Should you rent or buy your next place?
The answer all depends on you! It depends on your personal financial situation. It depends on your lifestyle. It depends on your relational situation. Take a look at the following pros and cons of both renting and buying. Hopefully this will give you some things to consider when deciding.
Pro’s of Renting:
The first reason you may want to rent is the fact that you’ll have no maintenance expenses. When you own a home (house, condo, townhome) you have expenses. Maintaining the pool cost money, replacing old appliances, fixing a leaking roof, repairing your AC, association fee’s and the list goes on. When you rent, these expenses are covered by the property management company or your landlord.
Another benefit in renting is having no property taxes. This is typically the second largest payment next to a mortgage payment that homeowners have to incur. For renters, avoiding this expensive liability entirely is a nice benefit.
And lastly, you might want to rent your next place because you can move with ease. The process for moving can be very costly and time consuming. When you’re renting its easy!
Con’s of Renting:
The most challenging part of renting, is accepting that at the end of your lease, you’ll have no equity. When you own a place, your monthly mortgage payment pays off your debt and leaves you with more equity. When you’re renting, your lease payment pays off your landlord’s mortgage debt.
The next important thing to know about renting is your lease deadline. So the challenge is in renewing the lease. That’s not always an option. Making those longer term life plans becomes difficult due to the uncertainty of renewing your lease.
The last thing to remember is that rent increases over time. This makes things harder when trying to plan future finances amongst a host of other things. So whenever you’re thinking about renting, try considering the above while making your decision.