Hello everyone and Welcome to another

episode of Selling Greenville your

favorite real estate podcast here in

Greenville, South Carolina, I'm your host

as always Stan Mccune I am a realtor

here in the Greenville area and you can

find all of my contact information in

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something like that please do that and

support the show in that way today I

want to be talking about renting versus

buying we've talked about this in the

past but the the Dynamics have changed

right cuz right now mortgage rates which

have actually gone down lately which

if you're a buyer in this market or or a

seller you're rejoicing at that

but mortgage rates are sitting pretty at

7.69% and so that is obviously even

though that's come down from the 8%

range where they've been at for several

weeks that's still obviously much much

higher than they were a year year and a

half two years

ago and so and going back 5 years ago

10 years ago much higher than they were

even back then and so the Dynamics of

whether it makes sense to rent versus

buying are obviously much different

than they have been in a very very long

time so this is something I feel like is

worth

reopening as a topic because of just

how different the market is now versus

what it has been in really really a

generation right so for some context

Greenville has historically been a place

where it's much cheaper to buy than is

to rent in other words your mortgage

payment traditionally was much cheaper

if you purchased a home and put a

minimal down payment 3 and a half

5% down something like that then it

was if you actually just paid rent

remember when you rent you're paying

essentially or or in theory all of the

landlord's expenses you're paying for if

they have a mortgage you're paying for

that you're paying for their insurance

you're paying for their taxes you're

paying for the HOA and you're paying for

maintenance and vacancy rates otherwise

if you're not paying for those things

then the landlord is operating at a loss

and some landlords will operate at at a

loss in some limited situations but most

of them are not interested in doing that

most of them actually want to make money

and the only way to make for them to

make money is if you pay off all of

those expenses and then some on top and

so historically speaking it's been

cheaper to just purchase the home than

to rent the home right because the

person that you're renting from they had

to purchase it and they probably

purchased it at a higher rate than or

higher mortgage rate and and

potentially even a higher purchase price

for a variety of reasons than what you

might have been able to had you just

purchased it as an owner

occupant

now to get into the weeds a little bit

I'm not going to get too far into the

weeds the reason why it's historically

been cheaper to buy than to rent in the

Greenville area obviously the the low

mortgage rates had a lot to to do with

that but this was in large part due to

shortages in rentals right not a ton of

rentals available and you add that to

the fact that South Carolina has

unbelievably High property taxes when

you're renting that is probably the most

challenging part about being a landlord

in the state of South Carolina because

our property taxes are so cheap for

owner occupants that they have to make

up for it with rental properties and

Commercial properties insurance is

also typically more expensive for a

rental property than is for a just

standard owner occupied property Etc

there's a variety of of things obviously

we talked about maintenance which has

to be you know obviously maintenance is

not factored into your mortgage payment

but if you're a landlord you have to

basically bake that into whatever your

rent is so all of these things have

historically been the reason why it's

been cheaper to buy than to

rent now we need to as I said we need to

reassess reassess this in the higher

rate environment and so that's exactly

what I did for this episode I looked at

data from several neighborhoods that

have a good bit of rentals and also a

good bit of Sal some of them had more

rent had way more rentals than sales

others had way more sales than rentals

but I looked at several neighborhoods

and here's what I concluded let's

start with the neighborhood Chartwell

Estates I have used Chartwell so many

different times in this show and there's

some good reasons for it one is that I

used to live there I used to live in the

Chartwell Estates neighborhood this is

in Greer to the West just to the west

of the airport the GSP airport Chartwell

is a great neighborhood to use for data

because there's a lot of sales and

there's a lot of rentals there so you

can use the data in Chartwell Estates

for a lot of different things I really

like to use it so let's talk about what

the data says in chart wall Estates the

past year the median rent was $1,900

a month the average rent was

$1,871 a month with the lows with the

with the range being between $15.95 and

2,200 a month so that's what you're

getting roughly $1,900 a month if you're

Renning in the Chartwell estate's

neighborhood what about if you purchased

a home in Chartwell Estates the past

year the median purchase price was

265,000 the average was 277 and change

with a range of 235 to

3385 in terms of sales that happened

the past calendar year reminder I still

have the highest ever sale in Chartwell

Estates over year ago a listing that

I had still reign supreme as the top

sale ever in that neighborhood and I

think that will remain for quite some

time okay that was a complete aside I

just completely sidetracked myself with

that I did not plan to say that but

regardless what how do these numbers

compare right we have to to come to a

financial amortizer or an amortization

calculator to try to determine

how these numbers compare let's talk

about the median sales price all right

if we amortise 265,000 which is the

median and and need to subtract the

down payment right you're probably going

to put 5% down something like that

that's what I did for all of these

numbers for all these sales numbers I

assumed a mortgage based on a few things

first a 5% down payment which by the way

that's a commonly overlooked thing but

your 5% down payment obviously if you

rent you're not putting that much down

so so that's also something to consider

in this but generally speaking people

are okay putting putting you know 5%

down something like that versus putting

a deposit towards their rent which you

kind of have to assume that you won't

get that that deposit back even though

you hope that you will all right so if

you

amortise 265,000 with 5% down and

then we're not going to account for

taxes insurance and HOA dues and all of

that just yet okay just the principal

and interest per month would be

$1,821 a month okay so that is slightly

cheaper than the median rent of

19,900 but I just said a very important

detail which is that I'm not including

taxes Insurance HOA dues or maintenance

we're we're not going to talk about

maintenance because that's so variable

right if you buy a brand new home

there's not going to be a ton of

maintenance buy an old home there'll be

ton tons of Maintenance chart oil

Estates is a neighborhood that has homes

ranging from 10 to 20ish years old

generally not going to be a ton of

Maintenance but it just depends we're

just going to leave that off but in

terms of taxes homeowners insurance HOA

dues you can reasonably tack on in that

neighborhood an extra $250 to $300 a

month for those three things so even

though the principal and interest

payments of $18 21 that is $79 a month

cheaper than what the median rent is

when you factor in all of the other

expenses you are a couple hundred maybe

close to

$300 above per month what you would be

paying if you just

rented similar things with the averages

the average rent was $

18,871 the average payment if you take

the average sale of 277 and change and

advertise that you come up with 18878

and change that's higher even before you

factor in taxes insurance and HOA dues

what about the the low range of

sales 235,000 that was the cheapest sale

the past the past 12 months if you

advertise that you come up with 1590 a

month for principal and interest that's

only $5 per month cheaper than the the

lowest rent of

$15.95 again factor in the other

expenses you're well above what would

cost to rent the cheapest house what

about on the high end of the spectrum

the high end of the spectrum for

renting was 2200 a month the sale was 30

3385 if you advertise that after the 5%

down payment that's $22.90 so $90 a

month higher not even including the

taxes insurance and HOA dues all right

that's just one neighborhood though

but I will say it's reflective of what

I've seen throughout the upstate I ran a

bunch of different neighborhoods and

came to the same conclusions I'll I'll

discuss one more with you it's a

Simpsonville neighborhood that is

known for having a lot of rentals so

it's a neighborhood of Holliston and

in Holliston the median rent was

$1975 a month the median sale was

$34 and

34500 $34,500 a month advertise that you

come up with 2060 260 so that's almost

$100 higher than 1,975 which was the

median rent again assume taxes

insurance and HOA is probably going to

be between roughly 250 and 300 a month

if you're if you're

owning what about the average the

average rent was 1964 the average sale

was just a tad higher than the

than the median of 305 the average

was $

30555 so that comes up with monthly

principal and interest of 2067 over $100

higher than the average rent what about

the low the low rent was $6.95 for the

for the past year the low sale was

288,000 for the past year you

amortized at 288 after the 5% down you

come up with 1,948 several hundred

higher than the lowest rent for the past

year what about the high the high rent

was $250 for the year the high sale was

$325,000 and you advertise that you come

up with

$2,199 exactly $49 more expensive per

month not including taxes insurance and

HOA dues or any or maintenance or

anything else still $49 per month higher

than to

rent again this was consistent those

were just two neighborhoods I looked at

a bunch of other neighborhoods that I

won't detail on the show they all had

the same results total principal

interest taxes Insurance Plus HOA were

routinely in ESS of what it would cost

to rent pretty much universally in

excess of what it would cost to rent and

in some cases just the principle and

interest alone would be more expensive

than the rent not including all of these

other things now I do want to give a few

caveats right one is some of these

neighborhoods are newer neighborhoods

where there have been rate by Downs

where you wouldn't be at that

7.69% right that was a big assption I

ran all these numbers off of a 7.69 9%

mortgage rate that's the average

mortgage rate as of the day I'm

recording this which is November 2nd

2023 and

so you don't necessarily have to be

locked in at that number right you can

potentially get rate by Downs we've

talked about this in the past a lot of

newer construction neighborhoods are

already offering this you can also ask

for just a normal seller to do that

for an offer that you're making on a

house so you're not necessarily limited

to

7.69% but I I do want to make that

make that caveat there I also want to

make the caveat that I did not break

this down based on price per square foot

I would have loved to have done that the

data was just extremely limited on the

rental side of things for me to to

really do that I do think probably the

price per square foot is probably a

little bit cheaper on buying versus

renting with the simple reason and and

again we're assessing this on a monthly

payment basis but the simple reason is a

lot of these rentals are on the smaller

side of things right and so what

you know in Chartwell Estates the median

rent was 19900 the median sale was

265,000 generally speaking the property

that you're going to rent on on average

in that neighborhood is going to be

smaller than the average home that sells

in that neighborhood those are just a

couple of things to keep in mind but

with all of those caveats in general

we're dealing with an environment in

which it is generally speaking cheaper

to rent than it is to buy and I ran some

more numbers just in case you're curious

just a little little Easter egg in

here it looks like mortgage rates would

have to go below 6% in some cases

perhaps well below 6% in order for us to

get to a break even point between buying

and renting so this is why it was so

much cheaper to buy than to rent rent

before when rates were in the threes I'm

saying we'd be at the break even point

if we got somewhere below 6% maybe in

the mid five something like that when

rates were well below five well below

four then it really made more sense to

buy than to rent from a financial

standpoint but right now you can make

the financial argument and I will come

back to a counterargument here in a

little bit but you can make the

financial argument that it is cheaper to

rent than to buy

now does that is that the only thing is

that the only thing that matters when

you're deciding whether you want to rent

a home or whether you're or or if you're

deciding whether or not you want to buy

I well obviously the answer is no

there are a lot of other things to

consider and I think it's helpful and

and here's the direction this podcast is

going to go in we're going to explore

what are some of the reasons why

people might want to buy versus

renting aside from the financial

argument right let's let's kind of go

down that rabbit hole for a second and I

think it's helpful in short for people

to think about renting versus owning as

a similar thing to working for a boss

versus being self-employed there are

pros and cons to each and at the end of

the day some people really like the

structure of working under some else

I've talked to a lot of people like this

that they would never have any interest

in being an entrepreneur or being

self-employed or anything like that

because they need the structure of

working under someone else similar

perhaps in some ways to people renting

they don't I've heard people say I don't

want to have to think about maintenance

I don't want to have to think about

paying my property taxes every year

about pricing out homeowners insurance

all these different things they don't

want to have to think they don't for

whatever reason they don't have time to

to mess around with those types of

things I've heard people say they they

have health reasons why they they can't

be doing you know maintenance in their

home all of these different things there

are a lot of good arguments again it's

it's neither right nor wrong it is based

on what you feel and in the season of

life that you're in but to go back to

the self-employed versus working for the

man analogy even though some people do

prefer to work under someone a lot of

people do the the vast majority people

work under someone versus working for

themselves but then if you talk to most

self-employed people 90% of

self-employed people will tell you that

they could never go back to working for

the man like once they've had that taste

of being self-employed of of being Their

Own Boss they never want to go back

again I think renting is similar again

it's not a bad people it's not not a bad

people it's not a bad thing and and

for some people it does really make

sense regardless of the financial side

of it even if you're paying more to rent

versus buy for some people it makes

sense to rent just depending on what

they're going through you you may

simply be more comfortable living in a

property that is someone else's

responsibility with a yard that is

someone else's responsibility perhaps

with an internet provider that is paid

for by the apartment community

Etc but most people once they've owned

they have no desire to to go back to

renting unless they are forced to for

one reason or another now I want to

express this very clearly before we go

any further I'm passionate about home

ownership if you've listened you know

that but I do not look down on renting

if that wasn't clear I'm going to State

it expressly I own rental properties I

need there to be renters in the market

people that want to rent so how could I

look down on renting I absolutely I've

never done that in the show and I never

will we need people to rent the economy

needs people to rent but home ownership

is something that Americans care about

really more than I think most of the

world I'm certainly not an expert on

this but just I've known a lot of

people and in a lot of different places

I've traveled quite a bit as well

most people in the United States are

more passionate about home owner home

ownership than when you go to other

parts of the country and there's or

other parts of the world and there's a

reason for that and that is that

Americans part of the American DNA is

that we are all about control we don't

like others government officials HOA

presidents landlords Etc telling us what

to do that is a an inherent part of

being American you might disagree with

that but that is generally speaking

listen I talk to a lot of people in this

job most people are very obsessed with

having control and with they're not

being someone telling them what to do

with their personal

property and I think that this is

ultimately one of the key things if not

the key things that separate someone who

needs to buy versus someone who doesn't

need to buy and is fine with renting

perhaps shortterm or perhaps longterm

it's the issue of control and how much

control you feel like you need how much

control you're okay with delegating to

someone else that can do whatever they

want and this is the thing even when you

look at these numbers listen I've got a

lot of buyer clients right now that

could in theory pay less renting versus

owning and they don't care why because

of this issue of control now in my

opinion there's about five different

ways that you have more control when

you're owning versus renting when it

comes to real estate the first one's

very obvious cost

control just because it's cheaper to

rent now doesn't mean it will be cheaper

tomorrow so you have to if you're

renting you always have to be thinking

what happens when rent suddenly goes up

now there are obviously lease agreements

that that specify some of that but

guess what I've learned that a lot of

people don't pay very close attention to

their lease agreements you must if

you're renting you need to scrutinize

that lease agreement that is one of the

most important documents you will ever

sign in your life and there could be

Provisions in there that allow your rent

to go up pretty Suddenly at the very

least there's most likely Provisions in

there that your rent could go up at

the end of the year if you go into a

month-to-month type of arrangement or if

you renew your lease for another year

I've heard a lot of stories as well of

landlords finding creative ways to

charge tenants for extra things while

keeping rents where they are so for

instance maybe your the cost of your

rent doesn't go up but maybe your

landlord says you know maybe your

preferred method of paying is by venmo

or something like that and your landlord

says if you don't pay me with cash I'm

charging a payment processing fee I I've

heard listen that might sound ridiculous

I've heard a ton of stories about this

all over the country landlords doing

this type of thing and there are ways

for them to extract money that

perhaps are unethical but ways to

extract money without actually

increasing your

rent rent the the cost the monthly cost

almost never goes down but guess what

again cost control your mortgage payment

if you're locked in into a 30-year fixed

rate that's a very important word fixed

rate not everyone is doing fixed rates

these days I had a closing earlier

this week that was an adjustable rate

mortgage not my client but it it was

my listing buyer got a 5year arm but

most people still have fixed rate

mortgages and those mortgages stay the

same with the exception of the escro

taxes and insurance

taxes aren't typically going to go down

but I have seen that I actually have

seen property taxes go down but your

your straight principle and interest

that part of the monthly payment it will

stay the same for Forever Until you pay

that off and guess what they're

actually ways that you can reduce your

full monthly payment right one thing we

didn't talk about was PMI and actually

if you put 5% down you're actually going

to be paying a little bit more than even

some of these numbers that we talked

about before because you've got PMI that

you have to that you have to pay for but

guess what your PMI can drop off and

then your mortgage payment comes down

guess what mortgage rates can can get

lower you can refinance bring your

bring your monthly payment down guess

what you can price out your homeowners

insurance maybe you find a cheaper

insurance rate and that can bring your

escrow down which then brings your

monthly payment down so you have more

cost control when you're buying than you

do when you're rent ing your rent

pretty much never goes down only goes up

your mortgage typically will stay pretty

close to the same with the exception of

taxes going up ever so slightly each

year but there are other ways that

you can bring your monthly payment down

if you're buying so cost control is the

number is the is the number one thing it

comes to mind but it's not necessarily

the number one thing that you should be

concerned about whether you're

considering buying versus renting here's

one that I think is more important

maintenance

control most landlords at the end of the

day do not keep up with a property in

the same way a homeowner does so you

might be saying Hey listen I'm really

looking forward to renting so I don't

have to worry about maintenance but at

the end of the day and and unfortunately

this is just the reality of the

situation if you're renting from a mom

and pop landlord probably the

maintenance is not going to be up to par

with what it would be if you are

maintaining the property yourself that

is just a reality and and some of that

is just practical right you're living

there the landlord's not living there

the landlord doesn't know that there's a

bunch of little little things

happening and it can be aggravating

sometimes to keep asking the landlord to

come out and fix things and guess what

if you keep doing that you might you

know get the landlord kind of upset and

they might not want to renew your lease

when when the time comes to to consider

that so so that's a very very big

factor right maintenance control of your

homeowner you've already factored that

in you already know you can maintain the

the property as well as you want to

whereas if you under a landlord

you're kind of at their whim I've seen

some really good ones I've seen some

really bad ones I've seen some instances

where renters end up doing a lot of the

maintenance themselves and they

justify it right when the rent is low

I've heard that so many times Well my

rent is really low my landlord doesn't

do anything so I you know I keep with it

myself because I'm not paying a whole

lot but now you're maintaining someone

else's house and that's another subtle

way for a landlord to extract more money

out of you without it showing up on his

income statements and taxes that's a

great deal right if I'm a landlord my

tenants are are maintaining the property

for me and

essentially giving me a discount on what

it would cost me to maintain but then

that's not reflected in my taxes in any

meaningful way as income that's great

that's perfect that's what every

landlord wants if you're a tenant and

you're doing that I'm sorry you've got

the wool pulled over your eyes a little

bit you should not be maintaining a

property on behalf of your landlord but

you have to understand the risk if you

start pinging that landlord all the time

for more maintenance you might you

might get under their skin so this is

one of the strange elements of renting

and one of the advantages for buying

lifestyle control

this is another really really big one

and this might be the biggest one

honestly that I hear from people

years ago I recorded an episode of

this podcast about how most people think

about moving not to you know just get

a nicer place or or to get more space or

or things like that but they want

control more control over their

lifestyle they want to improve their

lifestyle they want their kids to have

individual room rooms they want to have

a guest suite for when relatives come to

visit they want to be closer to work

they want to be in a different School

District they want to improve their

lifestyle this is what your home does

your home is the thing that impacts your

lifestyle as much or more than

anything and at the end of the day it's

much easier to control how you live if

you're able to control where you live

and at the end of the day this was a big

one for me when I became a homeowner in

my early 20s I had rented a couple of

places the and and they had a

negative impact on my lifestyle multiple

ways the one was too hot upstairs that's

where the bedrooms are I don't sleep at

all if I'm hot I and that was a season

of life where I was like working night

the night shift I needed to sleep I

wasn't able to sleep I was getting baked

up there the neighborhood wasn't great

I I kind of got robbed at one point I

say kind of it's a story which I'm

not going to tell on here at the moment

and then I left that apartment for

for all of those reasons and then

moved to another apartment and that

apartment I had a nasty neighbor

underneath me that was banging on the

ceiling to get us you know get me to be

quiet and get my daughter who was a baby

to be quiet a whole bunch of awful

things and so I reached a break point

where I was like I have to be a

homeowner I need to control my lifestyle

I'm so sick of all of these different

things that I can't control I want

nothing to do with it I want to have my

own house and and so that pushed me to

to ultimately become a homeowner at the

earliest age that I possibly could make

the numbers

work there's a lot of concerns over

lifestyle related things if you're

just renting what if the the rental

sells what if the landlord sells the

property and and again look in your

lease agreement a lot of lease

agreements state that if the property

sells that the landlord has the right to

give you 30 days notice to vacate the

property a lot of leases have that

even if it doesn't have that what if the

landlord sells sells the property that

you're living in and then at the end of

your least you have to move out because

the new

landlord isn't interested in having you

in there they want to get the place and

and make it a an Airbnb for instance

there's a lot of possibilities what if

you have to do that mid school year

right what a what an absolutely horrible

thing that could be if you have kids in

school and you have to completely uproot

your family and and move maybe a much

further distance from school than you

would have preferred to be maybe now

you're

you're you know outside the school

district

and you might get grandfathered in but

that could cause a whole bunch of other

issues there's just a lot of different

things that could that could happen

what if the the new owner again if the

property sells what if they ban pets

what if you have a pet and now there's a

new landlord that comes in and says hey

no

pets what are you going to do now again

look at your lease agreement cuz there

are going to be some Protections in

there that even the new landlord has to

follow but they can change all of that

once your lease is up and there might be

am ambiguities in the lease agreement or

maybe things that you didn't even notice

that were there that might actually

be able to be used against you if

someone else comes into the picture and

by the way all of those examples were if

if if the property changes hands to a

different landlord but what if it

changes hands to a different property

manager I've seen that one as well it

could go from being a landlord managed

property to being a property managed

property property management managed

property

I've seen that happen as well where

all of the sudden things get way

stricter Under New Management could be

changing from one property manager to

another same thing if it gets looser

let's say that they're like okay

actually we're way looser in terms of

enforcing things well that could be

negative too that could impact your

neighbors right your neighbors might

might be you know smoking weed all the

time because now there's a loose

property manager and the way the duct

work is that weed smell and the smoke

smell ends up coming into your apartment

or your your part of the duplex or

whatever the case may be these are

all things that you have limited control

over when you're renting when you're

buying you have much more

control over these types of things

all right number four architectural

control and when I say archite excuse me

when I say architectural control what I

mean is essentially doing what you want

with the

home the appliances that you want adding

on to the home if you

want whatever sort of gardening you know

putting up trees fences things of that

nature personal touches in in terms

of you know maybe you want to do Bard

and Baton or or you know a coff ceiling

or whatever the case may be things like

this you can do whatever you want within

reason if you're a homeowner obviously

if you have an HOA you're subject to

whatever their bylaws are and they

usually have an element of architectural

control obviously the county the city

that you're in they might have some

control over some of those things but

generally speaking again it's much

different than if you have a landlord

that this is the landlord's house right

that's a different level of

architectural control than what an HOA

has over

you and that's a big one for a lot of

people a lot of people they want to make

a house into a home one of the ways you

do that is by personalizing the house

and that makes it a home part of the way

you personalize is obviously how you

decorate and all of that but some of it

is some of these architectural things

making actual changes to the home and

so that's a big one for a lot of people

number five this is my last one last

but not least location control okay now

let's face it the best homes in

Greenville generally speaking are not

rentals that's just the reality of the

spe the reality of the situation

generally speaking rentals are going to

be in the pool of homes that make up

essentially the the bottom 25% of homes

in the area I that number does not have

research behind it I'm going to be

completely honest about that where I

came up with the 25% that is a back of

the napkin kind of number that I came up

with but I truly do believe it I've

again I have rental properties I've

bought and sold many rental properties

of the years I've had many clients that

have bought and sold rental properties

over the years it's almost always in

the bottom 25% of homes in the area now

there are some very nice apartments in

the Greenville area some of which are

essentially brand new and many of the

above concerns that I've talked about

don't apply to Apartments okay I I do

want to clarify that but that's not

generally what I'm talking about right

people that are in Greenville usually

don't want to live in an apartment

usually they want to live in a house if

they're renting usually their first

choice is not to rent an apartment it's

to rent a house and so that's what

we're talking about is among houses

among duplex units among

condos and town homes things of that

nature 25% the the if you look at the

bottom 25% of homes in the area that's

typically what rentals are going to

consist of in terms of in terms of

Maintenance in terms of condition in

terms of upgrades in terms of features

in terms of location all of these

different

things and

usually and this is something a lot of

people don't think about usually rentals

are by other rentals right

rentals usually end up kind of in

clusters right and so often times

you'll see like an entire Street where

it's like 50% or more of the homes on

that street are rental properties that's

usually not a good thing for the street

right because the landlord is not going

to keep up as we've already talked about

they're not going to keep up with their

property as well as an

owner occupant will keep up with their

property and obviously the renter is not

going to keep up with their property to

the extent that an owner occupant will

and so these rentals unfortunately tend

to drag each other down due to a lack of

Pride and

ownership or if they don't they are

simply very expensive and we do have

some very expensive rentals in the

Greenville Market that would be the

exception to the rule of what I've

talked about in terms of prices in

this episode

all of this to say if you want to open

up the pool of homes available and not

just have the bottom of the barrel to

choose from you almost always have to

own almost always that is just the

reality of of the

situation location control the only way

to have true location control is and and

to have as many locations available to

you as possible to move to is if you buy

versus is renting there are far more

homes to buy on the market than there

are to rent let's look at that real

quick I'm going to pull up the

Greenville MLS I'm not going to if

you're watching on YouTube I am not

going to to screen share so if you if

you just got really excited about the

prospect of me screen sharing this I'm

not going to active rentals Greenville

MLS

199 active rentals now Greenville MLS is

not going to have obviously every single

thing that is for rent a lot of people

don't rent in MLS but that's a that's a

starting point about 200 homes for

sale

3,365 so a bit of a dramatic

difference between homes for sale and

homes for rent and so that's that's

obviously something to to factor in

now if you've heard these five points

I've made and every and all the other

points I've made and it doesn't resonate

with you you're just like you know what

none of those things matter I just want

to save the money then renting really

really might make sense and again this

is what I'm saying home ownership is not

inherently for everyone and it's

certainly not for everyone at every time

in their life I already said I've rented

two different times in my life and

that was in my case cuz I couldn't

afford to be a home owner yet but

for a lot of people it just makes sense

to rent but if your main reason is

financial I want to end with this

reminder remember that one of the

primary Financial perks of home

ownership isn't even that it's

cheaper than renting actually in a lot

of markets it's not been cheaper to to

to buy than to rent for a very long

time this is just a new phenomenon for

Greenville but this has been true in a

lot of places in the US for a long time

and yet people still prefer to own

versus rent again we talked about all of

the control things that I think are the

important things but there's another

Financial thing that a lot of people

forget about in this situation where

they're just like well it's way cheaper

to rent than to buy and that is that

your home if you're a homeowner is

building Equity as you pay down the

mortgage and as the market appreciates

so your home is gaining value when

you're in you're paying down the

mortgage for someone else in a property

that is appreciating in value for them

while you live in

it so if you want to make the financial

argument for renting on the basis of it

being cheaper that really only holds

water if you are investing all of the

money that you're saving right because

what you're paying extra for buying you

are ultimately gaining value for what

you're paying extra for because you're

gaining equity in real estate which has

real value that is the the quickest way

for most people to build wealth is

through real estate and through real

estate that they have gaining

Equity if you're renting you're not

gaining Equity you're literally just

spend spending that money like a

commodity right like you're buying a

meal out you don't you you get something

for for buying a meal right you get a

meal You're Now full you're now hungry

but you don't ever get that money back

when you're a

homeowner you you're paying money for a

house to live in but you also are

gaining equity in addition to

that and so that's very valuable so

if you're renting and you're you're

saving money if you really want to

compare apples to apples from a

financial standpoint you need to not

just spend that money that you're saving

you need to actually invest it do that

and then come back to me and we'll

see financially after a few years if

you're better off than you would have

been if you were a homeowner I'm not

saying that you wouldn't have been but

for most people that aren't a Savvy

investors they would not be able to find

a way to put a few hundred to work for

them in per month in in a way that would

actually move the needle beyond what it

would have if they had just been

building equity in a home and if you're

just spending the money then you're not

actually saving the money you're just

spending it on other things besides

shelter and then on the back end

you're you're not going to have you know

you could have spent that money after

you built equity in a home and then sold

a home which is what a lot of people

have done a lot of people too after the

home gains Equity then they do a Cash

out refinance allows them to stay in the

home or or a home equity line of credit

allows them to have their cake and eat

it they stay in the home and they have

extra money to spend as

well obviously your mortgage payment

goes up if you potentially if you do

that if you have a home equity line

of credit that's a separate mortgage

payment in addition to your normal ones

so those things aren't free but there

are a lot of different ways to skin the

cat and a lot of different ways to

consider the financial numbers but

the long story short is again we're in a

market where it is cheaper currently to

rent than to buy but that is only part

of the story and that's not necessarily

the the end of the story in terms of

whether it makes sense for you to rent

versus Buy in this market you have any

questions about that let me know I'd

be I'd love to discuss this this might

be one of my more controversial

podcasts in a long time believe it or

not for some people be like well that

wasn't controversy at all no trust me

this is a controversial topic for a

lot of people

if you want to argue with me about it

feel free to listen I'm always down for

a good argument my contact information

is in the show notes but if you if you

want a realtor to help you get out of

renting and into a house you can buy I

would like that even more again the

contact information is there if you like

the show like rate review subscribe all

of those good things we will talk again

next time