Why do we invest in Real Estate?
A few quick answers come to mind:
(a) we're interested in making a quick buck.
(b) we're lazy.
(c) we are interested in owning a fiefdom, over which we reign supreme.
Lately, I have thought long and hard about this question. I even thought about it for a long while in front of the United States Supreme Court in Manhattan on Center Street, standing in meditative silence there for long enough to attract the negative attention of the U.S. Marshals, who eyed my long-bearded silhouette with weathered apprehension.
As a way to make money, owning rental property is not quick. No - to the contrary. Experience and many an old hand has taught me that there are plentiful quicker ways to make a buck, but no faster way to lose one. The dichotomy used to puzzle me; no longer.
Owning real property is not easy, and certainly not for the lazy. Real property is regarded an "active investment." After a long day of work: to unplug another's toilet, to reset switches on the electrical panel, to call the roofer to inquire about checking leak - none of these are in any way relaxing.
And certainly none of these answers suggest that an landlord is a fat, complacent ruler of any empire, large or small. To the contrary, I often consider land-lording a public service - a role in which I suffer in small bits in order to achieve longer moments of relaxation - without a clear sense of whether I am in the red or in the black. As long as my tenants are happy, I am happy. And often I invest my hard-won funds in beautiful places, without knowing exactly why.
Today I had a moment of clarity, and I think I have the answer to the why. Why is it that we invest in real estate?
We invest in real estate because it a gateway to our ultimate passions. Love in the face of clouds of beetles and apostolic betrayals - and failing a better, more modern, less denominational analogy - the only obvious desire as a human being is singular:
to love and be loved.
Love. It's the reason that cities have (in a society in which the family farm has been replaced by a multiplicitous machination of its former self), become the forum for the basest, purest expressions of humanity.
The reason we invest in real estate is simple. It's the reason why the Canada Geese migrate south in winter, for the same forces that drive leather-back turtles to undertake 10,000 mile migrations. We invest in order to be together.
We invest for Love, from Love, of Love.
We invest in order to collaborate, in order to share the pleasure in the intangible, unintelligible logic, the ecstasy of life.
We invest because it makes a certain sense. No, not to everybody. That much is certain. Not everybody agrees that investing precious savings into bricks and sticks, to share with fellow human beings, makes any sense at all. Yet we do.
And it's not like money comes easily. We, the real investors, have made thousands of small, daily sacrifices in order to achieve investable amounts. We have sacrificed pleasures large and small (snickers to kicks, trips to flicks), in order to achieve a better future, through a better society; a better world as a result. We are not ashamed, no regrets. To the contrary. We are unfailingly optimistic, even in the face of certain doom and the terrifying possibility of loss, of failure, of doom.
We invest because we have faith in the ultimate succession of humanity. We are not thinking of nuclear doom and apocalypse by zika. We invest because we believe in the power of government, of science, of community, of family. We invest because we believe that it takes a village to raise a child, and we are willing to bet on mothers' love. We think it an excellent wager to invest in the strength of our neighbors.
We put our hard earned cash down, because we believe that love conquers all, and that the laughter of a child, playing in the street, is worth investing in.
This is why we will continue to invest in Real Estate.
