Renting vs owning your home – which is more stressful?
Before living with Stuart who has a mortgage I have always rented my home. I always thought that it was much less stressful and that renting gave me more flexibility.
Now two and a half years after moving in with Stuart and seeing both sides of the coin what are my views?
In a rented home you have the advantage that someone else is responsible for the heating and if the combi boiler goes wrong all you have to do is phone and tell the landlord.
However, the downfall of this is that not all landlords are quick to fix things and some I have found in the past do not want to spend any money on fixing things at all!
In your own home, whilst you are responsible for all these things you generally don’t have big expenses like the central heating installation cost very often at all.
Getting cover for your boiler can reduce the overall cost and give you some reassurance.
We have cover for our boiler for around £10 a month I think it is but we can call an engineer whenever there is a problem and it can be repaired.
With a rented home there is less security for the future for yourself and your family. Even if you keep up to date with your rent a landlord can decide they want to sell up or evict you and there isn’t really much you can do about it.
On the other hand, this also means you can move quite easily whenever you chose a better school, change jobs, etc.
With your own home of course as long as you keep up payments on your mortgage if you have one the house is yours, there is unlikely to be any reason why you would have to move.
Any move however would be more costly and take much longer to organise but I guess that is the price you pay for the security.
Decorating and carpeting is a great way to make a house feel homely. This is something of course which you can do in your own home but when you rent it really depends on your landlord.
I have lived in rented houses where the landlord wanted everything left magnolia and the curtains left the same so I had very little choice when it came to making the house feel homely.
On the flip side, I have lived in a house where all the wallpaper and decorations were really outdated and the cost to redecorate them all was so out of budget. It didn’t seem economical either as the house had a damp problem.
I guess whether you rent or buy a home you will always have times when you wonder if the other option would be easier. For many people, there is no choice so I guess it is always about making the best choice you can and not letting yourself get stressed about it.