Buying vs Renting - Is Renting Such A Bad Idea?

One of the things that plague a newly wed  is the decision of buying vs renting a house. However, the issue is not just contained in our household, it expands as far as in businesses. A few years ago I had a web design client. Me and a friend were riding on my client's car when my friend asked him why they would not buy their own building. My client said, that there are a lot of expenses incurred in buying.

So what are the expenses that you need to consider in renting vs buying a property?

Maintenance - Maintenance is an additional expense that you will need to consider when you buy a property. There is also maintenance cost  when you rent, but not as much when you fully own it. If you break a doorknob for example, you may call to your landlord, explain what happened and you can have it fixed at their expense. Obviously, this is not the case when you already own your own house. On the other hand, you may be limited on the renovations that you can make when you're just renting. If you decided to cash out some money for a general roof fix, that investment is likely not to pay off when you're renting for just a few months. So when you're renting, limit on your investments but take care of your rented place as if it was your own.


Amenities - When you rent, you might get some free stuff like built-in cabinets, a sofa or even a TV. Or you can even say a gym, a pool and a basketball court. You can get all these stuff, often times for free when you rent and when you buy, you'll probably have to buy all those furniture, appliances and make the necessary renovations in order to fit in all your stuff in your new house.

Taxes, Higher rates and Association Deuce - When you already own a property, you will have to pay for real estate taxes. If you purchased a condo, you will be paying for a monthly condo deuce and rates on electricity and  water are usually higher.

Moving in to a new house would also include expenses on

Petty Expenses - When you've put some investment on furniture and appliances, no matter how little... You will definitely have some transportation expense. And since you could not move in to your new place right away, you will probably have to go back and forth to your old rented apartment. And when you travel, you will get hungry along the way and chances are you will eat on fast foods. I'm not kidding, it cost me and my wife about 5000 pesos (a little over 100 dollars) during the entire 3 weeks that we were preparing for moving to our new place.

Lifestyle - You will almost certainly have a change in lifestyle when you move in to a new house. For example, you might decide to buy a bigger refrigerator, a bigger bed or instead of your old picture tube TV you decide to buy a new LCD or LED TV.

So now, before you complain that you couldn't afford to buy your own house... Think again. You may want to put that money you have into an investment vehicle or a even  business that would allow you to earn more money and let the money that you earned from your investment buy you a house.

So do you think that one is better over the other? Which one do you prefer and why? I'd like to hear your opinion!