Zillow Advice: Rent vs. Buy - Why do some folks prefer renting?

the landlord tries to jack ...

Sat, 30 May 2009 12:52:00 GMT

the landlord tries to jack your rent up.

If your a horrible tenant then yes they will jack up your rent to get rid of you. I just signed another lease, this will now be 3 years at the same rent.......meanwhile my neighbors property taxes went up...therefore they are paying more than I am this year.

"because homes here are suddenly ...

Sat, 30 May 2009 06:59:00 GMT

"because homes here are suddenly being reduced by $250K, $300K, $400K or even more"

good for you Randy! we are seeing down in South Bay the same...

Several Lease Option to Purchase ...

Sat, 30 May 2009 05:17:00 GMT

Several Lease Option to Purchase Agreements including Right of 1st Refusal:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5wFZ1XUoP0

Quite true keen eye, in my ...

Sat, 30 May 2009 02:51:00 GMT

Quite true keen eye, in my market a person can rent a luxury house for about what piti is on a middle of the road one. Also when renting an apartment you take out the trash, when something breaks call the landlord, and negotiate when your lease is up and the landlord tries to jack your rent up. When owning a home you: maintain the lawn(or have rocks), call overpriced repair services(always ask for a deal), or fix it yourself, wait on your property taxes to jack up, call your insurance company when a tornado,hurricane, or hail damages your roof, and have a garage full of stuff you barely know is there. Of course when renting your upstairs neighbor just might have the large dog who runs at night, the couples who love to fight and scream loudly, and an a.c. bill that makes no sense for such a small place? I prefer a house.

I think there is another ...

Tue, 26 May 2009 17:00:00 GMT

I think there is another thing that rarely gets discussed when people talk about renting. Renting often makes sense when you want to buy in a neighborhood with low availability too. Right now in my neighborhood there are only 20 houses for sale. If you want to buy in my elementary school area, you have only 1 choice right now under 300K. Many families settle for a house just to buy into the neighborhood that they want only to end up moving to a better fit later at great expense after escrow, loan and commission costs. Renting and being completely ready to buy gives you the opportunity to make a no contingency offer on a house. That is a great benefit especially if the property that you really want is hard to come by. Renting also give you an open timetable to look at your market and find a really good match the first time without trying to coordinate closes of escrow. I always asked to have a 2 month buy out clause in my leases so that if I found just the right house, I was ready to buy that day without conflict.

That was pretty low Linda, ...

Tue, 26 May 2009 16:46:00 GMT

That was pretty low Linda, I think she deserves a flag for being self promotional......

I ditto what K101 says, when something makes sense to do then that is what you do....and right now renting still makes plenty of sense.

That made me kind of dizzy ...

Tue, 26 May 2009 14:16:00 GMT

That made me kind of dizzy and the pics looked blurry. Liked the music, though, Linda.

I prefer renting to owning when I can rent a house exactly where I want to be for less than PITI for the same place and watch the houses around me plummet in price, month after month.

I prefer renting, at least ...

Tue, 26 May 2009 13:55:00 GMT

I prefer renting, at least a tad bit longer, because homes here are suddenly being reduced by $250K, $300K, $400K or even more. Homes that have languished on the market demanding 2006 prices for over 2 years are quite suddenly being slashed and popping up as pathetic short sale attempts.

And yet, no one is buying even at those prices...

Seems that not all that many people can, or should be buying million+ dollar homes. Not even in gilded, uberprime Marin County.

Coming soon to a block near you: decent homes for under $1mm; truly luxurious homes for $1.5mm; true estates over $2mm. What a change from just a couple years ago when a million smackers wouldn't buy you a government subsidized dog house.

Linda, you are my heroe

Tue, 26 May 2009 04:21:00 GMT

Linda, you are my heroe

I thought, Linda is your ...

Tue, 26 May 2009 03:53:00 GMT

I thought, Linda is your hero ?