How to decide between renting an apartment and owning a home

When it comes to choosing between owning and renting a place, the majority of people believe that owning is definitely the option you should choose. However, it’s not always the case. For some people, renting is easier and better suits their lifestyle. Of course, each option has its benefits.

Apartment renting

Compared to owning a home, renting is easier for multiple reasons. For example, maintenance is no longer your problem and you can always make a call when something goes wrong and you only have to make a monthly payment to cover everything instead of having to take care of several separate bills and fees. Here are several other things to take into consideration:

Renting is cheaper than buying.

Apartment renting

In some cases, renting an apartment or house costs much less than buying it. IT’S usually the case in larger cities. Also, apartment rentals are sometimes much larger than condos, especially if you want to live downtown. Another advantage is that apartment renters don’t have to worry about down payments and fees for building inspections, insurance, etc.

Unguaranteed tax benefit for owning a house.

Apartment renting

Theoretically, owning a home comes with the big advantage of getting a big tax break. But, as it turns out, this is not even a guaranteed advantage and you might not receive anything after all. But if you rent an apartment, you’ll always receive some form of tax relief since most of your rent is tax deductible every year.

Flexibility.

Apartment renting

When you’re renting an apartment, it’s much easier to simply pack everything and leave at the end of your lease. You don’t have to wait to sell, to try to find buyers and all that stressful process. You have the freedom to move where you want and to explore several options. When you own a home, it’s much more difficult to do that so people usually just accept that and give up moving.

Minimum financial risk.

Apartment renting

When you’re an owner and you’re in the situation when you can’t pay the mortgage for one reason or another, there not much you can do about it. Your house and everything you’ve invested in it can be lost forever. When you’re renting, the biggest risk is to be evicted and to have to find another place to stay.

So, as you can see, there are also advantages for renting and they deserve to be taken into consideration before making a decision. For someone with a dynamic lifestyle, someone with a career that requires moving a lot, renting an apartment would be a much practical choice than owning a property. Of course, everyone should make a decision based on their personal lifestyle, financial possibilities and everything else.

Picture sources: 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.