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Everyone has different value systems. For me, financial comfort and being financially independent is something that was ingrained into us as kids. My parents are immigrants to this country that believed 100% in the American dream.
I haven't worked an 18 hour day since I was an undergrad, but even so, I have never afraid of hard work to achieve my goals or investing in myself, my future, or the future of my son. I also believe strongly in balance and would never sacrifice my family time for "stuff". It's easy for me to say now, but money isn't everything.
I was a renter briefly at the start of my adult life, but I have been a LL for almost half of my life. I appreciate every single tenant in my over 15 years of property ownership.
If I am honest, I can even admit I appreciate the 3 awful tenants I had in the very early stages of this venture. I learned lessons that cannot be quantified during that eviction process and I have since not had a single eviction.
I have rentals all over Southern California and the renters range from minimum wage employees, military families, single professionals, to people that have a higher income than I do.
They want the best value for their rent dollars and a landlord that immediately addresses legitimate concerns should they arise. I want an thorough/truthful application filled out, rent paid on time, and a drama free tenant. Communication has been everything on this journey for me.
I agree with whoever posted this above. It is absolutely a symbiotic relationship.
There are many reasons a person chooses to rent rather than own, most of which have been mentioned.
As far as painting you can do so in most places as long as you go back to the original color when you move. That's the main reason I've never done it, I don't want the additional chore to do during a move.
I wouldn't mind renting permanently, the only reason I want to buy is to have some stability in my monthly rent/mortgage payment. Our local rental increases are some of the highest in the nation. Pretty soon I won't be able to afford my rental.
Yeah I'm just outside of the Portland area where rentals are insane. Median price on a 1 bedroom is $1400 now. The 3bed/2.5 bath we are renting 30 minutes out of town jumps from $1500 to $1800 this year. We bought a place for price stability before we just get priced out of the market entirely.
Rent control seems like a bigger 'trap' than ownership. You're paying a constant or lowly adjusted below market value rent for the term sure. But if you want to move you're in for a rude awakening with higher market prices and have no grown equity from selling a house to help compensate for the higher housing prices. Seems to be a frequent post here of people wanting to move out of their rental but not being able to afford it.
Yeah I'm just outside of the Portland area where rentals are insane. Median price on a 1 bedroom is $1400 now. The 3bed/2.5 bath we are renting 30 minutes out of town jumps from $1500 to $1800 this year. We bought a place for price stability before we just get priced out of the market entirely.
You have us Californians to thank for that...
No but seriously, a lot of American cities have periods of being the next best thing, or a hot spot for jet setting millenials/generation x/ and retiring boomers. Look at Austin Texas, Charlotte, NC, some cities in the Southwest, Seattle, etc..They become gentrified quickly and is a way for landlords and property management companies to make $$$. I lived in Austin Texas for a year and our rent for a dumpy, older home in an average neighborhood was 1300.00 a month!! Not to mention the property management company was HORRIBLE. For example, the house was filthy upon move in, things were broken, we found dead Texas sized cockroaches on the floor of one of the bedrooms. The property management's response?? "Deal with it, if you don't like it, there's probably 1400 other people waiting in line for the house." Simply unbelievable.
I have been a renter for about 25 years, from three different landlords. One was okay, one was horrible (I moved out of there the minute my lease was up) and my current landlady is incredible.
She lives downstairs from me, so it's easy to pay the rent and report any complaints. She doesn't tolerate nonsense; people who cause trouble here don't last very long. There have only been three of those in nine years. This place was a bargain to begin with, and she has never raised my rent. She let me slide for three months one time when I was having some financial trouble.
These days, I have the means to purchase a house, but I don't. In addition to having such a great landlady, I just like not having to worry about fixing things. And it's nice to have only two bills: the electric bill, and the rent, which includes everything else. I got a good thing going here, and I am thankful.
I've seen just about every type of renter there is in my time, and there certainly are some bad apples out there. Seems like some people let those color their perception of all renters. I even had a (former) friend talk smack about renters to me, a renter, at every opportunity. But there are lots of us out there living quiet, invisible lives, and having a pretty good time in the process. We just don't get noticed.
I expect I'll stay here for about ten more years, until I move into an old folks' apartment building. No home ownership for me, not ever. And that's just fine.
A recent thread got closed because of too many insults thrown about.
I am a renter, and I would like to say I love being a renter. I have no interest in buying a home. I don't want the hassle of fixing anything, I just love to phone my leasing office/maintenance men and they do all the work.
I also do not want to be stuck with a home and a mortgage and if something comes up, I cannot move as quickly as i want to, not for evil reasons, but when I hear stories about crazy neighbors moving in next door to a home-owner or some other horrid thing, having a home and mortgage makes you kinda stuck.
If you are a landlord, you need the other side of the coin - A RENTER.
Why then would someone put renters down when, if they did not get any renters, they could not be a landlord!
If a landlord is bragging at how rich he/she is, and how lowly a renter is, and laughing at renters in general, does that make the allegedly rich landlord any better?
You can be rich, but be a nasty person (or a nice person, of course). I will take a lowly renter over a braggadocio person any day... Your money does not impress me, nor does it impress God.
That is all I just want to give props to renters, of which I am one, out of choice, and i love it.
I suppose I will not be able to install my walk in tub and/or jacuzzi, and i won't be able to paint my walls blueberry blue, but it is nice to come home and not worry about raking leaves, fixing the roof, spending $3,000 on a new furnace, etc etc.
I was a renter for a long time too and overall quite a good one, yet I do understand the bad reputation that renters get because you just tend to run into bad situations with renters more often than not.
One incident that horrified me was the rental of a co-worker who had her renter for many years--on the surface appeared great, no late payments, no problems that she knew of. When she went to move out however, my co-worker found out that she had trashed the place--floors torn up, foundation in the shower had to be stripped out and redone because I guess the renter never told her about a leak that was going on; doors torn up, walls too. She had to spend like thousands of dollars to fix the place up, and go without a renter for several months while it was being fixed. Just crazy, she never would have expected it because the renter seemed like a good one. Now she says that no matter who it is she rents to, she has a clause in the lease that says she can inspect it at any time and will do so like every month. It's just not worth the risk.
You just hear of these things too often and just like you, I figure that people would just take care of the place they live in like they do actually own it, but I guess not. Or, that's just how they'd treat their place that they did own.
I hate how renters have a bad rep because I've been one for so long, but I do get it. For me when I'm thinking about owning a rental, I would probably only have it as a vacation rental; to me that would seem a little less risky because you get a different clientèle, usually. But in the general sense (knowing that there are definitely exceptions like you and me), renters have the reputation of being trashy careless people.
FHA has no income cap and is an easy way to get into a home.
Just buy a new construction home every 10 years and have no worries about fixing things.
Thats if you can sell it each time. and isn't it supposed to be true that if you dont plan to stay more than 5 (or 10?) years, then its a waste of money?
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