Are these "suggestions" a way to ensure your client will be a lifelong renter?

Informed buyers are lifelong buyers. The last thing you want is someone who is blindsided by the realities of home-ownership. In my business, I practice informing my clients to ensure they take the steps that make the most sense for them and their families.

my thought exactly! terrible article!

These suggestions are not meant to discourage someone who is currently renting from buying a home. Instead, there are two benefits from these suggestions: (1) if followed, these suggestions will ensure that the prospective buyer will go into the purchase with the proper mindset and preparation; (2) they will help the current renter determine whether buying is really the best option. Our job as REALTORs® is not to persuade everyone to buy instead of rent: It is to help our clients make the best choice based on their circumstances, needs, and preferences.

After reading all this why would a renter ever want to buy?

This just goes to show how hard it is for this Magazine to come up with something new to print issue after issue. And experienced Realtor knows how to talk to Renters turning to Owners without much of this junk! One one hand warn them about HOAs, on the other had warn them about their neighbor (guess they didn't have neighbors when renting) because no HOAs.

This is excellent advice, and anyone considering owning a home who has not owned a home before, need to know that things will be different than when they were renting. Better going into home ownership with eyes wide open, than not knowing these differences.

This appears to be written by a mover? Are they really an appropriate contributor? I find the last point about renters to be offensive and innacurate, actually. The pure fact of having renters next door or in a higher concentration has nothing to do with property values or curb appeal of a neighborhood. I've known just as many renters who wanted to live in a home they were proud to have family and friends visit, and plenty of homeowners who were terrible at maintaining their homes. Categorizing all renters as detrimental to home values is a form of discrimination in my opinion. And that doesn't even consider the neighborhoods that get gentrified and have home values soar because investors renovate and create greatly improved housing for renters. This article does point out that there are increased responsibilities in homeownership and it shouldn't be taken lightly. But how it portrays renters is negligent and dangerous.