Renting vs Buying a house

[genchan]

I'm in the market to buy a house. I've heard most of the advantages about buying, but last night I was talking to a friend that started telling me about the advantages of renting.

Since I assume many of the people here have both rented and owned a house, I would like to hear what you think are any big advantages of renting over owning a house?

[PrincessPerky]

I think if you have to fork over that much loot per month you might as well get something besides a roof for it (equity)

[Momof3grls]

I have only bought houses I have never rented but I think some advantages to renting would be you are not tied to the place like when you buy you are pretty much stuck.

And another thing is if you are not a handy person around the house if you rent you dont need to worry about that its supposed to be taken care of by someone else. Another thing is I know some people who live in apartments because they dont want to do yard work.

[34saving]

Financially I think you're almost always going to be better off buying. The big exception to this would be that you're not planning on staying very long (I'd say at least 2 years).

Just so you know there's also a hybrid out there called a "lease-option". It kind of like rent-to-own but since each seller sets them up differently, some of them are actually okay deals (some of them are HORRIBLE deals, so you have to be careful). If you're interested in knowing more, reply and I can let you know more.

[asrai]

Renting is nice because I don't have to worry about the maitenince.

Of course, buying something cheap (really cheap in our case and since this city just keeps growing insanely it should be easy to sell anything) makes more sense since it will likely go up in value, our mortage payments will be half our rent so we can save to make repairs to the place. Things like that.

[Tree0164]

We have owned our own house for almost 9 years now.

Unless you are fairly mobile and like to move, buying is best. Of course make sure you can afford the mortgage and that includes taxes, homeowners insurance, etc.

[SeeAPenny]

As long as one buys a home within his/her means (and, as mentioned, is intending to stay put for 2 or 3 years at the least), buying almost always makes the most financial sense. But, it's a personal choice. Home ownership does bring with it considerable responsibility, and there will always be some more ready and willing to take that big step than others.....

[gakline]

I own a townhouse, and the association takes care of all the exterior maintenance, including: mowing, trimming, shoveling, edging, plantings, roof, painting, siding, driveways, etc. My assessment also includes water, sewage, and garbage.

Basically I only have to take care stuff from the drywall in. It's definately worth it if you don't have time, or don't want to be bothered.

[obi_positive]

Buying seems to make more financial sense because the equity is like growing savings account and the interest on a mortgage is deductible on taxes (can't do that while renting). When you pay the house off, the money going toward mortgage is now your extra money to invest. Live in an area where the homes around your house are more valuable. They keep the property value high, and they add to your equity when you sell. Look on homesales.gov for some foreclosure deals where someone else has already paid in part of the equity for you.

[globetrotter]

I have always been contranian on this, but that is due to my DH and how he convinced us to buy our house.

When we were saving for our house, we decided that we would save until we had the entire amount to buy a house in cash. On paper it looked like owning a house made more sense because rent in our area was actually higher than what a mortgage payment would have been. But when we DH calculated all the extra expenses that you need to pay for on a house that you don't on an apartment, we figured that the house would actually cost us about $500 a month more than renting...now that we own and realize all the extras that have to be paid for, our estimate was probably conservative.

We took that money and and invested it and we able to pay for our house in cash after 10 years.

The downside is that we missed out on any equity increases over that time. The upside is that our house is completely paid for and we never had to worry about a mortgage payment.

[ggbwg]

Exactly, we're paying $600 a month for rent. If i could have pretty good credit and afford the house and all i would do that. In reality the price you pay for your monthly rent that is what your house is usually costing.

[mom-from-missouri]

If you rent, make sure you have a decent landlord. I rented from good ones and bad ones. You assume they will take care of mechanical and structural ones, but not always. I once had to fix the furnace myself, because the landlord wasnt doing it. He ignored my calls and I know he was aware of it, because he did sign and accept a registred letter I sent him. I took it out of the rent, and he then took me to court for not paying full rent. However, in my rental contract, it stated he was responsible for the furnace, so the judge ruled in my favor.
I now own, and if something breaks, its up to me. I have learned a few tricks of the trade to keep expenses down-there are some very cheap credit card insurances out there that cover large appliances-so if I do need a new dishwasher-I charge it, then pay it in full the net month. That way the insurance on my Visa or Sears card will cover the item for 2 or 3 years should it break. My electric company and water companies also offer insurance-very similar to what phone companies have offered for years. I had a water main break on my side that cost me over $1000 to fix. After it was fixed, I got the insurance thru the water company for $1 a month. Two years later, I had another break-they came and fixed it, and I was not out a penny-and I did not have to pay for the extra water that went thru my meter. You should also make it a habit to glance at your water meter every few days to make sure your usage doesnt suddenly increase--a signal of a leak on your side.

[deckape]

10 years ago I was renting a 2 bed 1 bath duplex for $400.00 a month, I bought a 3 bd 2 bath house and the note with inc. was $550.00, my son is renting that same duplex at $550.00 a month, my house is worth almost 3 time what I paid for it, and I can make all the changes I can affored