Why Rent When You Can Own

Why Rent when you can own for around the same price or cheaper.

1. Get more space for the money, typically when you rent you pay a lot of money for not as much space as you could have for the same money. 

2.When you are paying rent, you are covering someone else’s mortgage payment. (If the house is not already paid off)  If the house is paid off its straight cash into your landlords pocket.  If you don’t own or want to own, you are probably thinking I don’t want the responsibility if things go wrong or you don’t want to take care of the lawn or maintenance. 

3.You can easily purchase a home warranty at closing that will take care of most appliances or items in the home that go wrong(items that could be costly repairs).  If a warranty is purchased, there is a minimal fee to have a technician come out to fix the items for a fraction of the price opposed to not having a warranty and potentially paying a ton of money to an unknown company to get the items fixed.  If you don’t want to take care of the lawn, buy a home with a small yard or pay a teenager $20 to mow your yard or look at condos that take care of the mowing for you. 

4.As a home owner you could save money on your taxes, receiving deductions for interest paid on a mortgage and many other possible deductions for owning.  If you stay in the home long enough to pay it off, then you only owe taxes and insurance, which could be minimal- saving you hundreds or thousands monthly. 

5.With owning you have the potential to build equity in the home- doesn’t always happen, but could!  6.Also, some landlords are extremely strict and don’t let you personalize the home by painting or hanging pictures or don’t allow pets. You can avoid landlords, and become the owner by purchasing and making your own rules.  Since it will be your own place you can do whatever you please, inside and out. (within reason if you live in an HOA with restrictions) 

7.FHA has a lot of programs currently that allow as little as 3% down payment to purchase a home, making it a little more affordable for everyone to own a home. If you negotiate to have the seller pay closing costs and the house qualifies for FHA you will have very little money tied up in the house right off the bat.

 

My thought- if you have to pay to live somewhere, you should be paying your own mortgage payment down by owning it yourself, instead of paying someone else's mortgage down.