Women – The Importance of Owning Your Own Home

November 20, 2008 · Kathy Wall

A heroine of mine is a woman by the name of Dee. She has since passed on, but she was my neighbor for a few years after I moved to Brisbane. Like me, she was divorced. She had purchased her home all on her own 40+ years before, during a time when it was very rare for a woman to be divorced, let alone buy her own home, especially in the wild and wooly town that Brisbane was in those days.

Dee was an amazing woman, taking care of herself and her home well into her 90′s and remaining in the home she loved so much until her death. Doing whatever it took, she made darned sure that she was financially secure. Dee was my role model. But, somewhere along the line, I lost sight of her wisdom.

As a single woman who has supported myself for the last 15+ years selling real estate, this recent economic turn of events has been incredibly eye opening and, frankly, terrifying for me. What it has illuminated, is how very important it is to “save for that rainy day” as my Mom was constantly telling me. Boy, has that rainy day come and was I ever not prepared for it!

Up until 2007, I felt incredibly secure. After all, I earned in the 6 figures, owned my own home and had plenty of good stocks. I had it made, or so I thought. So confident in myself, my abilities and the economy, that instead of putting every penny I had into paying off my mortgage, I bought an expensive sports car, took many vacations and regularly ate in fancy restaurants. How very naive and foolish I was! As everyone knows, the real estate and stock markets have since tanked. Needless to say, I had to sell the sporty little car, borrow on or sell most of my stocks and the shares that were left are dropping so fast, it’s hard to watch.

As I’m sure you can imagine, all of this was quite devastating to me. But, in the long run, it has actually turned out to be a really good thing. I have always taken great personal care of my real estate clients, especially my first time homebuyers, but this experience has made me realize that I had not been paying nearly enough attention to building my real estate business and strengthening my past client relationships.

This situation has brought me back to reality and has helped me to get my priorities back in the right place…taking much greater care of my real estate business and making sure that the wonderful Brisbane home I love so much gets paid off quickly, so that no one can ever take it from me. I realized that it isn’t just a house. It stands for my independence, my security…my future.

What this last year has made me realize is just how valuable home ownership is for everyone, but mostly for women. Every woman should do anything she can to purchase a home of her own. A home that is strictly hers and that no one can ever take from her. Love is wonderful, companionship is fantastic, but just in case something goes wrong, we should always have a home that is completely our own.

Financial independence is an amazing feeling…one worth working very hard to achieve. I have my priorities back on track now and plan to do whatever I can to help other women achieve their goals of home ownership.

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4 Responses to “Women – The Importance of Owning Your Own Home”

Burt Tsuei • (650) 871-3634 on November 20th, 2008 9:18 pm

I think we can all learn a lot from Dee!! Thanks for sharing your experience.

Burt
http://www.RealEstateBurt.com
KC on November 21st, 2008 6:39 pm

WoW! What a GREAT post! I can TOTALLY relate to some of those issues. Your frankness and honesty is really awesome and will attract more people to you than most!
Shokoofeh on November 23rd, 2008 1:00 am

Great post, Kathy. Now, we can say, mom was right and we should have listened more.
Adam Chinn on November 23rd, 2008 1:33 am

Great Post Kathy! I believe a lot can be taken from your story and I am glad you shared it. I do believe it is important for any person to be financially independent and I truly believe one of the best ways to do that is through real estate. I’m trying my best to do the same.