Dis/Advantage to Renting a Home vs. Apartment

[mrssavy42112]

So the lease to our apartment will be up in a few months & we need to move. Our neighbors are apparently heavy smokers & it gets in our place. UGH! Anyway, looks like renting a home is comparably priced in our area. I’d much rather rent a home than an apartment. Other than the fact that we may get an inexperienced landlord & that there’s no rent control, are there any other disadvantages I’m not aware of? Anything we should be mindful of on the hunt? Anything & everything is helpful. TIA!

[audette]

We are in a rental home.

A few things to consider: yard care and snow removal - in many places (not all, apparently!) these are the tenant's responsibility, per the lease agreement. A house is definitely more work than an apartment, in that respect.

Houses often are in neighbourhoods with HOA's. Generally, leases will tie the tenants to behaviour as allowed within the HOA restrictions. It might be worth reviewing these before signing a lease.


Also consider the costs that might come along with a house vs. apartment - we have to pay for trash/recycling pickup, as well as other utilities. When I lived in an apartment, these expenses were not always something I had to worry about.

[Deleted]

I like not having a yard to worry about (many would disagree) and amenities vary by location, but I like living somewhere with full-time maintenance people. There are a lot of other amenities of apartments that I have and like, but you wouldn't necessarily find them in the buildings you're looking at (and I've lived in buildings without them).

We also don't need more space than we have, so an apartment suits us. If we lived in a 4 BR house, I imagine that at least 2 rooms would just store random crap.

[mrssavy42112]

You know, I have never heard of people having to pay for trash/recycling pick up until I came on this site. Around here, that’s taken care of by the town. It doesn’t hurt to ask, though. You never know.

I guess I didn’t realize that you may be responsible for the upkeep of the outdoor areas. I’m not too sure our lifestyle would afford us the time necessary to do that. Hopefully we can find a place that doesn’t require us to do it.

[noodleoo]

I'd say maintenance. A house may require more maintenance which may or may not be your responsibility. But also a house may take longer for the landlord to fix things vs. an apartment with a management company.

The other thing I'd think about is utilities costs. They may be higher as a house may be larger and have more outside walls.

[LoveTrains]

I rent a SFH right now, and I am not responsible for any exterior maintanence or snow removal or yard work. But I specifically made sure of that in the lease agreement.

My heating bill is much higher than it was in an apartment.

[mrssavy42112]

Higher utilities definitely make sense. Right now we only pay for electricity, but it will be a big increase in monthly expenses if we have to pay the other utilities too. Hmmmm

[audette]

Sept 10, 2012 13:54:30 GMT -5 mrssavy42112 said:

I guess I didn’t realize that you may be responsible for the upkeep of the outdoor areas. I’m not too sure our lifestyle would afford us the time necessary to do that. Hopefully we can find a place that doesn’t require us to do it.

Well, to be honest, lawn/yard care and snow removal are all things you could pay to have taken care of for you, but you would want to factor in that cost. Or, the time and the cost of the equipment (landlords do not generally provide a mower for your use, either).

[Deleted]

I have a very "hands off" landlord. We rent our house from a landlord who owns dozens of other houses. He does a lot of the maintenance on his own, so we don't have a 24 hour maintenance person and we're pretty much expected to do light maintenance on our own. He will fix anything major, but if I want to pitch a fit about dirty, moldy tub caulk, he would tell me to fix it or deal with it. We had a very small leak in our bedroom closet when it rained really hard once, and it took him three days to come and fix it.

He also does not do pest control while a tenant is in the house unless it's something like termites that could permanently damage the home. We had a guarantee when we signed our lease that it was free of pests, and if it happens to get infested by something while we live there and we want pest control, we have to pay for it. His idea is that it was pest free when we moved in, so if it does become infested it's our fault and we should have to pay for it. (Not like in my old apartment, where you could get pests from the neighbors and stuff.)

Also, the yard and landscaping is our responsibility to maintain. The yard is small and the landscaping is pretty minimal too. We pay someone $20 to mow every week or two and we spend maybe an hour on the landscaping every month.

We also have a massive trash can to wheel to the curb once per week.

On the upside, we have our own yard, so it's nice for entertaining. We also never have to worry about sharing walls with people. If I want to crank up some music and clean house at 3 a.m., more power to me, if I want to turn up the surround sound and pretend I'm in a theater, more power to me. If I want to throw large blunt objects at my husband, more power to me. (kidding.)