When Mindy Cortez, a single mother of 3, moved in after buying a home in Orlando, FL last February, the ten-year dental assistant quickly found herself wishing she was still a renter.
Cortez says, “I miss Rick my maintenance guy”, he took care of everything for me. “Whether it was a burned-out light bulb or the washer wasn’t working, Rick would show up and fix it right away”.
So, does this mean that you should rent instead of buying? Not necessarily, it depends a lot on the person and the situation. To help you determine what makes more sense for you, ask yourself the following questions before deciding.
Should I Buy A Home In Orlando or Rent?
1- Are you looking for your home to also be an investment? If so, you might want to re-think your strategy. Most of us were brought up believing that owning a home automatically meant accumulating wealth and one day selling it for a big payday and retiring.
The truth is however, the housing market can go down just as easily as it goes up and you can never depend on real estate appreciation. However, if you get a great deal on a house, you’ll probably be OK and if the home doesn’t go up in value, chances are you can at least get the full amount of your money back out of it.
2- Have you researched the City you plan on living in? I suggest you consider the overall health of the area where you want to live. What’s the unemployment rate? What’s the crime rate? Are new businesses being built in or around the area? Does the city’s future look bright enough to want to move there? You would be wise to consider all these things before committing to a mortgage.
The City of Detroit would be a good example of a once-thriving city gone bankrupt and housing prices plummeting.
3- How long are you planning to live in the house? If you only plan on living there for years or less, then you’re probably better off renting.
4- How much is the mortgage compared to the rent? You can’t just look at the mortgage versus the rent, there are several other factors to consider when talking about homeownership. As a new homeowner, you’ll be responsible for things like insurance, property taxes, homeowners associations dues, and paying for any repairs or maintenance on a house when you own it.
You should keep in mind that big-ticket items like a central AC will be in the $4,000 + range to replace. Would you be ready to shell out 4 to 5 grand if your central AC went out?
5- How stable is your employment situation? One of the nice things about renting is that whenever you want to move, you can do so fairly easily with no repercussions. When you’re a homeowner, however, it’s a whole different ball game altogether.
Committing to a mortgage means that you’re making a promise to your lender to pay back all the money that you borrowed plus interest. If you don’t pay or if you stop making payments, not only will the lender try and foreclose on you but your credit could be ruined for the next 5 to 7 years. If you’re not sure about how stable your job is or if you even like where you work, then the safe bet would be to rent.
The decision to own a home in Orlando versus renting should be considered a lifestyle decision as well as a financial decision. Take some time to really think about the questions in this post before making that decision because once you sign those closing docs, it’s too late to change your mind. If you would like some advice from an experienced Orlando realtor about buying a house be sure to visit https://orlandorealtyconsultants.com or call 407-902-7750.
