Imagine being a homeowner.
Imagine having the city fine you because someone slipped on your sidewalk during the winter.
Imagine having someone sue you because a branch from a tree fell off in your front yard and broke someone’s windshield parked on the side of the street.
Imagine having a child in the neighborhood climb a fence and run into your yard and slip into your pool and die and being held liable for their death.
Imagine financing a house in 2007 and having your entire financial life destroyed because you owe 3× more than the value of where you live.
Imagine struggling to take out equity from your home when interest rates are rising to afford anything because your “most important investment vehicle” has zero liquidity.
Imagine struggling to take out equity from your home when interest rates are rising to afford anything because your “most important investment vehicle” has zero liquidity.
Imagine your local economy collapses and property values plummet and you are trapped forever unless you want to file bankruptcy to escape your rapidly depreciating asset.
Imagine the sun setting on the day of the life of a mortgagoid, his brain racked with the stress of financial uncertainty and the mounting responsibilities every single day just to deal with his “dream home.” Tomorrow, he will walk into his basement, look at the floor in the corner of his laundry room, see cracks beginning to form, and kill himself.
I wake up in the morning and yawn, raising my blinds and looking out to a freshly manicured garden, maintained by top-tier gardeners hired by my apartment complex (we’re vertical and population dense so we can spend more money than a homeowner would be able to).
I walk out to my kitchen and grab a glass of water, then put it up to the fridge. Water comes out, but it’s a bit slow. I sigh, but for only a moment, worried that I would have to spend half of the day scheduling and contacting someone to come to my house to troubleshoot the refrigerator, but then I remember I live in an apartment, so I can simply put in a request with my apartment owner and have them deal with it.
I go to the bathroom and turn on the shower. I stand under the hot water for 60 minutes, not for any real reason, but I relax under the nozzle comforted by the reality that I will never, ever run out of hot water because my building has an industrial sized water heater in the basement.
The weather outside might take a turn for the worst, causing me to shudder, knowing it’s trash day and I have to journey out into the... oh no, wait, there is no “trash day”, I can simply walk out to my hallway and deposit my bag of trash into a chute where it will be taken care of by the contracted sanitation company.
My local economy changes significantly throughout the last 2–3 years, with property values plunging. I smile to myself, opening an envelope from my leasing agent, offering me a $400/month rent decrease, knowing they have to stay competitive with market rates to prevent me from leaving.
I pick up the phone and catch up with an old friend. He’s bragging about his recent home equity line of credit that he just took out to put a down payment on a new car, but cringes a bit when I ask him about the interest rate. I chuckle back at him, telling him I put a down payment on a similar (but better) car. He asked me how I came up with the money, and I told him I simply logged into my Robinhood account and sold off a few shares of a stock I owned, and we both share a laugh at how superior the liquidity of my assets are to his (single asset).
I lay down, looking out the window of my apartment across the bay to the beautiful skyline, then realize I’m bored of this place and start looking for another apartment to move into for tomorrow. I have no realtor to call, no financing to worry about, and no bank to deal with as I close my eyes, imagining the new appliances and fresh coats of paint awaiting me in my future apartment unit.
The sun sets on another day in the life of the glorious renter chad.