Turning Another House into "A Home"
Ready to Buy or Rent?
For many people, MOVING TIME MEANS DECISION TIME:
Do we buy a home or find a place to rent?
This dilemma faces everyone from young people starting out to professionals relocating for a job and empty nesters who have sold the big family home.
Questions to ask yourself when deciding to buy or to rent:
How long do you expect to be in the home?
Is long term your goal, if so then buying is a great option. Buying and Selling can take a significant amount of time, money and effort but in the long run you will own your own property. Or is short term your goal, such as less than five years? If yes, then a good option might be to rent so you are not tied down in one location.
Would you be content if circumstances meant you had to stay longer?
You never know if personal or economic circumstances will arise and if so, would you be happy in your home. This helps you really think if a circumstance came about, if you would be glad you bought or glad you rented since each one is a totally different length of time. Buying you are looking at long term and renting would be no strings attached for once your lease is up.
How stable is your job and your life?
When trying to decide whether to buy or to rent, you always want to look at not only your current stability and life, but think is it a short term stability or long term? The reason being is you may not want to weigh yourself down with a Mortgage as well as staying in the current location if this isn’t your long term career and happy place.
How do the monthly costs compare?
Think of your expenses as a whole? What is the realistic and smart decision financially? When you look to own a home consider property taxes, insurance, homeowner or condo fees, lawn maintenance, and other regular costs not even including your Mortgage Payment. Utility Costs can sometimes end up being higher since renting many times will include utility costs or garbage collection.
Do you have savings for a down payment?
A Down Payment can be as low as 3.5% down or more, depending on who you get your mortgage through. In a competitive market you never know what that will look like since many sellers look for higher down payments and fewer contingencies. Always keep this in mind when looking to buy a home.
Do you have savings to pay for repairs?
When you rent a home, depending on lease requirements a lot of times repairs will be taken care of, but when you decide to buy a home there’s always some repairs that may be needed even in new homes. Whether that means water heaters break, pipes leak, whatever the case you want to make sure to be prepared for the unknown.
