Renting a Home: Do The Pros Outweigh The Cons?

Whether you have just finished your time at college or are well into your career, there will no doubt have been a time in your life when you rented a house. It seems like a standard part of life, right? It makes it easy to have somewhere to live when you can rent. But as with most things, there are pros and cons to renting a home, rather than owning a home.

To start with, renting could be the perfect solution for you. You might not know where you want to settle or end up. So renting gives you a level of flexibility that owning a home never can. But more often than not, the pros and cons will depend on your financial situation, as well as your desired comfort level, and your family life situation. So let’s talk through the ups and downs of owning a home.

Financial Pros

The biggest financial responsibility when it comes to renting is coming up with a deposit for the rental, which is usually a month or two month’s worth of rent up front. Though that may be tricky for some, it does make it a lot easier to get together than a deposit for a house. A house can often be around twenty per cent, which ends up in the region of tens of thousands of dollars. You also don’t have to worry about repairs when it comes to renting. If the ceiling caves in due to a burst water pipe, it will be your landlord or apartment management, much like 10th Floor Brokers, that would have to deal with it all. When it is your house, you have to pay out for the repairs. You’re likely to have home insurance, but that is an additional cost that you don’t have to have when you rent.

Financial Cons

The biggest drawback when it comes to renting is that you get nothing back for your money. You are paying the mortgage for someone else effectively, and you don’t get the benefit of the appreciation on the house. So it can feel like you’re just throwing money away. You can save money in some ways when renting but can lose money in other ways too.

Decorating Your Home

If you have found your dream home and it is rented, then you’re winning as it can be tricky to get permission to do any kind of decorating in a rented home. So if you don’t really like the look of the house, then it can be hard to live in a home that doesn’t really appeal to you. Of course, if you own your own home, you can decorate your home as you like it. You can change it as often as you’d like even! Some landlords will let you change things with permission, but some won’t let you even hang pictures on the wall. So checking the full terms of your rental before signing the contract is a must.

What else have you found to be both good or bad about renting?