Leasing a Home Vs Buying a Home: What Are the Options?

Its been on your mind a while now. The time has come to decide. Should you continue to lease your home or buy one of your own? There are some things to consider before making this decision.

Advantages of Leasing
No out of pocket expenses for maintenance. When something breaks down it gets fixed by the landlord and costs you nothing. That's handy when the repairs are major. It is also much cheaper to get into a home if you are leasing. Leasing doesn't require as large a deposit.

If the market isn't friendly toward buyers or if your credit could stand a make over, leasing makes it possible to go without all the expense of owning a home while waiting out a change. It's also easy to just pick up and move without losing equity. You have no responsibilities on the land and can leave.

Advantage of Buying
You own your home! How exciting is that? They don't call it the American dream for nothing. Owning your own home is one of the most prominent status symbols of our culture. You have the ability to change and modify your home in any way you like. You no longer have to move into someone else's idea of goof taste.

You build equity in your home and it gains in value over the years. Every single payment made on the principle of your loan is an increase in the amount of your home that you now own! So in a very real sense you are paying yourself. You can also get handy tax breaks and other perks like if you should sell the home there's no income tax on the deal! You are free to do as you wish on your property. There is no landlord to limit the number of visitors you have or how much parking space you get.

Your mortgage payments are the same for 30 years. Rent fluctuates over that long of a time span would go up considerably.

There is definitely much to consider when making this decision. It is important to take adequate time to research all your options get a clear understanding of the pros and cons of each situation and their relevance to your situation.