pros and cons of renting a house and renting an apartment?

tommy: pros and cons of renting a house and renting an apartment?
same monthly rent for either

what are the pros of cons of both?

Answers and Views:

Answer by juju
A pro for renting a house is that you might eventually get the option to purchase the home, that can never happen with an apartment……..

Does the house have a nice yard? that’s a huge plus

– – – Does the apartment have a gym though? or snack machines ( yea i know the two contradict one another 😛 ) Or a pool? If so those things also should be considered.

Do you have children?

Pets?

Answer by sashazur
With a house you may need to pay utilities yourself, but with an apartment some or all of them are already included in the rent.

With a house you usually are expected to maintain the outside (mow the lawn, etc.) at your own expense, but with an apartment there is nothing like that to worry about.

With an apartment you might be annoyed by noisy neighbors above, below, and on either side. With a house, you will be less likely to be annoyed by neighbors (but it could still happen).

Either way, if you’re renting, you need to get renter’s insurance to cover your stuff if there’s a fire, theft, etc.

Answer by olinselot
The Pros of renting a house: usually more square footage and space. Houses generally have more closets and storage as well. If you have a problem your chances of getting it fixed sooner are better because you won’t have to wait in line with other renters. The house probably allows for friends and guests a lot more easily. With no neighbors living above or below you don’t have to worry about loud tenants. The house may allow for pets. If you end up liking the place the owners might arrange a lease to buy option and you can actually buy the place.

The Cons of renting a house: The maintenance is going to be more time consuming. You’ll have to water the lawn, shovel the walk, rake leaves, and do outside chores you wouldn’t have to do in an apartment. Houses for rent are usually old – old wiring lead based paint and other problems could be a hazard. People who own and rent a home are sometimes more difficult to deal with.

Pros of renting an apartment: No outside maintenance and it’s usually going to be up to code and safe to live in. Apartment owners are used to dealing with tenants so you won’t have old man Jones showing up at random times to fix stuff like you might get at a house.

Cons of renting an apartment: If you have a problem you can get in line to wait for repair. Less storage and no garage makes for a tight squeeze. Having guests over is not as fun. No yard to go outside when you feel cooped up. Other tenants walking above you or slamming doors and doing other noisy things in the night can get old really fast. You can’t ever buy the place – even if you could you shouldn’t.

My suggestion: Rent the house. You’ll have more space and storage for everything. Taking care of a yard is a small price to pay to enjoy the elbow room. It’s much better real life practice for when you are ready to buy a house of your own down the road. If you end up liking the place you can negotiate buying it later on.

Answer by JB1980
LOL @ the snack machine/gym comment….

But with a house, depending on who owns it, you might be able to get reductions in rent in return for doing minor work – painting, repair etc. which is cool if you’re handy like that. Also you can usually get away with more noise since nobody is too close to you. If you have a driveway you have the luxury of being GUARANTEED a parking spot which is nice when it’s raining and you have bags of groceries!!

Plusses of an apartment… maintenance provided (which varies wildly but mine is really good) pool, hot tub, workout room, utilities paid…

Answer by Melissa
The thing that sucks most about living in an apartment: you have people above and/or below you and probably on either side of you, and since most apartment walls are paper thin, you’ll be able to hear them all loud and clear. On top of that the parking situation may not be great. Your lot may not fit everyone; that was a problem at a friends apartment.
Pros about living in an apartment (and con about living in a house): you don’t have to worry about lawn care, keeping up with regulations as to the appearance of your property, etc. Also, you’ll be dealing with a professional realty company that (hopefully) knows the ins and outs of leasing and will be able to answers questions; sometimes houses are rented out by nonprofessional individuals who may not know exactly what they’re doing (this is not exactly a sure thing though; sometimes you may have a better experience dealing with an independent leaser). Kind of a pro and a con of an apartment is that maintenance is usually included in the lease, but it may take the maintenance a while to be done b/c of other renters repair requests (and the repair men at my apartment complex didn’t always do the best job).
I have to say, if I could have found a house (in the area where I previously rented an apartment) that was the same price as an apartment I would have gone with the house, specifically because of the first con I mentioned about apartments: the noise of neighbors. A house, even if you have some noisy neighbors, is really so much quieter. Another pro is that you may have a driveway, which removes the parking hassle.
Bottom line though, is that you want to compare a house and an apartment not only based on price, but also on the quality of the property and the safety of the neighborhood.

Answer by gafpromise
House rental is more often a single landlord, whereas an apartment is usually managed by a management company. For this and other reasons, house rental leaves several variables to think about. Are you renting the house or the grounds too? Are there other buildings on property that you have the right to use? Who will take care of inside maintenance? Outside maintenance? Landscaping? Does the landlord have the right to come on the property, and in what circumstances? What kind of insurance does the landlord have, and what kind should you get? These are all things that are pretty much foregone conclusions in apartment living. But in house rental there is much more room for negotiation, and you will have to make sure that all agreed-upon terms are put in writing.

Also in this day and age, a house is more likely than an apartment to get foreclosed on, leaving the renter in a really tough spot with very few rights.

Advantages of a home: no upstairs neighbors or downstairs neighbors to make noise; probably more leniency for pets; probably more leniency on just about any lawful use. Apartments usually have a very long list of things you may not do in or to your apartment. But with a house there is likely to be more flexibility.