Transcript
A (0:00)
To rent or to buy? You might think it's an obvious choice, but it actually isn't. Both Henry and I own dozens of rental units with millions in equity between us. But I spent five of the last six years renting a property, not living in a home I owned, and my net worth still grew a lot during that time. Most people would probably not expect that you got closer to financial freedom while paying thousands in rent every month. The problem is that every online calculator, every podcast or YouTube video is. Is telling you it's a rent versus buy decision that isn't the case today. Henry and I are giving you three scenarios where you can rent, buy, or do a combination of both and grow your wealth in each scenario. So if renting makes more sense in your market, you can rent and still build wealth. If buying a home is more affordable, you can ensure it'll pay off when you move out. And finally, we'll share the cheat code strategy that some of the smartest real estate investors use to make hundreds of thousands of dollars. Just buying a regular affordable home to live in. This decision could change the track of your financial future, and you could be significantly wealthier because of it. What's up, everyone? I'm Dave Meyer, chief investment officer here at BiggerPockets. My co host, of course, is Henry Washington. He's here, too. And we're going to jump right into this conversation about whether it's better to buy or rent, or if that's really even a decision that you need to make at all. So, Henry, if you read the news right now, apparently just buying a home is just a terrible idea. That's what everyone seems to be saying right now. Are you. Are you buying it?
B (1:36)
No, absolutely not. Buying a home is not a terrible idea. But I will admit that it doesn't make sense for everyone to buy a home, and it doesn't make sense for everyone in every market to buy a home. I do believe there are situations where it does make more sense to rent than buying. But I am a firm believer in no matter which you do buy or rent, you should be doing it with thinking about how to invest what you're saving by not doing one or the other. Tactics.
A (2:02)
Yeah, like all those articles you see every day in Bankrate or nerdwallet or anywhere. It's saying it's cheaper now to rent than it is to buy. That's a very simplistic and specific scenario. Right. That's just basically like if you're a regular person and you're choosing whether to buy your Dream house or rent an equivalent property. That's actually true. It's probably better for most people to rent in that scenario. In fact, there's only one city in the entire country where it's better to buy than rent right now. Can you guess what it is? Somewhere in West Virginia, very close geographically, it's Pittsburgh. It's the only place right now where it's actually better. But we're investors, so we're not thinking about it this way, like, should I buy my dream home or an equivalent property? We're going to break down now how you can strategically think about your primary residence and ways that you can use it to grow your portfolio, whether this is your first property, whether you're looking to do an owner occupied strategy or not, and you're just trying to buy rental properties and grow a bigger portfolio. We have strategies for everyone to leverage the choices they make about where they're physically going to live to help grow your portfolio. So for investors who are trying to maximize the use of their residence, where they're living, what are the different scenarios they should be thinking through?
