Do you feel freer renting than owning?

[jld]

A gal on the debt thread mentioned this. Do you appreciate the freedom, or would you rather own?

[simka2]

I'm doing both right now. Renting does feel a bit more free. I didn't expect it to feel like this. :001_smile:

[The Girls' Mom]

I'd rather own. We've been in this rental for a year, and will be here for another year before we will be able to move again and buy a home. I. can't. wait. I hate being restricted in what I can do to my house. It may have been better if I actually LIKED this house..lol.

 

Having done both, I'd much, much rather own.

[kokotg]

I never did. I was only 24 when we bought our first house, but even before that being a renter always made me feel kind of vulnerable and insecure. I think a lot of it has to do with having animals. I very nearly couldn't move to be close to my then boyfriend, now husband the year after I graduated college (he had another year to go, in an out of state college) because it was so hard to find somewhere I could take my dog. When we moved to Boston after he graduated, we went to a realtor and took the ONE listing she had that was pet-friendly. Might also have to do with my childhood...I lived in one house (a house my Dad built himself) until my parents got divorced when I was 10, and after that we bounced from rental house to rental house for years. So I think I probably tend to associate renting with instability and, umm, emotional trauma? That might be overstating it a bit, but something like that.

[jld]

I never did. I was only 24 when we bought our first house, but even before that being a renter always made me feel kind of vulnerable and insecure. I think a lot of it has to do with having animals. I very nearly couldn't move to be close to my then boyfriend, now husband the year after I graduated college (he had another year to go, in an out of state college) because it was so hard to find somewhere I could take my dog. When we moved to Boston after he graduated, we went to a realtor and took the ONE listing she had that was pet-friendly. Might also have to do with my childhood...I lived in one house (a house my Dad built himself) until my parents got divorced when I was 10, and after that we bounced from rental house to rental house for years. So I think I probably tend to associate renting with instability and, umm, emotional trauma? That might be overstating it a bit, but something like that.

 

(((kokotg)))

[Unicorn.]

Having done both, I'd much, much rather own.

 

:iagree: I love the freedom and security that comes w/ owning. And, it's an investment. With renting, it's like throwing money away.

[jld]

:iagree: I love the freedom and security that comes w/ owning. And, it's an investment. With renting, it's like throwing money away.

 

Even on the coasts, Unicorn?

[Amira]

Unquestionably I do feel freer renting right now, but it depends on the circumstances. If I knew we were going to stay in one place for many years, I'd love to own. But without that fairly certain stability, it is much less stressful to me to rent. We did build our own house at one point, and I loved a lot of things about it, but for us, owning isn't a good option.

[Carrie12345]

We spent the first half of our marriage renting, and now the second half "owning" (you know, our tiny piece of equity).

While I definitely miss the freedom of being able to move at the end of a lease, or even before, for a small fee, I absolutely enjoy owning much more. I can do whatever I want to my house, short of knocking it down!

[Rosy]

Owning for sure. Yes, the interest is high, but in the first house we sold we made back every penny we'd put into the house, including rent. The second house we basically broke even, but we're not subject to a landlord who can raise our rent or ask us to leave at any time. Also, in 30 years it is likely that we'd be paying vastly more on rent than we currently are on our mortgage. When real estate appreciates, rental prices go up...but my mortgage is fixed until it's paid off.

[Mejane]

And, it's an investment. With renting, it's like throwing money away.

 

That is not always true. Sometimes just the opposite.

 

Having owned three houses and rented, I'd much rather rent. I'd love to be able to close up and go.

[jld]

"owning" (you know, our tiny piece of equity).

 

 

Lol -- ain't it the truth, ain't it the truth . . .

[Little Nyssa]

Yes, freer in the sense that all maintenance, taxes, etc, are taken care of. We just live here-- no worries.

 

But not freer in the sense that now we are bound to a lease & can't break it.

[i.love.lucy]

We sold our big house we could no longer afford (we were lucky!) and now rent. Our rent is $800/month less than that house. So in my circumstances, yes I feel freer. But I would love to own for what we are paying now! I'd pay extra to shorten the time on the mortgage and know that someday I could live here sans payment. We can't paint and even have attempted to fix some things that were wrong with this house (just to make it more livable for us - like gluing down the linoleum where it has peeled up) but we often feel like our hands are tied. Honestly though, we are SO grateful to have a nice warm home and DH a good job that I don't think about trying to buy anything any time soon. Some major repair to our credit has to occur before that can happen!

[Elizabeth in WA]

That is not always true. Sometimes just the opposite.

 

Having owned three houses and rented, I'd much rather rent. I'd love to be able to close up and go.

 

:iagree:

 

Having lived in owned houses for 10 years, and experienced the stress of selling one in 2007 as things were collapsing, I am much happier renting. The freedom to move with jobs without the stress of trying to sell is priceless for us. A lot of people are trapped in under water "owned" houses, limiting their freedom in the job market and exacerbating unemployment issues.

[vonfirmath]

:iagree: I love the freedom and security that comes w/ owning. And, it's an investment. With renting, it's like throwing money away.

 

I know many people who owned their house and are throwing it all away because they have to move and can't sell their houses now. (foreclosure. Short sale.) and could end up owing taxes on the "forgiven" amount afterwards as well.

 

It all depends on circumstances whether renting is "throwing" your money away -- are you going to be able to sell it when you need to move? Are you going to be in one place long enough to be worth putting the money into getting a loan?

[FriedClams]

I wish we rented until we bought our dream house.

 

I wish we had rented cheaply and banked the difference.

 

I hate owning. Yes - there is a gain often when you sell. But then you have to subtract all the upgrades, Realtor fees, closing costs, the new roof, carpeting, paint, tree removal, exterior painting, dishwasher repair.... etc. etc. etc.

[Kalypso]

We are renting for the first time in years and are enjoying the freedom of it. No costly maintenance, and we can go wherever we want should an opportunity arise. But, I do like the feeling of having our own place. So, while we look for the right place to buy, we are going to enjoy the freedom of renting.

[TravelingChris]

We have been renting for the last 7 years and with our next move, we may be buying. BUt I am still very hesitant. We have owned two houses and one time we broke even and one time we made money. But considering my board name, you could see why I am nervous about buying again.

 

I love owning my own home but it just isn't practical unless you will live there for a number of years. Since our last few moves were all three years or under, it didn't make any sense to buy. Our next move may be where my dh wants to retire (or actually our agreement is that we live there for abut ten years and then we move to where I want to live or buy a second home where I want).

[Melissa B]

I love the freedom of renting. We live in a much better home than we could afford if we were purchasing. My dh and I have owned four homes and I hope to never own another. We love that we can move if we want to. We love that my husband can accept a transfer if we are interested. We don't care if the property taxes are going up. We don't care that we live in a flood zone and insurance is getting harder to find. We didn't care when one of the air conditioners went out over the summer and it cost hundreds of dollars to fix. We didn't care when the water company came out last month and dug up the front few feet of the yard in order to check the pipes. And we LOVE sitting on our porch looking out over the Gulf of Mexico at a price we can actually afford!! :)

[KidsHappen]

Actually, no. I like the freedom that comes with owning. If the kids or animals scratch the floor and leave marks on the wall, no big. It's mine I own it. I don't have to worry about the landlord kicking us out because they have decided that they want to live there now. I don't have to chose between paying ridiculous pet deposits and owning pets. I don't have to worry about hubby coming home and saying, "Hey, I took a job in Perioria and we are moving next week." I am reasonably close to my older children and get to see them several times a year. I never have to pack again. After spending 40 years as a nomad, I am so glad to finally put roots down. Wehave been here 7 and 1/2 years and it is 7 more years 'til the last one granduates. I am tickled to own this house until then. :)

[LisaKinVA]

We have been renting for nearly 9 years. For 9 years, I have felt "trapped" by what we could and could not do. We will be moving into our own home in 2011 (of course, we have to build it first ;) ).

 

We will not be moving. My husband is not likely to get a job transfer. We will in all liklihood be in this house for the next 20 years. We bought below market value, and are doing about half of the work to build ourselves.

 

Am I a bit nervous? Absolutely. But, I am looking forward to the freedom our new house will bring (in addition to having more than one toilet... I just want to go to the bathroom in relative peace!).

[joannqn]

After several years of wanting to move but being stuck with a house we could not sell, we finally had to walk away from our house. We had two choices: stay and risk the health and safety of our children or walk away and destroy our excellent credit. We chose the latter and are happy to be living in a rental in a safe, peaceful, beautiful neighborhood.

 

I like that we can leave in 2 years if we want. I wish we could guarantee we could stay as long as we want (we really like the location), but we'll try to find something near here if we have to leave.

 

The rules for this rental are pretty awesome. We were allowed to bring four pets with us (cats/dog). We can paint, though we might be required to repaint a neutral color when we move. We can hang things on the wall. We just can't do repairs/remodeling...but we don't want to anyway.

[jenL]

After several years of wanting to move but being stuck with a house we could not sell, we finally had to walk away from our house. We had two choices: stay and risk the health and safety of our children or walk away and destroy our excellent credit. We chose the latter and are happy to be living in a rental in a safe, peaceful, beautiful neighborhood.

 

I like that we can leave in 2 years if we want. I wish we could guarantee we could stay as long as we want (we really like the location), but we'll try to find something near here if we have to leave.

 

The rules for this rental are pretty awesome. We were allowed to bring four pets with us (cats/dog). We can paint, though we might be required to repaint a neutral color when we move. We can hang things on the wall. We just can't do repairs/remodeling...but we don't want to anyway.

 

I feel as if I can hear the peace in your voice... I'm so happy for you knowing all you went through at your other house. :)

[Mrs Mungo]

We sold our house in North Carolina with no problem and made money on it. However, we moved to Hawaii, where homes are MUCH more expensive, just as the market was crashing. It would have been just plain stupid to buy the home we rent at that time. Homes have had HUGE fluctuations in the last 3 years. I am glad we can move this time without the stress of selling a home, especially one the would have been underwater.

[Princess Peach]

We have purchased and sold 3 houses in the last 8 years. And I am only in my mid-thirties! I am so over that! :001_smile:

 

We were (very fortunately) able to sell our last house that we were drowning in. We are renting and I am thrilled. Our rent is less than half what our mortgage was. Incredible! I am sleeping well at night. :001_smile:

 

Aside from the money, we are freer in terms of time. It takes a lot of time (ok, and money, too!) to keep up a house. Now we just call the landlord if we need something done.

[6packofun]

I don't find the instability very freeing, either. I don't like being at the mercy of another person's whims, like our last landlady. I really, truly wanted us to have a home that our children remember as "the house I grew up in" and we'll never have that. I'm trying right now to make our current move to another rental seem like an adventure, but I'm totally faking it. We'll live there for 1-2 years and then TRY to find a house to buy. And by then, my oldest will be in college and the next one will be ready to graduate. I'm very disappointed with renting. It's a total waste.

[DawnM]

For getting up and going whenever, I would say renting is more freeing, but I like to own and be able to fix up the house the way we want, paint and decorate as we wish, etc....

 

We have bought and sold 3 houses in our marriage. We are now on our 4th house. The first 3 were in SoCal and sold within days of putting them on the market. Now, we are not so sure we could sell easily in NC. The neighbor's house has been on the market for 6 months and noone is even looking.

 

Dawn

[ChiMomNP]

I'm happier owning right now. We paid cash for the house just about a year ago. When we move again we'll rent it out if it won't sell. We have been toying with the idea of renting in Newport Beach when we move back to CA vs trying to buy again. We could rent a great place on the beach for far less than we could buy one. That would allow us to continue to continue to invest a majority of our income.

Edited December 6, 2010 by ChiMomNP

[Unicorn.]

Even on the coasts, Unicorn?

 

:lol: maybe not in hurricane zones, but I wouldn't live there anyway. Rent or own.

[HRAAB]

Might depend on how one defines freedom. We've rented, and we've owned three homes. I understand the freedom found in renting: the toilet leaks, call the landlord; want to move, give 30 days notice, etc. But real freedom for us is in owning our own home. Different people value different things.

[Plucky]

I prefer owning. Rental prices are pretty high where we live. I believe we'd have to pay $1800 for something here and I don't really like that neighborhood.

[anneofalamo]

we owned a home for 8 years, which was

also roof replaced two times (shoddy roofer who later went under the first time)

Water heater replaced

Remodeled ancient bathroom

Replaced worn carpet to wood floors in hallway.

Remodeled to make a laundry room and to open a door for lighting.

Replaced pipe from street to house (did ourselves, but still a hefty amount)

Painted in the colors of my dreams

Replaced the blinds to wood slat ones.

 

We sold our home about 3 months before the market collapsed, and made enough to break even on the remodeling.

 

Now renting in a different state (after market collapse)

in a home that is

$200 less a month than the others renting in this area.

Painting colors of my new dreams and landlord takes off the rent.

Replaced windows, put up ceiling fans and stove paid for by landlord.

My landlord does drop by, bringing gifts for my kids and bags of fruit and nuts (he is a farmer). He usually leaves them on the step if we are not home.

He lets us have a cat, chickens and a dog if I can change my mind to want one.

In return, his words

We are never late with the rent, keep the home clean and presentable, are nice to the neighbors (who are life long friends), and teach my kids to love God and their country!

 

Do I feel free? Oh yes, I do. I could with a 30 day notice say, we have to go. I understand he could do the same, but I would just go collect boxes and search for another home.

[Dayle in Guatemala]

We have always rented. But, disclaimer, we've always known that we were going on the mission field and wanted to be free to go and not hindered by things when the time came.

 

I love renting! I love that when the roof starts to leak, it's not my problem. I love when our furnace broke in central MN in January, it wasn't my problem. We would have had to buy a fixer-upper and I have to say, neither my dh nor myself are handy in those areas. We also wanted to live on one income, or at the very least one and a half, and still be able to live. If we had bought a house, we would have had to take out loans or both of us work to keep up with maintaining it.

 

It meets our goals for our family. But, I realize that not all people have the same goals and it's great that they can buy a beautiful house and make it theirs.

 

Living here, we've had a taste of home ownership since landlords here aren't interested in maintaining a house, they are only interested in the rent. We've had to do minor repairs on the house we have here, and I must say, it's a burden to us.

[Niffercoo]

I would feel much freer if we rented, rather than owned our home. Neither my husband nor I know anything about home repair (or really even maintenance) but we can't afford to pay someone to fix things. My dad comes to fix things when he can, but he lives out of state. It's a horrible feeling to be afraid of what's going to break next that we can't fix.

 

In the 10 years since we bought our house, the neighborhood has diminished greatly, and the schools we are zoned for - the ones we MOVED here for - have become horrible. They took our cluster, and divided it into 5 different cluster, with ours being the lowest income and the most non-English speaking. With the downturn in the economy, we can't sell our home for anywhere near what we owe.

 

So we're stuck in a small, run-down house in a bad neighborhood with bad schools. If we were renting, we could just pick up and find another house to rent.

 

But I grew up renting my entire life. We moved every 18 months or so (but sometimes as many as 4 times in one school year), until I was 17 years old. My parents bought their first house in 1996, and still live in it. Renting doesn't have any negative connotations for me. Owning is really starting to.

[athena1277]

I would rather own, but I do love not having to pay repair bills. In the last 18 months I have gotten a new washer/dryer and built in microwave in our rental without paying a cent. Now if only I could talk them into a new dishwasher....

[the4Rs]

We've never had the opportunity to own a home. So all I know is renting.

 

I used to salivate at the thought of owning my own home.... the grass is greener kind of stuff.

 

But now I am not so sure I want to buy. I like the freedom of where we live right now. Our landlords never bother us...I mean NEVER. We can paint, have pets if we want, we just can't remodel. And we've had some appliances go out on us and we just call our landlord to take care of it.

 

We need a bigger house though and unfortunately you get much bigger than we have now and we pay substantially more for rent which would be actually cheaper to own a home in that regard.

 

Still I don't know that I like the idea of being tied down like that.

[lynn]

I do not feel freer renter. I hate the idea of being at the mercy of a complete stranger as far as what I can cannot do. There are rules you have to follow for you are just the renter. You are not free to leave or get deposit back insome cases unless you do xyz. Some landlords will not let you out of your lease even with 30 or 60 days notice. What if the landlord decides his property is worth more than what you pay for the rent are you willing to pay the extra or will you be moving in years time because of rent increase. imho renting has not been a good experience.

[phathui5]

Right now, I'm very happy that we're renting because we're not living in an area where I would want to stay long-term.

 

What I would like to do when do do settle on an area is go with the 100% down plan and buy our house in cash.

[ChristineW]

Absolutely yes. When DH interviewed for a job in SFthis year, he was able to accept the job without worrying about beincg underwater in SoCal. We're renting now for peanuts in one of the best school districts in California (2700 a month rent vs 4k for mortgage plus property tax assessments.

 

However, we know that we are home in the East Bay and want permanence. So we are home shopping.

 

We have discovered that the key to independence while renting is renting through a property management company. They have an army of vendors ready to fix any problems and aren't the owners so they don't bug you except maybe 2x a year. I currently love our property manager; she's fixed all problems within 12-24 hours and has really been on top of preventative maintenance. We've been here 9 months and no inspections either.

 

Christine W

[Mrs Mungo]

That's funny, because I owe $30,000 more on my "investment" than it is worth at the moment.

 

The owners of the home we rent are more than $200,000 in the hole on this house.

[Halcyon]

We've never owned. We lived in Manhattan for most of our lives where the cost of owning was prohibitive (well, so was the cost of renting, hence our move to Florida). Here we rent because, while the cost of buying is very low, we're not sure we're going to stay here. Our rent is extremely low (to our minds, at least, having lived in Manhattan). So that's nice. If our washer goes out, we call the maintenance guy on staff and he's over within 24 hours to fix it. We've had our dishwasher replaced when it broke. He does maintenance on our a/c and toilets too. We've repainted after asking the landlord. One day, I'd love to own. But hearing of our neighbours being upside-down and not able to sell, even when they get better job offers elsewhere, makes me think it's not such a bad deal to rent for the time being. One friend bought her house for 400,000 and the house next door with a similar layout just sold for 200,000! So in some sense, I think I feel more secure that we can "get out" if we need to. DH's income varies wildly from year to year, month to month, and having a mortgage hanging over our head, at this moment in our lives, is something I can live without.

Edited December 6, 2010 by Halcyon

[amy g.]

I much prefer owning to renting, but that may be because we have always lived in areas where property values are stable, and we have bought below our means. We also enjoy projects, so fixing things and improving our home is a a benefit rather than a liability.

[rwjx2khsmj]

I've been happy renting and owning.

 

When we've expected to be in a place for less than 2 years, we've rented. More than two years we've purchased.

 

Though we've owned four homes, we really see ownership as a place to park our equity. Not an investment. We usually get out with just what we've put in and not any more.

[Mom0012]

I haven't read all the posts, but I definitely feel freer owning than renting. I hated rented a place knowing that at any time, I could be forced to move. I also hated never being able to really make improvements to make the place fully my home. There is more work and expense in owning an home, but to me it's worth it.

 

Lisa

[cjbeach]

Unquestionably I do feel freer renting right now, but it depends on the circumstances. If I knew we were going to stay in one place for many years, I'd love to own. But without that fairly certain stability, it is much less stressful to me to rent. We did build our own house at one point, and I loved a lot of things about it, but for us, owning isn't a good option.

:iagree:

Absolutely but we're in FL and walked from a house that had fallen more than 50% BELOW what we owed on it. Since it was in my dh's name only...we walked and are free,free,free from that mess.

IF it was the home of my dreams or in an area I loved maybe I would feel differently but that was not the case. The house needed so much work. To put money into a house that was so underwater ...

[cjbeach]

After several years of wanting to move but being stuck with a house we could not sell, we finally had to walk away from our house. We had two choices: stay and risk the health and safety of our children or walk away and destroy our excellent credit. We chose the latter and are happy to be living in a rental in a safe, peaceful, beautiful neighborhood.

 

I like that we can leave in 2 years if we want. I wish we could guarantee we could stay as long as we want (we really like the location), but we'll try to find something near here if we have to leave.

 

The rules for this rental are pretty awesome. We were allowed to bring four pets with us (cats/dog). We can paint, though we might be required to repaint a neutral color when we move. We can hang things on the wall. We just can't do repairs/remodeling...but we don't want to anyway.

 

Same situation. Many hugs from us. BTDT and like you were moved into a neighborhood that has been much better for our children. We may not live in a gated subdivision on the water BUT we live in a small dead end court of 9 houses with 10 kids age 0-10!!!

[TheAutumnOak]

I have never owned a home...My parents have never owned a home...Neither have my grandparents...You get the picture ;)

 

We are renting to own now and I think I will feel more free owning...There is alot of insecurity that comes with renting... Are the owners going to kick you out to sell the place?...Is the owner paying the mortage or will you get evicted because they didn't pay?...Will your kids destroy something that you will have to pay for or replace at the end of your lease?...If you paint the walls will you have to paint them back?...Will you ever get updated appliances?...Do I have to live in an apartment forever without a yard or space to do whatever I want?

 

The freedom to move without having to sell is not worth all of the other loss of freedoms I just mentioned above...I would rather own...

[Brenda in FL]

I'm with those who think it depends on the situation. We felt very free living in the home we own. But these past couple of years with dh's jobs and a bout of unemployment - we feel a lot of freedom renting. If Dh's company goes under - we aren't stuck with a mortgage to pay. I'm so grateful we rented the first time we moved, otherwise his unemployment would have been disastrous. Until we feel more confident about the economy and job security we will be renting! In both of our cases with renting we had a good relationship with the landlord - I'm sure my opinion may be different if that was not the case.

 

We still also own the home we used to live in - I feel like it is a dead weight hanging around my neck!! Being a landlord is a pain - we've had so many repairs and bad tenants - I no longer feel any freedom regarding that house!! But it's a source of income (most of the time), and we really want to wait for housing market in the area to clear out its glut of foreclosures and short sales before we put it on the market.

[IsabelC]

I changed not long after having children. I was always one of those people who was horrified at the idea of buying a home, because I didn't want to be tied down to it, so we always rented. But once we had two children and were planning the third, we decided to home educate and also decided that we wanted a four bedroom house. (We'd originally thought that the same sex children would share, but we felt that being at home full time they would benefit from their own private space.) At that point, we realized that it's hard to find a four bedroom house that doesn't cost a fortune (whether rent or mortgage) and also that it's not so easy to move house with little kids. So we became home owners and have been pretty happy with that decision.