7 reasons why it’s WORSE to be a renter.
So Fairfax decided to trying and spin that renting is wonderful. It is so wonderful that despite housing being more unaffordable than ever, they can write a fluff piece on the 7 great reasons you have for renting over buying and here is why they are wrong. The italics is all direct quotes I am afraid to say.
- Freedom
Think about it: provided you don’t get into a habit of remodelling rental properties with a sledgehammer, a decent set of rental references will mean you can rent pretty much anywhere you like.
Yeah, because uprooting your whole life, friends, social network, travel network, schools, shops and everything else about your life is just the sort of thing you want to do every six months isn’t. There is also the freedom that the landlord has to sell your house whenever they want to make the most of the market, visit your house with a few days’ notice for whatever reason they see fit, but hey it was in writing so you don’t have to worry about the freedom of saying no.
- Fill the piggybank
While the current rental crisis isn’t great news, you can still organise your renting life in such a way (living further out, sharing) that it’s possible to save as well as make the rent each month.
Of course, if you want to spend more than 2 hours each day moving further out is just such an easy option. I have a 45 to 55min commute each way every day and if I am working late for whatever reason it then turns into a 35min train ride and 40min walk because there are no buses past 9:30pm. Sure it doesn’t matter if I see my family or not, because I am saving money for a mortgage that I will never be able to afford. As for sharing, seriously WTF, see point 4.
Also saving is great, at the moment I am trying to juggle childcare costs, rent and saving $5,000 for the money to move house again. (about the cost of a helicopter flight I believe) I’ll need a bond of around $2k, the first months rent and to pay for a removalist just for the big things to move. You know big things like a table and chairs and a couch.
- Jim’ll fix it
Jim, or Tony, or Marge, or Bruce: if something goes awry (and, let’s face it, things often do in rental properties), it’s the landlord’s job to sort it out.
Yes it is the landlords job to fix it and chances are he or she will do it themselves to save money and botch it up, taking the opportunity to have a good squiz around your place at the same time. Most of the time any repairs are either done by the lowest priced contractor and they do only the minimum. And don’t worry if it costs Jim too much to fix it, he will just bump the rent at the next available moment.
- Roomies
Renting, on the other hand, is more often than not a collective experience.
Yes when you are FUCKING 20 years old it is. I’m not and I am fairly certain that no one wants to rent a house with 4 year old twins who spend half the night awake and all the day colouring in anything that is or isn’t bolted down. When they aren’t doing that they are busy arguing with each other whom was first to get to the toilet spending hours in said room. For that one or two hours I get to spend having quiet time with my wife before the up and down night antics kick in, I’d like to have a nice quiet time with her and not her and the 3 other roommates we share the house only 20km for the City with.
- Downsizing
Renting is a great opportunity to streamline the amount of personal detritus you’ve been dragging around for years and free yourself from the shackles of capitalism.
Yeah it is great just when you are getting settled into a suburb to get a phone call from the landlord saying “hey selling the house”. I’ve always thought firstly “what a great opportunity to streamline my personal detritus”. I look forward to explaining to my kids why this is such a great thing and oh sorry Mum and Dad can’t afford for you to have that swing set in the backyard (donated to us) because we can’t afford a backyard.
- No commitment
Well, I wouldn’t call renting “commitment free”, it’s more like “commitment light” (or probably “lite”, if we’re really using diet parlance).
It is also the same for the landlord, they have no commitment to you either. So you get a regular reminders that your social position is one that means you can get screwed over at 24 hours written notice. Things like a mortgage can be locked down for years in advance when interest rates are low, landlords can up the rent every 6 to 12 months because they can and they know the cost of moving is so high that people won’t.
- Can’t tie me down
… But having said that, there’s something wonderful about being safe in the knowledge that if, say, Steven Spielberg rings up tomorrow and says he has a job for you.
I am safe in the knowledge that Spielberg won’t ring me up and offer me a job, he doesn’t have my number for starters and I am not in the phone book. I wish I could live in cloud cuckoo land where that is seriously a good reason to stay renting. Sure, I’d miss my wife and kids when I rush off to Hollywood or New York to live the Friends lifestyle. Remember what happened at the end of Friends, they grew up and moved out and apart. They didn’t sit around saying, hey lets just stay here and keep renting, or let’s just rent further out.
So yeah renting is just so bloody wonderful that we once again have to move The 7 houses I have lived with Mrs Wolfcat, 5 of the moves were because the house was sold out underneath us, 1 because my job moved interstate and 1 because the landlord was greedy and it was the best house we could find given we were forced to move from the last house.
Yes renting is all sunshine and happiness, well until you get screwed over.
P.S Please buy more of my stuff from Redbubble, really we do need the money for a new bond.