Pros and cons of buying a home

When you live long enough as someone’s tenant, you can’t help but aspire to buy your own home one day. If you have a growing family the pressure of monthly rent payments and the strict rules of living in a rented property can feel particularly constraining.

Being a home owner, of course, comes with its own set of responsibilities, rules and things you need to consider. As with everything in life, buying a house comes with both pros and cons. Let’s have a look at both before you apply for a loan and start calling moving companies.

For sale: 82 Ocean Street, Woollahra, NSW.

Pros

• Sense of ownership and pride. Owning a home is a big deal, all cons aside. It gives you a sense of pride in the knowledge that you achieved enough to be able to afford your own house or apartment. By no means a small feat in the current Australian housing market.
• Say goodbye to your landlord. You’re the king of your own kingdom and you decide what happens within your walls. You live under your standards and nobody dictates how your home should look and what you can or cannot change. So you can make all your DIY dreams a reality. It’s also a nice feeling to know that you live in a place for which only you have a key.
• A place to call home. In some cases it can be tricky to feel at home in a rented apartment or house. Your landlord can decide to sell it at any point, leaving you out on the street. Having your very own house means that there is at least one certainty in your life, that you have your own special personal space.
• Family-friendly. A home is a family’s best friend. If you’re planning to have a family they will need to feel secure where they live. It can help to call the one place home and build memories and your lives together there. The uncertainty of being a tenant can be unsuitable and stressful for some families.

Cons

• Settling down. Buying a home means settling. You’ll no longer have the luxury to easily travel and move from place to place and experience new lifestyles. You have made your choice and you’ll have to live with it.
• Responsibilities. The plus side of having a landlord is that you always have somebody who can deal with different domestic problems at hand. A good landlord will always have a list of technicians and repairmen for every problem your home may encounter. A home would mean dealing with them yourself.
• Mortgage. If you don’t have a good understanding of the word mortgage now’s the time to Google it because once you buy a home you’ll be seeing it quite a lot. Especially if you have a certain amount of debt that cannot be paid unless you take out a loan.
• Hard to find. Have you ever tried looking for the right house or apartment? There are so many factors to consider and responsibility, especially if you have a family. It has to be a place that fits your lifestyle and budget, and it should be in a convenient location, and in a good neighbourhood. It can be a difficult task finding the perfect home in the perfect location at the right price.

Having all this in mind you’re free to make a decision. Should you reach for the phone and seek out a real estate agent and a removal company, or should you just stay renting and bask in your mortgage free life?

Taking the leap into home ownership is a serious business, and you should think about it carefully, especially if you intend to select your ‘forever house’. There are plenty of variables to consider and plenty of decisions to make both for yourself and your spouse or family. If you do have a family, do not make that decision by yourself. Be sure to talk it out and then decide collaboratively what’s best for everyone.