Harsh Realities Come With Dream House

I question the wisdom of financial planner Scott A. Leonard’s encouraging Taryn Maso-Soto to pursue her dream of homeownership without also urging her to educate herself about money management [“A Home of Her Own Is Where Her Heart Is,” July 29].

A 40-year-old single mother of two who impulsively obligates herself to years of outsize automobile payments on an afternoon is hardly a likely candidate for the rigors of homeownership.

My husband is a general contractor who has done all the maintenance on the houses we’ve owned. Knowing what it would cost to replace, say, the washer in a leaky faucet or a burned-out light switch, I would no more attempt to own a home without him than fly. We just re-roofed for the cost of materials--instead of the $10,000 my neighbors have to put out.

I think it was shortsighted and irresponsible of Leonard not to point out to Maso-Soto some of the gritty realities of homeownership that happen when you can no longer just ring up the landlord when some small or large thing goes wrong with one’s home.

PAULI CARNES

Woodland Hills