This property (owner) is not condemned
By: Paul Gooch | Posted: 23rd July 2006
This property (owner) is not condemned
Why do some people assume that because you are improving your home you are planning to sell it?
The inference is clear: you are not the kind of person that would normally improve their home. You have been condemned as the kind of person that would normally be content to live in a dump, a garbage heap.
This happened to me recently when a neighbour noticed that I had made a few improvements to my home. He commented on it to another neighbour and asked him if it signified that I was planning to sell the place.
I had painted a wall outside my parking space, and for the benefit of the minority of people who are interested in these things, I painted it white. The purpose of this was to make the area more secure. There's a security light on the wall and I reasoned that a white wall would reflect the light more. This would the whole area area brighter and might deter low-lifes from hanging around there.
I didn't explain this to my observant neighbour, of course. Why should I? I don't have to explain anything to anybody. I own the wall (and the parking space, and the apartment.) Really own it. It isn't like most walls, which are owned by banks or mortgage companies.
They are just borrowed walls. They are the kind of walls that you can borrow for a while, the next hundred years, as long as you keep up the mortgage payments on them.
So, over-observant and over-property-market-oriented neighbour, get this straight. I'm not the kind of person you seem to think I am. I improve my home because I like it, not because I'm planning to sell it.
This home owner should not be condemned.
About the Author
Occupation: Photographer and Photojournalist
Paul Gooch is a freelance photographer and photojournalist from Skegness, England. He has published many articles about photography and photojournalism on his web site, but writes on the home page of the site `the web site is also about the effect that photography has on our lives, it is about issues which affect everyone, regardless of their nationality or culture, and the ideas are discussed frankly and without prejudice'.
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Tags: benefit, banks, neighbour, apartment, improvements, mortgage payments, property owner, mortgage companies, parking space, inference