• New Barrier Homeownership: Realtor Trina Gonzales-Van pointed out that additional fees to home buyers can create more problems, particularly in marginalized communities. It’s like they are throwing a house party and the entry fee just went up…that’s not how you host a good shindig!
• Real Estate Bingo: Gonzalez-Van reckons that these fees limit the chances of first-time homebuyers and low-income families owning a home. It’s like trying to play bingo but all the cards are sold out. Not funny, right?
• Fees Scaling Faster than Godzilla: She notes that these costs have surged higher than the classic Godzilla climbing the Empire State Building! It’s like having to buy popcorn at the movies for the price of a Tesla.
• The Wall Against Diversity: The increasing fees are seen not just as a roadblock to homeownership, but as a hurdle against diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in the housing market. That’s sort of like inviting everyone to a pool party but forgetting to fill the pool.
• The Wallet Cleaners: The extra costs span from having to pay legal fees, to processing costs or even council rates, they just love taking a tumble in your wallet, don’t they?
• The Van’s Stand: In her take, Ms. Gonzales-Van proposes that there should be rules in place to cap these costs. Apparently, she’s tired of these costs playing the fiddle while Rome burns!

Real Estate: An Unscalable Wall or Money-Gobbling Godzilla?

A Bed of Thorns or a Cave of Unseen Monsters?

Let’s paint a picture here: imagine you have been saving for a gazillion years to buy your dream home — a quaint little nest complete with a backyard for those impromptu barbeques. Just when you are ready to pop the champagne, along comes a swarm of additional fees, hurdles, and red tapes singing, “Hold my beer!”

Walnut Against a Boxing Gloves

While it’s usual to associate buying a house with costs like transfer duty and mortgage insurance, the ballooning of these invisible costs is turning dreams into financial nightmares faster than a freshly crazed zombie. It’s like buying a walnut and then getting sucker-punched by the price of the boxing gloves.

Fees, Equity, and Inclusion: A Badly Mixed Cocktail

More than just an economic pitfall, it’s also acting as a social hurdle. For marginalized communities and low-income families, this rising cost is like a seemingly never-ending game of snakes and ladders where the ladders are missing rungs and the snakes are on steroids. Now that’s a game nobody wants to play!

The Cry for Justice: Cap the Vampiric, Surging Costs

Our homegirl, Trina Gonzales-Van, isn’t having any of it, though. Bound and determined, she’s championing for rules to put a leash on these ever-ballooning costs. Surely a noble endeavor, one must concede! May her voice echo louder than a herd of wild elephants playing the trumpet!

In conclusion, next time you’re thinking about skipping that daily expensive latte to save for a house, remember, there might be some much larger, metaphorical Godzilla-like fees waiting for you. It looks like the real estate market could do with a lot less drama and a whole lot more ‘home sweet home’. In the sidelined words of Realtor Trina Gonzales-Van, “there are hurdles, and then there are barriers. Let’s not make our homes the latter!”

Original article: https://www.inman.com/2023/12/22/nar-must-find-a-way-to-advocate-for-marginalized-buyers-post-sitzer/