Why I Don’t Own A House as a Multi-Millionaire…

Buy a house or rent? In this video, I'll show you why as a millionaire I don't own or invest in property.

Ramit Sethi is the host of Netflix's "How To Get Rich" and New York Times bestselling author of "I Will Teach You To Be Rich"

[DZ-cmxw]

The real truth is that don’t buy a house that you can’t afford.

[mikes.]

I'm tired of people thinking of housing as an investment. Housing is meant to shelter people. Its a necessity, not an investment. You dont get rich from buying a house. You want to get rich? Own a business, create something new, sell your genius idea, invest in other people/companies that do well.

[puregsr]

You might have a point. I'm 10 years into home ownership and starting to discover that everything is starting to fall apart, leaking second floor bathrooms, sinking tiles, collapsing deck, rotting fence, chimney cap, etc … and the cost of skilled / proper repair gotta be outpacing inflation. But I don't regretting owning a home obviously here in the PNW.

[withoutwroeirs]

Have rented most of my life, invested heavily in markets, lived in 8 countries, never been tied down until more recently. Could buy a house with cash but choose not to. The life experiences enjoyed to date would never have happened had I tied myself to property ownership from the get go. If you know you're going to stay in the same place until you retire / die, probably makes sense to buy. Otherwise...

[terry_willis]

He left out one thing. As a home owner, you don't have to deal with a landlord.

[DomGuam]

My landlord came to me this year and said he is 90 years old, and either I need to buy the house or he was going to sell it to an investor. The first thing the investor was going to do was raise our rent. So I went to chase bank, asked to apply for a mortgage to get the home. Keep in mind at the time I was Landscaping for chump change, and I hadn’t even been doing it for 2 years like most banks want you to be at least 2 years in the field. Long story short I bought a 4 bedroom, 2 bath, basement, 2 car garage, for $80, 000…. The house was already on Zillow for $120, 000. Thank you Paul, you allowed me to buy a home at 23 years old and BLESSED ME with easily over $30, 000 of equity. The house needs some touch ups but nothing serious. I wasn’t even looking to buy a house, but it was thrown onto my lap and I sure ain’t complaining!

[lifestyled]

I bought a 3 family home in NY with a 3% down payment FHA loan, it was $925K, my mortgage, tax, ins is $4600/mo, I make $12-15K a month conservatively the house has gone up $100K. The house was newly renovated so minimal repairs if at all over the last 4 yrs. I am a high income earning so I save a ton on taxes via depreciation. I negotiated my closing costs down, got best price for ins, and have my real estate license so I can maximize tax deductions. I take the money it makes and invest in market and also bought my dream condo in South Beach Miami, which I also rent out and make a great return. When and if I sell this house in 20yrs I will get more than my money back and if I decide to pass it down to future children they can restart the depreciation cycle and will make a killing on the rents without a mortgage. No complaints here. To each their own.

[BirgirRobertJohannesson]

wow Ramit - I am 52 and am starting again financially, and I just finished your Netflix series and bought your book, it is at the post office as we speak, and I wanted to state or say that I so grateful for you doing your Youtube channel, your books and your other knowledge-sharing-endeavours, because looking at everything in my life, without shame or bashing, and now seeing it clearly (esp. after the Netflix series) and now starting to make a plan of what I need to do, where I really need to improve and then do the work. Ramit ... I am super grateful for you and greetings from Reykjavik.

[LV-]

I bought my first house in 1998 for $120k at 8% interest. My total house payment with mortgage, property taxes, and rent was just under $1100. When the rates got low I refinanced at 15 years and now it’s paid off. Rent in my area is now $2000-$2500/month for a two bedroom with no garage. Buying was definitely the right choice for me

[MNP]

Mortgage free and I love my house. As a multimillionaire, Ramit doesn’t have to put up with noisy neighbors, cigarette smoke seeping through the walls, etc. Most of us can’t afford bougie rental properties. I’d rather own a home I can call my own.

[superiorseven]

The question of any investment is... at what price? Right now buying a home is a TERRIBLE financial decision. I know this will make people emotional but if you buy now you might literally sign your life away. I've crunched numbers on countless deals and NONE of them offer me any return less costs- besides a pseudo feeling of self esteem that I might get when I tell people I "own a home." Don't forget, that buying a home is consumption, not production, so it is a liability. Those who bought 10+ years ago and say "well it went up, " are evading the fact that EVERYTHING went up thanks to government manipulation of interest rates to help idiots get big loans to overpay and speculate, so they can FEEL rich. If I had $1M of equity tied up in a paid off house I'd stop wasting the TVofM and sell the damn thing to invest and make a proper return.

[mamajojo]

Financial decisions are never about money but how money/purchases makes you FEEL. If you feel happy renting - do it. If you feel happy buying (and you can...) do it. One millionaire may give an opinion that other millionaires may disagree with and vice versa - these Internets are littered with opinions and "facts" - don't replicate someone else's views - listen, learn, examine your life and make your own decisions.

[discoveringhealthandfinanc]

I love this guy... love the idea of questioning buying a house just to buy a house. Judging from the comments, no one actually listened to the video. He literally said he is not telling you to dont buy a house... he said to run the numbers and figure out if buying the house is a good idea for you and your situation... and it's absolutely valid. I bought a house.. made a lot of money off it.. but I was absolutely miserable owning. The maintenance, repairs, harrasment from HOA, irresponsible homeowners making loud noises or leaving dog poop on my yard... no one talks about the mental toll owning a home takes on you. I like renting and yes I crunched a number on a spreadsheet and its better for ME to rent. But ultimately, I hated owning a house.

[jasondrayton]

I've rented all my life, we bought a home 6 years ago and it's one of the best thing I've done for my family. We bought in a nice neighborhood and the value has gone up over 90k in that short time. I'm not saying it's for everyone, but the freedom from landlords feels great to us.

[kyrieeleison]

The American Dream could've worked if Boomers wouldn't have gone off the rails and thrown away everything established by their parents. My great grandmother, grandfather, aunt, and cousins lived in the family home on the East Coast built by my great grandfather past the 1980s, while my father and mother skipped town and landed in the Southwest. Once my grandfather died, my boomer aunt sold the place and came out to join my father (literally buying two houses down the street), for their "retirement homes, " meanwhile they had long ago kicked their children out to fend for themselves. As Judge Judy often says "I lived during a different time, when you only left home in a ring or in a box." If only the Boomers could have resisted the cultural revolutions and held fast to the "boring" life or God, country, and family...to tradition, family, and property!

Property ownership for any family, regardless of wealth, only makes sense in the context of maintaining generational wealth in the LAND itself and maintaining the family unit over those same generations (ie actual "estates"). Instead, Boomers walked away from their family homes, walked away from stable marriages, stay-at-home-moms, home-cooked meals, and turned their children over to babysitters--the tv and public schools--to rot their brains and indoctrinate them. "Home ownership" has become a never-ending scam of constant keeping-up-with-the-Jones', renos, maintenance, etc, with none of the payoff other than the hope that you too can sell it off to the next fool so you can retire in a nice place somewhere.

[AmSyndicate]

Anyone saying they bought their house in "199x-20xx" and it's worth "X" amount is simply missing the point. You cannot do that like you could back then. In some areas yes, but most, no. I am in the Bay Area so im bias on the home buying debate lol if anything I want to buy/repair/flip, yet that comes with much risk as well. To each their own when it comes down to this amount of money and what/how to provide for one's self or especially, family. Good luck to all during this difficult time

[Eqmastery]

Totally see the validity in this message. Big fan of Ramit. Something we've found from buying our home is that with a growing family we were able to secure FAR more LAND and HOME to enjoy than if we rented. (We're not minimalists FYI 😅)

That being said, we don't tout our home being an "investment". Simply a vessel for living, raising a family and creating lifelong memories for the next 10-20 years.

[zacharychubbuck]

I purchased a townhome in 2021 for $156k and it is worth over $200k now. To me, the peace of mind of owning something where I can stay in as long as I want, do whatever I want to it and not worry about increasing rent is huge. My mortgage (and taxes/insurance) is the same as my previous one bedroom apartment. I do live in Ohio, but I think renting only makes more sense in incredibly high priced areas. Plus being 28, I feel like I am setting myself up for a better financial future than my peers that are still renting high priced apartments and have not yet built up an equity cushion.

[DavidRios-bfnf]

Rents is cheaper. Renting doesn't have a property tax. Something major goes out as heating, roofing,
or plumbing. The owner is responsible for repairs. Renters
insurance is awhole lot cheaper
than home owners insurance.

[sle]

I enjoy renting and not being tied down to a single home and all the issues that come along with it. So many people in the comments are complaining about landlords. I’ve never had any issue with a landlord in 20+ years, but if I had it would’ve been easy enough to move. I think it’s much more likely that you have a problematic neighbor that you have to deal with as a homeowner and/or a number of maintenance issues that cost money (and time) to repair. Happy that I don’t have to deal with that annoyance.