Michael Berdan ‘22
Opinions Editor
My wife and I bought a home in Hanover, just north of Richmond, a few weeks ago,[1] and here are a few assorted thoughts on the experience.
1. Real estate agents have conflicting incentives with their clients at a number of places in the transaction. Our agent was… fine, but if I had not been as assertive and aware, she would have cost me tens of thousands of additional dollars. Her commission structure incentivizes her to get me to offer the highest amount possible, to cause the least amount of friction possible during the time the sale is pending, and to close the sale as quickly as possible. If you can’t tell from my columns in this paper, that is not quite how I roll, and it was to our massive advantage in the process. Next time we will not be using an agent.
2. Homeowners can’t call the landlord. When the sewage drain pipe backed up and started pushing supremely stenchified liquid into the basement, I had to solve it, or pay to have it solved. When the well pressure tank stopped working, I had to solve it, or pay to have it solved. When a contractor notified me there was a snake in our basement, I had to order a pair of snake tongs and go on the hunt.
3. Homeowners also don’t have to call the landlord. When my wife decided at 11 p.m. that she did not want the upper cabinets in the kitchen, she removed them. When we decided the rotting red oak tree in the front yard was due to come down, we had it cut down, and we are having the wood milled to make our dining room table. We needed no one’s permission.
4. Homeownership is full of problem-solving opportunities. Our water comes from a well, into a pressure tank, then into a filtration system, then to the faucets. The well is literally just a pipe that goes 250-300 feet underground and sucks water up from the aquifer. Consequently, the water can get contaminated by the earth surrounding the water. Our water was tested safe and clean when we closed, but a little while after closing, it started to stink like rotten eggs. By tracing the pipes in my basement, I found out that the kitchen sink was (who knows why) plumbed to receive unfiltered water directly from the pressure tank. I can reroute the pipes myself to serve it filtered water, and we have no need to replace our filtration system, saving us about $5,000.
5. Buying a house in the country, when you have lived in the suburbs your whole life, is an experience. Who knew that basements just… leak water, and that’s okay? Who knew that hunters just come shoot deer on the adjacent property, or that they release GPS-tracked dogs that may chase their quarry for five or ten miles or more, and that interfering with one is a felony? Who knew that your Trump-voting neighbors would be so warm and welcoming, bringing cookies and home-harvested honey, and doing free electrical work to help out in a pinch? Also, I was surprised that once I set up the electric bill in our name, I didn’t have any more calls to make. There’s no gas service, no trash service, no sewer service, and no water service. We even have a wood-burning furnace for heat, and will likely get a standby generator for times when we are entirely off-grid.
6. The feeling I got when I walked into a home that truly belongs to us for as long as we want it to, was a deeply personal, intimate feeling of security and satisfaction that I think all homeowners should want for others. However, all over the country, landlords, investors, and corporations buy up property, creating an artificial scarcity and driving up prices, pulling homeownership out of the reach of more and more people. Remnants of redlining and generational wealth disparity continue to segregate homeownership along racial and other lines. Even simple conventional wisdom often serves to make homeownership seem less attainable than it may in fact be.[2] As I’ve stepped into homeownership, it’s brought me greater commitment to support efforts and policies to make it more accessible to all.
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mwb4pk@virginia.edu