Apartment - Lease House - Own House

I’m gonna ask because I’m tired of all the searching and time wasting it has caused us. I haven’t lived in an apartment since I moved out of Florida. I only lived in an apartment for one year. I have lived in several leased homes, two here in Texas and several growing up in Georgia. Now, my question to you is, what do you prefer if you have no other choices? Of course our choice would be to own, but even with the crazy economy here, owning a home may not work out for us. The price range that is affordable is very tiny living space. I’m really ok with tiny, most of the apartments we looked at in our range were on the small side. Apartments have some advantages, no grass to mow, fitness center and pools to enjoy. They also have some disadvantages, being that you know everything your neighbors are up to and they know your business, too. I prefer not to hear them – AT ALL. Leasing a house has a few advantages, for one it is a house; you’re not connected to another. The disadvantages, you have a yard to maintain, and some sort of landlord/management company (apartments have management companies, too) to deal with. In our case, our landlord lives across the street. Yes, THE landlord. The person that OWNS this house! I kid you not! I was not thrilled to hear that, it was not discussed during the trips to see the house. He listed it with a management company, but they have NOTHING to do with the house! The only thing they did was the credit check and the application. The owner was asked not to pester us, unfortunately that fell on deaf ears. He claimed he would only walk through the yard every 30 days. I can’t remember the last time that he was NOT in the yard! I can’t open the windows for fear he has someone in the yard looking at the gutters, the roof, the fireplace, etc…for pete sakes, I’m losing my mind. It’s like living in an apartment!

We’re not leasing this house another year and we are not buying this house. It was on the market before the owner decided to lease it. That’s another whole issue. Remember the movie, The Money Pit? Yeah, that’s this house – lots and lots of issues. I doubt it would pass the inspection.

Our lease is up in November. We’ve looked at several apartments; we’ve looked at older homes (I’ve purchased two older homes here in Texas – still own one but that’s another story and not an option) on the market and new home builders (I built a home in Florida). With the new homes, their advantage is that they are new. With the older homes, the advantage is they might have some character the newer homes never have, plus we can afford to add a few updates. And, well you know my theory on apartments.

I’m just so tired of looking and time is closing in. Hmmm, I wonder if this stress is causing the itching.

If you read my blog and have any pros/cons please let me know what you think. I really know we should own if possible.