Saturday, Sep 04, 2010
Renting vs buying, the devil is in the detail
Independent: Rent or not, there's no place like home
To be honest, it wasn't until the estate agent cheerfully told me she had sold her family home and was now renting that I really tuned back in. "It's the perfect solution for us," she shouldn't have said. "We can live somewhere far nicer than we would ever have been able to buy, and if the boiler explodes in the middle of the night it's someone else's problem." Put that way, I suddenly began to question why I was battling to snatch up a property we would "add value to" rather than simply enjoy living in. But it's this "home" word that's the problem because it has been rubbed out and overwritten by "investment". Call me crazy, or a bit simple, but I don't want an investment, I just want to live somewhere that I don't need permission to hang pictures on the walls. So I'm giving up.
2 Comments
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1. Mrmagooisagovteconomist said...
Hang in there, the term home is going to make a resurgence in the coming hardships, and you are right even on here lots of posters ramble on about cvc, rates, returns, etc etc all forgetting that primarily for most of us a decent home (owned, mortgaged at an affordable rate or rented at a fair price) is all we crave. Best of luck
2. bidin'matime said...
"We can live somewhere far nicer than we would ever have been able to buy". Absolutely! We live in our 'dream location', with sea views to die for. And in a funny sort of way, the fact that it isn’t ours actually makes it all the more valued - like a holiday, you know it will end one day, so you make the most of it, rather than take it for granted.
In fact the whole experience has made us value life much more – people talk about a ‘permanent home’ or even a ‘forever home’, but nothing is permanent and nothing is forever – enjoy each day as if you don’t have too many left… (Maybe it also helps to know someone who lives with cancer hanging over them – something that teaches us all to value life much more than assets..)