Epic Real Estate Investing - The $18,118 Disaster Homeowners Didn’t See Coming (82% Have Regrets) | 1478

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

In this episode, we explore the escalating costs of home ownership, driven by rising maintenance, insurance, and property taxes, with data from Bankrate's 2024 study. We highlight the real-life impact on homeowners like Emily, who face unforeseen expenses and stress. Meanwhile, big investors are capitalizing on the market by leveraging economies of scale and professional management, treating real estate strictly as a cash-producing asset. The episode ends with an invitation to a workshop in Las Vegas aimed at teaching aspiring investors how to navigate and succeed in the changing housing landscape. ...about that thing in Vegas I'm doing: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WCsH9-05vQzgZf9MAGBpUahyTqBcu9VgVqQ8pcACMT8/edit?tab=t.0 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Terio Media. Hey, strap in. It's time for the epic real estate investing show. We'll be your guides as we navigate the housing market, the landscape of creative financing strategies, and everything you need to swap that office chair for a beach chair. If you're looking for some one-on-one help, meet us at rei-aise.com. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go.

Let's go. The American dream of home ownership may be further. out of reach as the average cost of a house is becoming harder to afford. A new bank rate study just found the average homeowner bleached $18,118 a year before the mortgage. That's a 26% spike in just four years. That affects the cost of homeownership. No wonder people can't buy a home. If nobody could afford to buy a house, then how the fuck do they keep getting more expensive?

You see, owning a house used to be the safest bet in America. Today, it's a financial minefield nobody's warning you about. According to Bank Rates' $2,24 Hidden Cost of Homeownership Study, the average homeowner now spends $1,510 a month on non-mortgage costs, property taxes, insurance, maintenance, repairs, utilities. That's $18,000 a year just to keep the lights on and the roof standing. And it's accelerating fast. Homeownership costs have jumped 26% since 2020.

High-cost states like Hawaii, California, and Massachusetts, hidden bills ballooned to $25,000 to $29,000 annually. And the pain points are brutal. Average insurance nationwide is $2,285 a year, up sharply. Florida's average, double that, and still rising. Main-ins costs? Anywhere from $4,000 to $22,000 depending on your home's age. HOA dues, up 8 to 12% nationally over the last two years, with fewer services.

And good luck finding contractors. Labor shortages mean repair costs have doubled in some states since 2019. You're not just buying a home anymore. You're buying an endless stream of hidden business. invoices. So how does this play out for real people? Well, meet Emily. She's 33, works in health care, saving up, planning her future. She didn't want the headaches. So she bought a condo. HOA covered, newer building, smart play, right? Wrong. Leak under the sink, HOA said, not our problem. HVAC sputtered out in August, $6,200 repair, her cost. Midnight tenant

texts, water heater leak, emergency plumber call, $450, gone. She started missing work to meet unreliable contractors. Her weekends disappeared chasing quotes. Her savings drained faster than she could refill it. At night, she wondered, did I just buy a second job with debt and anxiety as my paycheck? And she's not alone in that question. The latest real estate witch survey found, half of new homeowners say they underestimated what it cost to own. Sixty-nine percent have regrets about their home purchase. And 44% said renting actually seems smarter. And the regret spikes higher in states hit by climate-driven insurance hikes. It's not that real estate isn't powerful. It's that nobody is preparing buyers for the real costs. And when the surprise bills hit, it's game

over for most. But if homeownership is so expensive and risky, why is Wall Street buying every house they can get their hands on? Big players like Blackstone, Invitation Homes, and dozens of hedge funds are quietly scooping up entire neighborhoods, not just a few homes, whole zip codes. So what do they know that the average homeowner doesn't? Simple. Even with rising costs, real estate delivers stable inflation-protected returns. There's a chronic shortage of quality single-family housing. New households are forming faster than builders can build. It's classic supply and demand at work. Prices can only go up. Rental cash flow stays strong, even when prices dip. And here's what the smart money does differently. They buy at scale, slashing repair, insurance, and management costs.

They outsource to professional managers, cutting down time bombs like maintenance surprises. They stay cold and logical, focusing only on cash flow math, not emotional attachment. They see real estate for what it really is, not a lifestyle symbol, not a family dream machine, a cash flow machine. You can either stay stuck playing the game like a retail buyer, or you can flip the script and start thinking like the smart money. Regardless of what the headlines are saying, and despite all these costs, real estate is really still the final frontier where the average person can build real wealth. It builds equity. It leverages appreciation. It protects against inflation. But, and it's a big but, it only works if you approach it the right way.

The challenge isn't owning assets. The challenge is following the conventional path and bleeding out before you ever get ahead. Smart investors don't play that game anymore. They target undervalued assets most average buyers ignore or don't even know exist. They use creative financing structures that cash flow from day one, not someday. They control the terms of the deal, not the tenants. They deploy systems that minimize maintenance, management, and drama. You don't need to swing a hammer. You don't need to answer midnight calls. You just need a different playbook. If you want some help with this, I'm doing this thing in Vegas this month to help a small group of aspiring legends to get in on this before the ship leaves the dock forever. I put the details in the quick link below.

So if you've got a 680 credit score better and a serious mindset, I think you're going to want to join us. Check it out. Either way, if you think $18,000 a year in hidden homeowner costs is bad, wait until you see what's happening to the housing market itself because the system has already shifted and the next 10 years are going to look nothing like the last 10. Tomorrow, I'm going to walk you through a side-by-side story. What it costs to own in 2015 and what that's going to cost by 2035 and why standing still might be the most dangerous move you can make. I'll see you tomorrow. Take care. And that wraps up the epic show.

If you found this episode valuable, who else do you know that might too? There's a really good chance you know someone else who would. And when their name comes to mind, please share it with them and ask them to click the subscribe button when they get here and I'll take great care of them. God loves you and so do I. Health, peace, blessings, and success to you. I'm Matt Terrio. Living the dream.

Yeah, yeah, we got the cash flow. We didn't know home for us, we got the cash flow. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.