A House is a Liability, Not Asset Unfortunately, many investors continually mistake certain liabilities for assets. A house is often considered an asset, but it's actually one of the biggest liabilities you can have. Buying a house often means working your entire life to pay off a 30-year mortgage and property taxes. This works against you in two ways. First, you're guaranteed to have a massive expense taken away from your income every month (a tell-tale sign of a liability) for the next 360 months. Second, those 360 payments could have been invested in potentially more lucrative assets, like stocks or real estate you rent to tenants.