To Rent Or To Buy
When you are looking for a place to live in, you are always faced with this question. Do I rent a home or buy it? This is something that you have to decide on your own, because the opinions of others are just that- opinions. They are not in your shoes and will therefore not know your own situation that is making you ponder this question.
When to rent
You have just been relocated in your job and are not sure how much longer you will remain there. Then the obvious decision is to rent a home so that you are not bound by the home if you have to relocate again. Or probably both you and your spouse are at the start of your careers and really do not have the finances to make the deposit on a new home, let alone when combined with home owner insurance payments. In today's world this is really not a constraint as financiers will take up the slack if you so desire. Maybe you have a dream to own a real large three bedroom bungalow with two garages and your present situation just does not allow you to even think of it. Under all these circumstances it is better to rent. This will give you sufficient time to get your finances to where you need them to be. Renting a home in a new location initially is also a good idea, if you are not too sure of the city where you have relocated and need some time to be more familiar with it before you make the commitment to buy a home, so that you get to a neighborhood more suited to you. When considering renting, get yourself used to the idea that your home is temporary and you would have to move once the lease is over. This itself can be quite an expense, and the fact that you have to move at regular intervals, is quite a stress, besides all the other problems that changing a home always entail, like new schools, new doctors, new neighbors and the like.
When to buy
If you have been paying a lot of money on the rent, redo your math and see whether it would make more sense to buy a house. Make sure that you are going to remain in the same town or city for your future career. Once you buy you own home, you would get certain tax benefits and lower taxes. You are very sure of the payments that you have to make for many years to come in the form of the mortgage repayments and the like. So you can plan your finances better. You are not going to be subjected to the stress of having to renew your lease or having to relocate once the lease expires. The home you have is yours and yours alone and you need not worry about landlords and the like, if you want to make any changes. You can now buy the type of furniture and home equipment that you have always wanted, as there is no fear of having to move it. There is a chance that your investment in the house would appreciate and grow in value. You could also find it easier to get a loan from a financial institution once you are a home owner.
So decide on the situation that fits you before you decide whether to buy or rent.