTION of allowing someone else to live on your property and to collect the rent. When you rent, your options/control are severely curtailed.
Well, truth be told...the world of virtual real estate is no different than the real world. It's simply a matter of WHEN one wakes up to the reality that the space you occupy online is real and impacts your welfare, particularly if you are in business. The truth is that one day very soon...your virtual brand address...that all important URL which defines the space you inhabit, will perhaps be MORE IMPORTANT than your bricks and mortar will ever be.
Here on the Active Rain network, we relish the kudos of comments and little yellow stars which create warm, happy moments. But we would do well to not lose site of the facts. Simply living in a space and taking care of it...decorating the walls and making friends with the neighbors does NOT constitute ownership, no matter how nice the landlord is.
Does this salient observation mean that renting is never appropriate. Absolutely not. Renting is something you do when the cost of ownership does not justify the investment of capital. It can also be a very savvy business move. Renting is also something you do when you are not prepared to assume the responsibility of owning something. Because, make no mistake...ownership comes with it's own bag of hassles.
Renting in the virtual world means that you provide content to a FREE site which you give the power to do what it wants with your data. Renting in the virtual world means that rules and norms can change without notice or consideration. The misnomer is the word FREE. Because unless your time, intellect, imagination and effort has NO VALUE, you are paying. Your are paying a fee with your life energy, the most precious resource you possess.
When one understands this, the Value Proposition for participation on any network is evaluated in a different fashion. For me, it became clear that having a small unit of my own which will increase in Value over time is prudent. Yes, it's a hassle sometimes maintaining a couple of different virtual homes, but when all is said and done...there's nothing quite like a place of ones own.
Copyright 2008 Audu Real Estate All Rights Reserved
Lola Audu, is the Designated Broker & Owner of Audu Real Estate. Our company specializes in helping people buy and sell homes in the greater Grand Rapids, West Michigan area. We've had the privilege of helping hundreds of clients succeed in their goals of purchasing and selling property including demonstrated success in the negotiation of Short Sale Transactions. You can contact us via e-mail @ info@auduhomes.com or by phone at 616-791-0511.
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Lola, Absolutely, so beautifully put!! And just such a nice way amongst all of the tumult. I am well aware of this and that the landlord has just changed the agreement. That's fine with me, I just didn't care for the way he went about it. Thought he could have been more upfront, but then again that may have created a more difficult time for him. What you stated in the end sums it all up - it's a hassle sometimes maintaining a couple of different virtual homes, but when all is said and done...there's nothing quite like a place of ones own. So glad I had the foresight, just wish I had the SEO, but...