Why I Chose to Buy Instead of Rent
Renting was the greatest! A/C not working? Call the landlord. Oven not working? Call the landlord. Toilet not working? Thank god…call the landlord. Renting has many benefits. Though the cost is almost always higher than a mortgage you don’t have to deal with the upkeep and repairs that come with maintaining a home. I have had good landlords and bad ones. The worst landlords can drive you nuts and make your life difficult but at the end of the day it is their property that will ultimately suffer if they do not maintain it.
This is how I felt until I last year. I am 36 years old and was scared straight by a NPR newscast on retirement. I have a little 401K and was thinking about different types of investment. My friend Karen Boos (check out her website! karenboos.com) is a realtor who has been very successful in her career. She said that she has invested in rental properties and is a homeowner because no matter what the stock market is up to, if she wants to look at the money she is putting aside for her retirement she can get in her car and go visit it.
This is certainly not a blog about the benefits of different types of investment or how to save for retirement, so please do your own homework on those subjects. However, after talking with Karen it did make me think about where my rent was going every month. Though there are many conveniences of renting at the end of the day I am paying a substantial amount of my monthly paycheck to someone else without any long term personal benefit.
I am now a homeowner and I could not be happier with this financial decision. There have been some challenges. I had to put up a fence within 30 days to keep the neighbor dogs from breaking into my yard and it is the middle of June and my A/C is on it’s last legs. However, I know that at least a portion of the money they I pay every month is going into a home that I own. Thanks Karen!
(My friend Elaine wrote this for me on her own accord and I thought I would share this with you.)