Hana LaRock

A real estate agent answers.

While I’ve always wanted to buy a house to make into a home, my partner has always looked at real estate as a financial investment, not an emotional one. We both have our reasons: My family lost our home when I was 13, and I love the idea of raising a family and creating memories in a financially-stable house I own. My partner comes from an immigrant family, and he was brought up to see homeownership solely as a means of generating passive income. The thing we can agree on?

As a renter or a buyer, you’ve probably heard the words agents, brokers, and Realtors used to describe the same person who is helping you buy, rent, or sell your house or apartment. There’s even a chance you’ve used these three terms interchangeably. While an agent, a broker, and a Realtor will all help you buy or sell a home, these terms are not synonyms and do mean different things.

Want to build your dream home from scratch? Don’t want to wait forever and drain your savings? A prefabricated—or prefab—home is the way to go. They’re built in a factory and transported section-by-section to be assembled almost wherever you please—almost like the IKEA furniture of homes. There are many pro and cons to buying prefab homes, and many ways to go about it.