windmillmarie Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 Another thread made me think to ask. Our family has always rented. We were talking about perhaps buying in the next few years while it's a buyers market here. However, I have noticed that we do like the idea of being able to pick up and move every few years for a change of scenery or a change of home-type. If we buy, we'd probably not be selling every few years, kwim? I am starting to wonder if we're meant to be renters forever. Has anyone made this choice intentionally? I see the pros and cons of both choices. I am the type of person that gets antsy and wants to explore more. All of our moves have been a comfortable drive from our remaining parents. Since we still have kids in school, I always check out the area public school first. If my husband gives the greenlight on homeschooling down the road, that would open up even more possibilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sassenach Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 We have in a sense. We chose to plant a church in a really high cost of living area. We knew that by choosing to live here, we were basically choosing to be renters. I do prefer home ownership, but I've resigned myself to renting for the foreseeable future. It's not all bad. When this house had a major plumbing failure, I was pretty happy that it wasn't our problem! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amira Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 We've nearly always rented. We did build a house 10 years ago and stay in it for two years but other than that, we've always rented and I like it that way. The flexibility is important to me. There are certainly nice things about owning a home, but I don't wish for it. I could make a really long list of the things I like about renting. And yes, homeschooling opens up lots of possibilities. There really isn't anywhere in the world I wouldn't be willing to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nukeswife Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 We are perpetual renters, but not by choice. Being military and moving more often then many (a lot of tours were only 8months to a year in the beginning) it wasn't worth trying to buy and sell a house that often. Although I like being able to up and go if we need to I hate having to run things by the landlord if we want to change something (like paint color) or having to wait to fix something and not always having it fixed in a way you would have. Right now our rental could really use new carpet but it's not something the landlord thinks is bad enough to fix, so we're stuck with it. Not that long ago I had to replace all the smoke alarms because they were 10 years old and were giving the warning beep, well my landlord is deployed to Afghanistan so he's not easy to get a hold of and it wasn't something I could wait on. This is the best rental in that our landlord being military has helped and he's also pretty easy going so he was fine with me changing paint colors as long as I promised to paint them back if he didn't like them when we left. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mergath Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 We've always rented. I can't say we always will, but we definitely like the flexibility. Just the other day, I saw a book that supposedly teaches you how to travel across Europe on foot (or something to that effect) and I was thinking, gosh, that would be really fun when dd is older. Not the kind of thing you can really do when you own a house. And if we end up with horrific neighbors, we can pick up and move within a month, now that our lease is past the first year and month-to-month. Also, our utilities are included in our rent payment, and it makes it much easier to budget when you know that you have to pay exactly x dollars each month, instead of only have a sort of general idea how much the electric bill will be or whatever. If the temperature drops down to thirty below for a month straight and the electric bill is hundreds of dollars more, it doesn't affect us at all. Which is really nice. And with the instability of the current housing market, I'm so thankful I don't have to worry about being underwater on a mortgage, rising property taxes, expensive repairs, housing value, or any of that. I just pay my rent each month and go on with my life. :) Plus, now that we've be here for years, our landlord trusts us and lets us decorate and make whatever changes we want, so it's the best of both worlds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renthead Mommy Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 We've rented since going AF. That's ten years. First tour was to be 3 years, ended up 2. Next one 2 years. 3rd was overseas. 4th was only 3 years, and while the market was great to buy, it was Long Island and we didn't want to drop $500,000 - $600,000 on a 3 year house and then have to sell or rent when we were nowhere near a base and we were the other side of the country. This tour is actually 4 years, and had we ended in Texas, we would have considered buying (high military area to rent to, plus probably ending up back there for end of career/retirement, but we ended up in Ohio instead. And after this tour he's a Colonel so then it's every two year tours. We've got 10 more years till his 20, and by then my son will be almost done with college. Plus my husband will stay in as long as he can, which could be almost 30. After that we'll probably be ready to talk about getting something, but until then I don't see us buying anything. It's just so much easier. Plus I don't want to spend my last six months getting a house ready to sell. When we are ready to go, we organize, the packers and movers come, run a vacume and dust the baseboards and then we are out of here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alicia64 Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 Yes, we're renting a great house by choice. In fact, the owners tried to sell it to us and we could afford it. But, like you, we like the freedom. We had ten years of non-freeding, home owning at one point and now that we're free don't want to buy again. Although we might. We have to see how the next couple of years unfold. We want stability for the kids, but the freedom is very cool. Btw, I don't really think the house market will come back for a long time. Alley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 AS you can see by my board name, we have lived a transient life. So three times we have owned houses (minimum of three years each and we never lost money) and the rest of our 26 years in we have rented. Whether we rented or owned, the main choice we have made in the last few years is do we actually like the house. In the past 20 years, I have refused to live in any house I didn't like. It could be rented (was for 12 of those years) or owned but I just decided I didn't want to live anyplace I considered inadequate. The architecture had to be pleasing and it was super important for me to have an acceptable landscape- none were perfect, though the one in Belgium was close- but they couldn't have horrible front yards or anything like that. I like pretty gardens and I always improved every yard I had whether I owned it or rented it. As it is, I have hardly ever changed anything about the homes we owned. THe first one was the most drastic change since we needed to put in new wood flooring into the dining room and redo one bathroom plus we repainted and bordered two bedrooms. After that, we didn't do much. In the four years we lived in our second home, we changed the carpeting (it was old) and repainted one room. In this home which we have been in for 1.5 years, we have done nothing with the interior. I have started improving the landscape but I have done that in all my homes, owned or rented. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tess in the Burbs Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 We choose to rent and prefer it. The first two houses we bought we were out of in the first year: one a cross country move for a job and the other when dh lost a job. Our third house we left due to job going away so we made the hard choice to go and our short sale didn't work out. So for now we rent b/c we can't buy but honestly, we prefer to rent. We love the freedom. We like the maintanence being done for us. But the greatest choice is freedom--if dh wants a change we can usually do it quickly. We hope to buy land but have no desire to own a home right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
windmillmarie Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 Thank you and apologies for not thanking earlier. I just remembered (while paying my rent) that I asked this question. Decorating is a big thing to me. I am able to work with this home because the main floor is all painted a pale blue and goes well with my lighthouse and windmill theme. Last place had wood panel walls from the 80s. I thought it would give a cabin feel, but it ended up more like a teenagers basement apartment feel! I'd like to rent a farmhouse with an outbuilding and ability to own chickens and maybe a goat. We have no pets at this point and would have to pay $50 more per month to have a dog, so I know I won't be here as long. The further I get from the city areas, the more I find properties that allow pets. Nearby, not so much. It was harder when I had my last child as well. Seven kids seem to scare off some landlords or regulates us to 4-5 bedroom rentals! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heather in Neverland Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 For the first 11 years of our marriage we owned a home. Then we sold it and moved to NC and then to Malaysia so we have been renting for over 5 years. Now that I have experienced the freedom to just pick up and move when the mood strikes me, I am not sure I will want to own again for a long time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Halcyon Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 We rented all our lives (dh is 52 now, so it has been a long time) until just this past summer, when we bought. Mostly we bought because we found a house we really liked, amd we got a little windfall for a down pymt. Renting never bothered me. We were always living in waaay too high a COL area to buy, so renting was our only option until recently when we moved to Florida. I love our new home, despite its flaws. It feels like our home. But when we rented we loved the flexibility and the fact that nothing, outisde of rent and utilities, was our problem, lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest inoubliable Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 In the almost 11 years we've been together, DH and I have owned a home but mostly rented. We talk about buying a home again in the far future, but more and more that "future home" is looking to be more like an RV. Having gone through the housing crash while owning a home, we're not super excited to be locked into another mortgage, house, and city. We very much like the idea of being to pick up and go whenever it strikes us. Which is why we're in this exact rental for now. Our year-long lease was up forever ago and we're now* month-to-month. If the right opportunity came a'knockin' we'd be gone. Edited to fix spelling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRG Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 In 22 years we have rented longer than owning a home. After we sold our house dh said 'never again'. Everytime we turned around we were sinking $$$$$$ in to the house. The house we are renting now has by far been our best deal. I do wish sometimes that there was an extra room, though. We have been here for over 8 years and our rent has never gone up. If we have to move or the owner decides to sell I don't know what we will do because we couldn't find a nice 3/2 brick home(what we have) for the same amount--if anything we would have to pay about double! We live and do as we please as if we owned the house--paint, decorating, pretty much anything we want or the house needs and it just comes off our rent. The best part is that when something goes wrong it is fixed as quickly as it can be and I'm not responsible for the huge bill and in 8 years there are have been plenty of bills. It seems every holiday weekend the plumbing goes in this house! We have sometimes paid the bill and then taken it off the rent. Our landlord used to work with my husband so they knew each other well before we started renting. He has asked us to buy it but we have not really pursued it too much. Part of me would like to buy it but the other part enjoys someone else paying those repair bills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
besroma Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 Alley could have written my post. After more than 20 years of owning, a new job resulted in a move for us. We decided to rent "in case things didn't work out." Five years later, we are still renting and loving it. We enjoy the flexibility (in the event the job market changes and we need to move again). I think it is wise to rent if there is any uncertainty regarding your income source. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mommaduck Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 We've also been fairly transient and have never owned. I do hope to one day own. My husband hopes that one day I will be able to go on the road with him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Izzy Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 We are renters and I love being able to pick up and go when we want. We owned a home once and lost a lot of money on it. I'm sort of a free spirit and would live in a different country every couple of years but settle on a different house every 2 years. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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