My 3 Theories- Why Women Shy Away From Buying Real Estate
I have a few theories as to why women do not buy real estate even though they have great high paying jobs, have great savings, search on zillow all the time, want to go into open houses, but they just don’t make the first move to buy.
So many women in San Francisco are amazing, bad ass queens. You are entrepreneurs, CEO’s, high valued employees, money making queens making high stakes decisions every day. You are in control of your future and your life in one sense, and in another sense totally at the mercy of some random landlord who asks you to give them money every month and can kick you out when they see fit. Something doesn't add up here…
Let me tell you a story of J. She is my long time friend. She has a great high paying job, she is totally self sufficient, lives on her own and her lease was coming to an end. I was over at her place one evening and she was telling me how she is looking for a new place and showed me some things online.
Immediately I was like “Girl, why don’t you just buy a place…”
She looked at me in confusion and said “I would love to but I don’t even know where to start”
Luckily she has me who specializes in helping women find their first houses in San Francisco and 6 months later she bought a beautiful condo and is super happy. She now lives with her boyfriend and rents out her condo.
My first theory is women shy away from buying real estate because they don’t know where to start.
Do they search on zillow and contact some random agent that way? Do they speak to their bank about mortgages? Do they try to do their own math on how much they can afford? Do they look for listings online? How do they even find a realtor?
You just don’t know where to start.
Lets look back on the last generation, our parents generation. When we think of their realtors we think of men in suits, or women with 80’s hairstyles in a skirt suit. We think of boring, cookie cutter realtors.
We do not think of young women realtors who are here to guide other women who want to buy their first home in San Francisco. Hello, I am right here.
My second theory is that women don’t fully understand how buying real estate is an investment and why renting is “throwing money away”
Let's look at some concepts.
Equity, appreciation, ownership
Real estate is thought to grow in value the longer you own it. That’s why it’s one of the biggest ways for people to invest their money. When you buy a place to live, you are making money just by living year after year as the place grows in value and in a place like San Francisco that is fast. That concept is called appreciation.
Let's say you bought your house for 1 million dollars and its worth $1,200,000 2 years later. It was appreciated $200K and you have $200K in extra equity. You can pull that money out to use in the form of refinancing (getting a whole new mortgage) or a home equity loan.
Lets talk about ownership. When you are renting you are paying the owner to use their home, they have the rights to do with it what they want including evicting you and not fixing things. When you are the owner the tables turn.
So when people say renting is “throwing money away” that means you are paying money to your landlord that you will never see again. When you own and are paying a mortgage you pay each month to own more of your home and owe less to the bank. When you sell or refinance you get back everything you have ever paid - interest of course.
Yes tenants have tenants rights but that is different from ownership and that is a whole different topic.
My third theory is that women don't take the proper time to self reflect and prioritize
Every woman needs to self-reflect and ask herself what kind of woman she wants to be, what kind of life she wants to have, what she wants to do professionally and personally. Where does she want to live (this can be many different places)
Let me tell you a story. A new client of mine works in San Francisco, downtown in the financial district. She has a very high demand career and is growing her all female team. She is currently renting and wants to buy a high rise downtown because it's safe, she travels a lot, and it's close to work. One day we were having lunch and she tells me
“There is a part of me that wants to live in a city but another part of me that wants to live on a ranch, what should I do?”
I turn to her and say “You can have both of those things, you can have as many houses as you want. You just need to prioritize”
What do I mean by that. Every woman has many sides to her personality. H in particular has the bad ass executive city girl side and the mellow animal loving ranch side. She knows that. However, what is her life like now and what does she need now that is a priority? She has a great career in downtown San Francisco, she is building her women team in San Francisco. She is young and in hustle mode. It is a priority for her to invest in a place to live in San Francisco right now.
That is what I mean about self reflection and priorities.