It started as a innocent family move night watching old "I Love Lucy" reruns. Who would have thought it would lead to a real estate epiphany? Picture the scene:
Ricky paces nervously across his bedroom at 2 AM. Lucy wakes and asks him what is troubling him. He reveals that they are about to buy their first home in the country. They have been saving for 15 years, living all that while in their apartment next to the Mertzes. He stops pacing and states emphatically, "Do you realize we aren't going to own our house for TWENTY YEARS?"
BOING!
Did you get the epiphany? No? OK, let me first confess that I watch a lot (!) of HGTV. Now, picture this scene:
A young couple, just married, decides to buy a house. JOY! They find their perfect house, find a lender who will give a 100% (or 95%...same idea...) loan. Seller pays the closing costs, of course. They sign the papers, walk up to 'their' front door and state (Do you see it coming?), "WOW! I can't believe we own our own house!"
Sigh...who wants to be the one to break it to them that they don't really OWN the house; however, they do have the privilege of renting-to-own from the bank for the next 30 years.
We are a society of instant gratification. We want what our parents have....and we want it now. And it is OURS. Perhaps if we could go back to the days when home ownership was a privilege and not a right, many of the problems facing our industry would be reversed.
The good news for Ricky ad Lucy is that, assuming they had stayed in that house, it really WOULD be theirs by now!
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