Home buying as opposed to home making.

I believe it was back in 2004 when I first looked into buying a house for myself. Humorously, I thought that it would be good to "prepare for marriage" by getting myself a house which would provide for the eventuality of a wife and kids. I thought I had a great setup. One of the men at my church was my broker so I trusted him implicitly. After all, he was a Christian!

I learned very well that week that "Christians" are still subject to the same sins of non-Christians. The man spent no time teaching me about the market risks even though I was a first time home buyer. He thrust me into the market and my first offer was made in days with no knowledge or wisdom gained by asking for time to think. On top of that (and perhaps more importantly) I had only recently come to a saving faith in my Savior, Jesus Christ. Upon that fact, I should have realized that I was woefully unprepared to even consider marriage and therefore my motivation for buying a house was one of ignorance!

This man gave me the line that "there is not a better time to buy." I totally agree with his statement now that I realize he stood to gain up to a 3% commission on a $365,000 offer for a 970 sq. ft. house on a piddly plot of land. It would have been a GREAT time for HIM were I to have bought that house! The only reason I didn't get it is that God is gracious and my original offer of the above amount was not enough. I dropped out of the house hunt at that point on the advice of a good friend of mine who showed me how I had been taken advantage of. Certainly, I would have been forced to stay in the Marines had I bought that house only to watch its value tumble to what is probably $225,000 today.

All things considered, I find it absurd that the buyer's broker is given a commission on the total sale of the home. With such a system, a dishonest broker's incentive is to obtain the greatest commission possible at the expense of the buyer he is representing. A writer named "Partyboy" on a San Diego real estate blog I read put it this way:

"...As a seller, someone must scratch their head wondering why they have to pay for someone whose job is to low-ball them and negotiate a lower sale price.

Can you imagine having to go to court and your defense attorney is being paid by the prosecution and the longer the sentence you receive, the more your defense attorney gets paid?"

As a more mature Christian today, I am thankful to see more clearly that the home I will have at the end of all days will be built by Him who paid the price to gain my entrance into that home. The promise is even better than that though because not only has the price for my home been paid, but I have also been given the commission for that transaction as Christ desires to represent Himself through me! My Lord Jesus has no hidden motives or agenda in His relationship with me and He proves it by telling me all truths and calling me "friend."

As James 1:17 states, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

We have another testimony in Ephesians 1:3 where Paul writes, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ..."

Christ simply gives and expects only that His gift of unconditional love and forgiveness will transform us into creatures that love others in the same fashion. With that heavenly-mindedness, we can bring a taste of what is to come to this sad and broken vessel we inhabit and earth that we currently call home. C.S. Lewis wrote of this long ago in his pondering of heaven and earth:

"Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth thrown in. Aim at Earth and you get neither."