Ever since I bought my house at the ripe old age of 21 in October 2012, I?ve found myself regretting my decision to pursue homeownership every now and then.
Sure buying a house does have a lot of perks over renting, like being able to paint the walls whatever color you want. Lime green kitchen anyone? (Just kidding!)?Plus as a homeowner you can have pets without having to ask for anyone?s permission, which I love. But even with all the perks of owning a home and being able to do pretty much as you please, homeownership does have some serious cons too. Here are two things I really hate about being a homeowner.
Maintenance and Repair Costs
One of the biggest nightmares I?ve run across as a homeowner is having to pay for major repairs to my home due to people having taken shortcuts in the past with maintenance. Therefore, having an emergency fund when you are homeowner is especially important.
Though the entire main floor of my home is new and the basement?s finishings are all new, there were still several big issues when I moved into my home. For example, within the first week of living here my toilet started leaking sewer water into my basement. That was definitely not a fun thing to fix!
I also discovered some major issues with how the electrical is hooked up in the basement and though I?ve taken care of the immediate safety issues, I?ve yet to completely fix the rest of the problem. Because my basement has a solid ceiling instead of drop tiles, I?ll have to rip out a major portion of the ceiling to fix the wiring problems.
Terrible Neighbors
You can have terrible neighbors no matter if you rent or buy your next home. But when you buy a home and all of your neighbors bought their homes too, it?s unlikely that you?ll be rid of your terrible neighbors anytime soon.
Stability is usually a pro of buying a house, as you have your payments locked in and won?t be subject to rent being raised by your landlord, but in this instance the stability and longevity of homeownership could be a con.
One of my next door neighbors is a guy I went to high school with. He?s a few years younger than me, but still fairly close to my age. Unfortunately the maturity level gap that is often present when you compare genders is very apparent with him. While he holds down a full-time job, he still manages to throw loud, raging parties every weekend much to the dismay of the rest of our neighborhood. Not only is the loud music and guests coming and going all night a major annoyance, his friends also park in our driveways and once had me blocked in when I was trying to leave my house to make a late night grocery store run.
Though I love homeownership for the most part, it’s like other things in life – not perfect. Sometimes I miss being a renter and having someone else on the hook for repairs and maintenance costs, and being able to pick up and move in a year if I wasn?t happy with my location or my neighbors. But overall, homeownership is still worth it to me.
Are you a homeowner? What are the biggest cons of homeownership that you notice? How often do you think it might be better to rent than to own?
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Wise Dollar
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I hate paying for maintenance too, but it is obviously a double-edged sword. Not paying for maintenance just makes things cost more over the long run!
That is totally true!
I am a homeowner and what I really hate is the maintenance. That being said, I still find being a homeowner more advantageous than being a tenant.
It is an advantage in most situations, but man the maintenance costs stink!
I would have to say the ever rising taxes. It’s frustrating that they keep going up every year. The maintenance hasn’t been an issue for us, it’s more just the taxes.
Taxes – that’s a good one too. Mine have gone up substantially from the first year until now. 🙁
According to the stats, i live the 25th highest property tax county in the country. Property taxes on a $750,000 house in South Carolina are half of my current property taxes, and my house is worth 20% of that haha.
We are trying to sell our house right now and it’s turning out to be more difficult than we thought. This is what I hate about it!
I wouldn’t like that either!
Ugh, I have 7,500 reasons I hate being a homeowner. That’s the dollar amount we’ve spent this year in repairs. (Of that, $4,000 was for HVAC.) I just keep reminding myself that every item that gets fixed/replaced (usually the latter) is one less thing to go wrong in the next few years.
All that said… make it stop!!!!
That’s true – once you’ve paid for that repair or upgrade, hopefully you won’t have to do it again for many, many years!
Out of the 13 years I have been with my hubby, we have owned a home for 10 of those and I personally hate home ownership. We plan to live in our home until my son graduates from high school and then I would love to rent for the main reason that when things blow up, we can call someone else to fix them. 🙂 PS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!
Thanks for the B-day wishes! I agree, I’d love to be able to call someone else to fix things. That is a big pro of renting!
My family has rented all of their lives and so when I got married I moved into my spouse’s house. It’s been overwhelming being a home owner and your two reasons are mine too. The annoying neighbors won’t go away and you can’t up and leave once your lease is over. And, it’s been eye-opening having to save for things like pest control, carpet cleaning, repairs and maintenance. I have been so used to calling the leasing office and getting things done for free! However….it is nice having a yard and I even started gardening. Things I’ve never done before because we lived in apartments. Lots of pros and cons, but there’s no turning back now! Just praying for the best.
That’s exactly right – there are definitely pros and cons to homeownership. Yard work is grueling, but I do love having an attractive yard and garden where I can do as I please with the landscaping and plants.
I’ve been a homeowner for 6 years and I have hated every minute of it. In my case, yes, my mortgage is cheaper than rent…whoohoo. But aside from that I will get right down to reality. The multiple types of expenses for me outpace the equity. The first type of expense is the labor…mowing, tree/shrub trimming, shoveling, snowblowing and lots of time in painting and repairs (I do my own)
The second type expense is product cost…gas, oil, lawn mower blades, fertilizer, grass seed, paint, concrete, flooring, plumbing roofs etc..it all costs.
The third type you never get back, namely taxes and insurance..those you can count on pretty much going up year in and year out. Now, stack this all of with the pace of your equity and it’s not even close. My situation is even worse because I have some rental houses as neighbors…who clearly just don’t give a crap. Combine that with disappearing industries and it makes homeownership uncomfortable and unpleasant for me. I can’t wait to sell or get rid of this pig because I want freedom and flexibility back in my life…along with a little bit of sanity.
Lol what? People park in your driveway? If they are doing so without your consent call the cops.
I have carefully considered all the testimonies on this post, all the pros and cons in re homeownership versus renting, and I admit that both sides of the debate are very persuasive. I myself own a nice, albeit middle-aged, condominium for the past twenty-two years, following sixteen years of renting in an extremely depressed, “low-rent” district. My rent was fixed at an incredibly low, 1970’s-level rate, with a pair of landlords who were just as nice as they could be, ( see the 1970’s rental level ) although they did tend to watch their rental properties like hawks, and tolerated no nonsense! Several of my various roommates’ nonsense nearly got me tossed a number of times, so I started taking weekend work so that I could swing the rent by myself. Working seven days a week is no fun, but it beat the street, and being able to come home to an empty apartment every night, to NO drama and/or roommate bullshit, was a perk that I relished for just over ten years! Eventually, I inherited a substantial amount of money which I used to buy myself a nice condominium where I have been living ever since. Homeownership has it perks-total control of your property, something to show all your peers with whom you grew up with, no landlord issues, you can have pets if you want, girlfriends over with nobody to critique or disapprove, etc. I will admit the convenience of renting is something that I miss from time to time- no maintenance, property taxes, hassles, etc. I understand that renting holds certain advantages for certain types of folks- I get it. But, for myself, I had to suffer the disadvantages of renting in a painfully-bad neighborhood for sixteen long, miserable years. Quite often, I feared I would be there the rest of my possibly-truncated life. When I came into my inheritance, I jumped ship into homeownership as if my life depended on it! And considering the deteriorated state of that neighborhood today, twenty-two years later, it’s quite possible that my life DID depend on it! I think the greatest advantage of homeownership versus renting/leasing is the freedom of being out from under a land-baron who controls your lifestyle to an extent, accelerating rents, and losing money on rent that you will never see again. Homeownership is a pain in the ass at times, ( maintenance and taxes ) but, after having experienced the best-and worst- of both worlds, I do believe that homeownership is the best way to go if for no other reason than you don’t need to be eighty-plus years old, and served with an eviction notice with nowhere to go, and no one to turn to. ( everybody’s either dead, or in hospice care, or living with their children/grandchildren, and no room or time for YOU! ) Homeownership is the Great American Dream, and there are still excellent reasons why this IS the case. So- if you’re still in college and you really don’t know where you will be over the next few years, then maybe renting is the best way until you can get your career off the ground. But once you’re established, and your career’s up and running, sooner or later, you have to grow up and join the game of the American Dream! Thank you!