Wondering if there’s any truth to it

Denial- acting like nothing’s wrong. Common lines include: “buying a house is a terrible financial decision, better to rent and invest the difference in index funds” and “who would want to lock themselves into a mortgage, what if I need to move for my career” (narrator: he in fact never moved for his career). Also: “I’d rather the landlord paid all the maintenance” (narrator: costs which the landlord passed directly back to the tenant) “it’s crashed before; it can crash again!” “Once interest rates go up, I’ll be able to use my “savings” to scoop up a bargain for pennies on the dollar!” “It’s cheaper to rent!”

Anger- at this point the rentcel lashes out at everybody and everything. It’s the fault of baby boomers, the central bank, men in tiny hats, foreign investors, Blackrock, REITS, their employer, Bidenflation… anyone but themselves.

Bargaining- here the delusion begins. First bargaining with the landlord not to jack up the rent again. “How can I save a deposit if the rent is more than a mortgage payment?” They try to bargain with the banks to lend them many multiples of their income; then with the real estate agents. “We’ll waive inspection! We’ll close in 30 days!” “We’ll offer $30k over asking -$40k!” But it’s never enough. Expectations gradually lower - the slightly worse neighbourhood, the slightly older house, fewer bedrooms, longer commute… but it’s all too late. The die has been cast.

Depression- The reality sets in. A lifetime of getting your knees dirty for the landlord hoping that if you just swallow enough loads he won’t raise your rent by the full market rate… again. Maybe find a cheaper place… with each passing year the place you can afford gets smaller, older, dirtier and further out from the city.

Acceptance- perhaps the saddest and most final stage in the journey of the rentcel. Perhaps they have moved into a group home and splitting bills with some like-minded no-hopers. Perhaps they have moved back to their parents. Or living in a van by the lake. But they know the truth. The market has passed them by and they will now spend their adult life wageslaving to pay an ever increasing proportion of their meagre income to pay off their landlord’s property investment.

yes but it's not a chronological order, you can be in two phases at once and jump all over to different phases at any given time

lol @ rentcels

Please elaborate

How can you be in denial about the fact that you will never own a property but also angry at everyone about that fact at the same time

Yes, but sometimes you skip a step or two.

When my mom died I never had denial, but I definitely went through the other stages to some degree.

no.
I never had the first 3 steps, I was in Depression after my mother died and I never had Acceptance, the pain just got weaker and is locked away now.

The thought that occurs just before “We could be in trouble” is “Everything couldn’t be better”. Hubris is fatal.

Agree.

Real, but it isn't like a board game where you make an orderly forward progression.

Not sure if this example qualifies or if adaptation would be a better description, though I suppose some expectations died.

If I had the means I could carve this small-ish house into 3 homes and rent two out...garage conversion and master suite > efficiency, remainder would be a 2/1 with no garage.

What does that have to do with my post? Did you forget to take your pills again?

Also it’s not relevant because they have no “winnings” to make a heap of

LOL @ Rentcells srs

As far as grief goes, you can bounce around stages somewhat. For instance losing my German Shepherd to being hit by a car, anger came before I guess acceptance although goes back to depression.

Yes, can confirm. Lost my mom last year. Hard as **** to get out of the depression one doe.

Why all the examples about house ownership?

Rentcels

the single biggest sufferers of grief/loss on the misc right meow