Glossary

Carrying Costs

The ongoing monthly costs of owning a house: mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, HOA. Used honestly to price time; used dishonestly to manufacture urgency.

Carrying costs are real and accumulate every month a property sits. They're also the primary lever operators use to manufacture artificial urgency: "every month you wait costs you $X." The honest version of this conversation acknowledges carrying costs as one factor in comparing paths — not as a reason to sign today without comparing paths at all.

Read more in the Field Guide:

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