I’ve got a question for the community out there. . . Why did you buy your house? I’ve had a lot of clients buy a house recently when they weren’t financially ready for it. When I asked them why they did it, I got the same standard answers I always get. “My parents said it was a good investment,” or “I was sick and tired of throwing money away on rent.” I understand the desire to own your home, but to me it has always seemed to be a lifestyle choice, not an investment.

The way I see it, there are advantages and disadvantages to owning your home, or renting it from someone else. When you rent, you don’t build up any equity in the property. That’s a major downside, but you are not responsible for the maintenance or upkeep of the property. If something goes wrong, you call the landlord and it is their expense to fix it. If you have a bad landlord, you move out. At worst you are out your security deposit. If the neighborhood goes downhill, you can move. You’re not stuck trying to sell it to some other poor schmuck. I think you get a lot of flexibilty with renting that you cannot get with home ownership. I even think that there’s a myth of your rent payment always increasing. When I lived in apartments or rented from landlords, my rent payments seldomly went up. When they did go up, it was because I was moving to a bigger place, or getting additional amenities. Since I’ve bought my house, my expenses have gone up every year. My mortgage payment (PI) has stayed fixed, but my home owners insurance and property taxes have increased every year. (Since I escrow, it feels like my mortgage payment is constantly increasing)

Home ownership does have one huge advantage, This place is mine and I can do whatever I want with it. That’s a lifestyle choice. I am choosing to pay more and deal with the maintenance expenses to live in a place that I can decorate however I want. I can financially afford to make that lifestyle choice and still accomplish my other goals, so it is an ok decision. However, I see more and more people putting their goals on hold so that they can buy a house. They delay saving for retirement, kids college, maybe even starting a family all together. Is there such a stigma attached to renting that people are willing to sacrifice everything just to say they own the roof over their head? Why are people so willing to put themselves in a tenuous financial position when they don’t need to? What is it about owning your home that is worth the stress, tension and potential martial strife? Is this just another case of I have to own my own home because that’s the way my parents and their parents did it?

Please sound off and let me know why you decided that owning or renting your home was the right lifestyle choice for you. Also, if you had to do it over again would you change anything? Would you buy a cheaper house or delayed your purchase for a couple of years? Would you have bought sooner? Picked a different neighborhood? Used a different agent to help you in your decision? Let me know.