The real conversation renters who want to be homeowners should have
There are both pros and cons to renting versus buying
Lending Tree has an interesting survey regarding why people would rather rent than own, according to 2,050 participants.
Not responsible for maintenance or repairs (48%)
Easy to move to different places (38%)
More affordable (37%)
Don’t have to pay property taxes (36%)
Don’t have to do yard work or shovel snow (29%)
Cheaper insurance (18%)
More peace of mind (18%)
Amenities like pools and gyms (16%)
But what renters don’t seem to be aware of is that they’re paying for half of this stuff anyway. Property owners (i.e. landlords) are more than likely including the cost of property taxes, yard work, snow shoveling, insurance and maintenance in the rent. Unless the landlord breaks down every single cent of the monthly rental rate to show (s)he is just breaking even, there’s a profit involved.
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Once a tenant leaves, now the price of all those expenses plus the mortgage gets dumped on the landlord again — until someone else agrees to cover the same bills. Also, condo unit owners tend to merge rent plus assessments in their monthly rental rates. Granted, there are some not-at-fault repairs that the landlord will have to do, but at-fault repairs usually come out of the security deposit or are charged back to the tenant, too.
On the other side of the argument are Lending Tree participants who are all about homeownership:
Flexibility to do what you want with the space (63%)
Stability and not worrying about lease renewal (55%)
Homeownership pride (50%)
Homes may increase in value (47%)
No rules against pets (47%)
Build wealth (41%)
Tax deductions (26%)
Improves credit score over time (23%)
Stronger ties to the community or neighborhood (22%)
Interest rates are low (17%)
Can rent out for extra income (14%)
Some of these just flat-out don’t add up, but that’s specifically if someone chooses a condo rental versus a single-family home.
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With condos, and depending on the bylaws and Rules and Regulations, there can still be a no-pet ban (excluding emotional support animals) and condo rental restrictions. And condo boards (along with homeowners association boards, who are a set of people in charge of a specific neighborhood of single-family homes) can also enforce rules about what to do with space, specifically the outside and public areas of those spaces (ex. window treatments, door painting, etc.).