Friday, February 26, 2010

Top Ten Reasons Why Renting Is Better Than Owning

10. When they build a strip club (or insert whatever loud or obnoxious business) right across the street from you, you can move.

9. I love interior designs from 10-15 years ago. New and nice things like granite and stainless steel are a waste of money (who am I kidding I love those things).

8. You can give in to the constant pressure to trade up. Everyone I know who has lived in their house for 25 years or more has seen a significant decline in their neighborhood over time. People with money move on to the bigger and better.

7. The American dream is overrated. We are brought up to believe in order to be successful in life you must own a home. We are also brought up to believe in order to be successful in life you have to get a college education. 10 years later and tens of thousands of dollars in student loan debt and bachelor's degree later I am here to challenge both these assumptions.

6. Property taxes are someone else's problem.

5. Homeowners can't do crazy stuff like move across the country for a job with 2 weeks notice. Oh wait, some of you would never consider this, really???

4. Speaking of moving. If your neighbors suck you can move. Not that mine do, I actually love my neighbors. Or if you kids' school sucks you can easily move to a better school.

3. The price of a home is astronomical. A house our size, in our area is at least 5 times my hubby's annual salary, yikes! We will just disregard that fact that we pay more in rent monthly than a lot of people pay for a mortgage.

2. There is no guarantee your investment is going to go up in value over the short term. This is one of the biggest changes in my thinking. While everyone was making crazy money in the real estate market in the early 2000's the tide has changed and millions of homeowners are now upside down on their mortgages. That is a scary possibility for me, especially since if we owned a home we would've put little or no money down.

1. You don't have to deal with repairs! We have been in our house for almost a year and the landlord has replaced the garbage disposal, repaired the washer twice, sent a plumber and then two roofers to fix a mysterious leak in the laundry room ceiling, repaired the heater, and now the upstairs tub drain needs repaired, the washer is leaking water again, and the shed roof collapsed. I don't know if we could've afforded all that this year.


On a serious note we do want to be homeowners someday but have realized over the past year or two that waiting until we are ready both career wise and financially is a much better way to go for our family. Especially since making money when you sell a home is no longer a guarantee I am OK with renting and going with the safer, more flexible bet. I know some of you homeowners out there may disagree but we are young, we have plenty of time to own a home in the future.

12 comments:

Gina said...

B and I have thought about selling our house and renting for a while to save some money. Great reasons!

Lesley said...

I LOVE number 7.....so true...and I'm starting to agree that maybe renting isn't so bad after all!....especially when it's so hard to get a loan these days anyway!

Unknown said...

Good for you for being open-minded and making the right decision for YOU! We also waited much later than all our friends and family to buy a house, and I'm so glad we did.

Brittany Ann said...

I admit..I like renting. The military life makes it inevitable, but I'm OK with it! Keeps me organized!

Evolving Mommy Catherine said...

I think it is better to wait for the right time for you and your family to buy instead of submitting the the pressure of society and others to buy.It also helps when you don't go along with the ideas that others have for what you should buy, I love my townhouse regardless of if it is what other people think is the best choice.

Anonymous said...

My husband and I rented for years for many of the reasons you listed. You are absolutely right. We both agree--home ownership is overrated.

We rented for the first twelve years we were together, and then bought our one and only house and have lived in that for ten years. Both are unheard of these days.

When we did finally buy, we bought a 145-year-old fixer-upper in the country. Our neighbors are farmers; my husband works with executives living in houses they can't afford and paying taxes out the wazoo. My hubby gets comments all the time about when he's going to buy a "real" house, or doesn't he get paid enough to buy a "real" house, or when is that house of ours going to be fixed. We are expected to subscribe to the idea of "upward mobility," or someone else's idea of upward mobility. Personally I'm happy with what I've got.

If what you are doing works for you, then that's what you should be doing. Good for you for living according to your standards and not someone else's!

Mrs. Micek said...

You make such good points!!! And I'm totally on your side!! Owning is HARD WORK!!

Cranky Mommy said...

Yeah, I could totally do without the home up-keep!
Happy SITS Day!

citymouse said...

I agree! We bought our first home the same year we celebrated our 20th anniversary. It's been different owning our home the past 3 years and some have been good while others, not so much. (The fact that we live in a 100+ year old house doesn't help either.)

Sarah With Scissors said...

I just bought my first house last year and there are sure a lot of renting benefits I miss. But then again when I want to rip the floor up and lay hardwood... i can. When I want to knock down a wall... I can. When I break a window nobody gives me a bad reference for my next home. But considering I just had a flood and had to deal with insurance on the repairs I wanted to go back to renting... then I saw the neighbours who are renting and realized it wasn't much better... at least I got to yell at a contractor for doing more damage to my house :)

Stacey @ Tree, Root, and Twig said...

I was just talking about this very thing to a friend tonight! We've been married 17 years, have 5 kids, and have never owned a home. I see the judgement in people's eyes when I say that, but honestly, it's given us a lot of freedom over the years. Move when we want, have things fixed without the stress of finding the money for repairs. I don't know, it's the family that makes the home, not the name on the deed. Loved your thoughts on this! :)

Katherine Hunt said...

I much prefer renting, I would rather invest in stock because stock can fallow me. I hate being tied down to anything and a house definitely does that.