Gary Vaynerchuk, a tech investor and prominent speaker who just weeks ago held a conference for real estate agents, recently gave an interview in which he criticized the idea of homeownership and said buying a house is a bad use of capital.
Last month on the Cannonball Mindset podcast, Vaynerchuk stated that he does “not think the American dream should be buying a home anymore.”
“It’s fucking bullshit,” he continued. “It’s a bad use of upfront capital and it ties you up. And it’s just not smart.”
Vaynerchuk made comments while taping the podcast in New York City on Jan. 22. Cannonball Mindset posted the interview on Jan. 29, but it began attracting wider attention last week when Vaynerchuk shared video from the taping on both his Twitter and YouTube accounts.
The timing of the interview is particularly notable because it was recorded just five days after Vaynerchuk’s Agent 2021 conference in Miami. The conference bills itself as a single-day event that “educates agents and owners in four industries (real estate, auto, insurance, and mortgage) on how to use innovation to grow your business.”
Vaynerchuk was a keynote speaker at the event, which is now in its second year. Doubtless many of the event’s attendees make a living by serving homebuyers and sellers, so the comments could inflame some of his following.
Vaynerchuk got his start revamping his family’s wine business, but has since become the CEO of his own company, VaynerMedia, and describes himself on Twitter as an investor in a variety of famous tech companies including Snapchat, Uber and Venmo. He has also written several books on entrepreneurism and routinely works as a speaker at events, including previously appearing at Inman Connect San Francisco 2016, Inman’s parent company’s annual summer conference.
His comments on the January podcast about homeownership were initially unprompted. After saying that homeownership is not “smart” he added that he is “pissed that I own a home.”
“I would literally rent in perpetuity now,” Vaynerchuk continued. “And I will. Like, I will never buy another new home.”
He added that while buying a home, along with going to college, might have worked in the 1950s and 1970s, it no longer does. Moments later, Vaynerchuk indicated that people buy homes for “acceptance” and seemed to suggest that purchasing real estate is less wise than spending money on fashionable clothing or a Lamborghini.
“On a home I actually don’t know if you own it or rent it, and that’s why it’s vulnerable because it actually doesn’t matter to the outside person,” he went on to say. “It’s not important, it matters that you’re in that home. And if you actually play it out it means people are going to live in much better homes, because if you’re not using all that upfront cash and you’re just renting you can go higher up and be in a fancier place.”
Vaynerchuk also appeared to criticize the concept of using property to build intergenerational wealth.
“Why do you need to own a home?” he wondered aloud. “To leave it to your kids? They can rent too.”
Vaynerchuk did not discuss the various economic policies — for example, the mortgage interest deduction — in the U.S. that have long been designed incentivize homeownership as a wealth building tool.
He also did not immediately respond to Inman’s request for comment Friday.
Watch the entire interview here: