How Co-buying Differs vs. a Typical Home Purchase

Co-buying introduces complexity to (an already) challenging home-buying process.

How so?‍

1. Homeownership is built for traditional nuclear households‍

The systems that support homeownership serve an outdated idea about who buys and owns homes.

Specifically, our financial, legal, commercial, and tax frameworks assume all home buyers and homeowners are married couples, also known as “traditional nuclear households.” The irony is that humans have lived together in groups for most of history—as extended families, friends, boarders, and workers.

Today, married couples account for fewer than half of all US households.

While times have changed, our institutions have not.

The lack of a framework for co-ownership creates friction before, during, and after a purchase. This translates into greater complexity, higher costs, increased uncertainty, and added risk for co-buyers and co-owners.

2. Multiple parties magnify difficulties‍

Imagine you want to meet a couple of friends for dinner on Friday night. There are only a few considerations: who will participate, where you’ll go, and when you’ll meet. But most of us have experienced how a simple get-together can become a hairy affair.

Co-buying is infinitely more complex. Buying a home together requires communication, coordination, cooperation, and alignment between participants across many fronts and over an extended time horizon. Dinner ends after a few hours; co-ownership can last many years.

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