Good Weather For Renting
Posted on August 27, 2007 by Her and tagged housing
Lately lots of our friends have been buying houses, and we've been feeling left out. But this week Chicago has been deluged with severe weather, and suddenly the only thing we're missing out on is damaged property. The friends with the brand new garden level condo are furious that it has flooded - again - and the contractor won't return their phone calls. The co-worker with the new house in the suburbs now has two enormous trees decorating their living room. The friends with a new condo on the north side were out in the storm shoveling leaves out of the storm sewer. As for our own leaky windows, the landlord was here last night to take measurements for replacement windows while we lounged around.
A major reason we haven't purchased real estate is that we don't have an emergency fund large enough to cover major home repairs. For once the soggy grass seems greener on the renting side.
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JV | Aug 27, 2007
As someone who spent his entire weekend on hands and knees remodeling a powder room, I can identify with your notion that sometimes renting has it's benefits. However, sitting on $300k in equity after owning my home for 7 years feels pretty good too....
You've stated very succinctly the reasons why I haven't bought either. :-) I just don't want to be responsible for anything that can go wrong, because Murphy is a permanent visitor to my family, so whatever could go wrong, would invariably go wrong were I to purchase my own condo/home. :-)
Ariella | Aug 28, 2007
This post sounds pretty smug. I'm sure your homeowner friends have similar thoughts about how sad it is that you still rent because even though home repair can be expensive, it still beats renting.
I don't think this post was meant to come off as smug, but just to point out that homeownership isn't the right answer all the time, especially when you're in a financial situation such as ours.
Anyway, our homeowner friends were being smug first. Seriously.
I agree that renting has its perks! If an appliance breaks, it's not my issue...plus, who doesn't love having a maintenance guy on call 24/7?
mm | Oct 3, 2007
Repeat after me:
Never, ever, ever buy a garden-level condominium in the Chicago area, if anywhere in the world. Here in Chicago, a heavy thunderstorm will inevitably result in storm sewer overflow flooding of basements. This problem has only worsened since Chicago installed flow-restrictor caps on street sewer covers. If you look carefully in the basements of older Chicago buildings, you'll find all the floor drains are either plugged or screwed shut. Basement sink drains should also have backflow preventors.
"Garden-level" is just another basement apartment carved out of barely habitable space. You not only get flooded, but you also have far more colds in the winter due to the dampness.
moom | Aug 27, 2007
Schadenfreude :)
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