You’ve been out of school for a few years, and have been making a decent salary. You and your spouse are starting to wonder if it might be time to look into new home purchases. If you are on the borderline about whether it’s better to rent or own a home, then check out these points for thought:
If you rent, here are the pros:
• You have the convenience of paying a set rent each month, without knowing that it is one drop in the bucket towards paying off a massive mortgage.
• Water pipe breaks? Oven won’t turn on? Driveway full of potholes? It’s all on the landlord when you rent. Once you own the house, every repair is up to you, as well as paying for it. If it’s going to cost you all you have to get into that new house, where will you get the money when something goes wrong?
• If you decide you don’t like your neighborhood after a few months, moving out will be available to you soon enough. If you buy a house, it’s not that simple, and you have to be very sure it’s a place that you will enjoy living in for a long time. If you move into what you think is your dream house, only to discover two months later that it’s not what you wanted, there’s much more legwork involved in getting out.
If you rent, here are the cons:
• Once you reach a certain age, you feel like it’s time to stop being a nomad and to settle down. Having to sign a lease every year gets tiresome after awhile. Also, paying rent month after month gets very repetitive.
• Living with landlords can be hit or miss. Some will be great about getting stuff done and addressing your needs. Others will be nightmares and make your life miserable. When you own a house, you have no higher authority to answer to.
• If you’re wondering if it’s better to rent or own, consider how you’ll feel if you decide to rent. You will never quite get the sense of the property being yours when you rent. You may be paying to live there, but you always feel that you’re a guest.
If you buy, here are the pros:
• New home purchases mean that even while paying off your mortgage, you feel like the home is yours.
• You can do whatever you want in your home, and not have to abide by rules set by a landlord. You can paint, decorate and remodel it as you like.
• With the exception of living in a condominium potentially, new home purchases mean you have a much higher level of privacy. Apartment buildings and two-family homes can sometime house loud neighbors.
If you buy, here are the cons:
• You have to be very set in your career path and have established yourself financially in order to qualify for a mortgage. Once you get the loan, you have to keep up with the payments or else the house goes back to the bank.
• New home purchases can seem like a lot of fun at first until you realize all the extra expenses that are tagged along with it. Yard maintenance, repair bills, snow removal. It all adds up, especially when a mortgage is stretching your budget thin.
• Some people get ahead of themselves when thinking about home ownership. It is a major decision, and not one that should be taken lightly by any means. It takes years of proper planning to be a smooth process and many young buyers don’t quite grasp that importance. If you are at all in doubt about whether it is the right time to purchase a home, you might want to think twice.