Lifestyle Issues
- Putting Down Roots: For many people, buying a home and land gives them a sense of permanence and stability. A home can be the center of a family, a place to gather and celebrate. You also become a member of a community: meeting and sharing with your neighbors, sending your children to local schools, maybe even being active in local political issues.
- Disposable Income & Time: It is likely that if you buy, you will have a lot less disposable income, and less time.
Renters pay the rent, and that’s it. Buyers pay the mortgage, the house maintenance costs (Do you know how much it costs to fix a toilet? To clean the gutters?), and the property taxes.
Are you ready to spend your weekends mowing the lawn? Will you calmly flip through the yellow pages to “Plumbing” when you need to deal with the overflowing toilet in the middle of the night? Are you prepared to give up a major vacation because you need a new roof?
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Status: Often you can afford to rent a bigger, nicer place than you can afford to buy. For some people, the pride of owning their own home isn’t enough to balance the fact that they have to live in a smaller home, or a neighborhood that isn’t as pleasant or convenient.
One of the ways to deal with this is to look at this first home as the first rung on the ladder and that in buying it and building equity, you’ll be able to trade up to something closer to your dream home in a few years.
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