Should you rent or buy?
Sunday, January 17th, 2010This is such a volatile time in the housing industry, and in the employment uncertainties that I really think that this is not a good time to buy a house if there is any chance at all that you might lose your job. Now if you are independently wealthy and it doesn’t matter if you work or not, well then go ahead and buy a house! But if there is any chance at all that you might lose your job, I think that looking at homes for rent is a better option. That way if you lose your job and can’t make the rent payments and get kicked out, well then at least you haven’t lost a huge investment (as in a large down payment!)
One of the things that you really need to be careful of, in renting a home, is determining what repairs the landlord is willing to take on in the event something breaks down. For example, if the furnace breaks down, who pays to fix it? Kitchen appliances, etc?
One of the first apartments I rented I thought that the landlord would keep the lawn mowed in the summer and the driveway shoveled in the winter. It was a rude awakening to discover that the landlord was not providing those things! The first hint was when there was a big snowstorm just a couple of weeks after moving in and my car was buried deep in the driveway. I called the landlord to inquire when she was going to send a plow truck over to plow the driveway and parking lot. Her answer was that she wasn’t sending anyone over – that was my responsibility! Well, there was nothing in the lease agreement one way or the other so I was quite upset over that! Thankfully I was withing walking distance to work, so I hoofed it to work that day. And the next. After a while one of the other apartment tenants decided to arrange to get the driveway and parking lot plowed out. I offered to chip in some money to pay the fee, but he didn’t want any. He even shoveled out my car for me! I lucked out that time!