Did you have a good experience or did you wish you rented an apartment instead?
My friends are expecting in March and they need to move soon....they have no pets and they only want to rent for a year. I think an apartment would be easier...
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Yes. We rent a house right now. We have previously rented a townhouse, and before that we rented apartments within multi-family houses. I'm curious why you think an apartment would be better. I generally prefer having a house... especially if it has a yard, a driveway, and a garage. We will definitely own a house someday, but for a variety of reasons it doesn't make sense for us at this time.
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I wish we could afford to rent a house! But it's several hundred more, if not 1k more, to rent than the apartments around here. Albeit - they are much bigger with yard, garage, etc..
Not sure why an apt would be better though? I would rent a house over an apt any day.
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I think since they are only renting for a yea, an apartment is a much better choice. Way more manageable and easier to maintain, plus, with a new baby and all the next year is about to be a huge blur, anything they can save in money and convenience by having an apt would make sense to me.
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We've rented both apartments and houses, and I couldn't ever live in an apartment again. We love having the space of a house along with a driveway, yard, etc. Plus, there's more storage space. I love having a house, but I know that it's not always feasible. Houses around here aren't too much more than apartments.
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We did.
Pros: I could play my guitar as loud as I wanted without worry about neighbors through the walls. There was laundry in the basement. Attic storage.
Cons: Heating oil was outrageous, the windows were crap in the small ranch house. There was no A/C and no windows that one would fit in (they were all short but long slider windows. So it was always way too hot or cold in that house and nothing we could do about without investing money that would go nowhere but to someone else's property.In the townhouse apartment we have now, I hate that it doesn't have laundry and three floors isn't the best space with a little fella but I love having a parking lot and dumpster. I also love that all the snow shoveling/plowing is taken care of for us.
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@skibobrown: @Mrs. Pen: I just assume there is more upkeep!
The apartment they are looking at has garage parking, in unit washer and dryer, refrigerator and on site maintenance staff.
The older house they are looking at has washer dryer hookups but no washer and dryer, no fridge provided and the owner is their friend's uncle who lives a few hours away with no property managers in the area. My friends don't have appliances but maybe that stuff isn't too expensive to rent!
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i rented an apartment in college and would never ever do it again. since we've been married we've lived in two different rented houses, which we've loved. we're renting a house right now, and it's awesome. i'm a super light sleeper, and i can't stand being able to hear/smell my neighbors. now, with a baby on the way i'm especially happy to be in a house--crying, noise, space, privacy, etc.!
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When we moved to a new city last a little over a year ago, we chose to rent a house. We had previously owned a house before our move and didn't want to go back to apartment living. We like having the privacy, yard, garage, laundry, etc. all to ourselves.
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I've done both. In my experience, landlords with houses are much better because they are more invested in the property. (Come to think of it, every house I've rented the landlord has lived in before!) Whereas with apartments it was all through a property management company and miserable to deal with.
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@autumnlove: Yes, there can be more upkeep, depending on the landlord. However, there are also amenities that can be nice when you have a baby. More storage, your own washer / dryer, a driveway of your own, a yard... plus there is the advantage that you won't have neighbors sharing a wall with your crying baby. I think it just depends on personal preferences.
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@skibobrown: Ya, my friend is pro apartment and her DH is pro house right now! I wonder what they will end up with!
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@autumnlove: Ha! If it's anything like most of the couples I know, then your friend will win out in the end
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We just moved to our rental house after living in apartments for years. Having the peace and quiet is priceless, not being paranoid about disturbing neighbors with LO crying is a major plus and I would never rent an apartment again, esp with a LO.
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It really depends on the house. We're renting a townhouse right now and there is zero upkeep because condo fees are included in our rent. It's only a little more than an apartment would be, but more spacious and we have a garage, huge deck, quiet neighborhood, etc. We looked at apartments and I simply couldn't envision being in a big complex with LO. I think that's probably easier with a newborn, though -- they don't need as much space. However, the crying factor may be something to consider in an apartment complex. I would always worry that my baby would bother neighbors if the walls were thin.
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We rented a house. It should be the landlord's responsibility to maintain it, and in our case, she also paid to have the lawn maintained (or else we wouldn't have rented it). So it wasn't like there was a ton of upkeep. Our issue was more with the landlord herself. She used to live there, and she was a total cheapskate and sort of a psycho on top of it, and didn't like me at all (loved my DH, though). She was such a pain in the ass that we bought a house a full year before we probably should have, just because I didn't want to wait a year to TTC but could not imagine spending another year dealing with her, and pregnant on top of it. Also, we are paying almost exactly what we did in our mortgage, as we did renting. Then again, apartments aren't much cheaper here.
BUT. It's not like an experience like that is typical of renting a house. I would much rather rent a house than an apartment if I had a baby. I think it's safer and quieter (safer at least in our area). And there should be no difference in ease of renting between a house and an apartment. They should just make sure that the owners still live in town, because dealing with absentee landlords is a pain.
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@ladyfingers: I think the absentee landlord thing is what worries my friend because the owner lives almost 3 hours away and he doesn't have property managers in the area. He has a gardener but he does the rest of the home maintenance himself.
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@autumnlove: Yeah I'd recommend they look for something where the owner lives closer.
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@autumnlove: He doesn't have anyone closer for maintenance tasks? If so, that's a red flag. We rent out our previous house, also about three hours away, but have a guy there to take care of anything that crops up suddenly.
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@Mrs. Yoyo: I don't think he has anyone closer. They mentioned that the landlord is always visiting his grand kids in the area so maintenance won't be a problem...he has no issues driving to fix stuff. I would be weary since 3 hours is still 3 hours!
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