Should I renew my apartment lease or buy a home for myself?

I love that you are asking this question. Hopefully, this answer will assist you. 

You’re curious about options and curiosity is a great mindset to be in. It sure beats asking questions later like, “How do I break my lease?” or “how did my new home lose so much value?”

One of life’s more valuable tools is preserving options. 

“I believe your real mission is to evaluate how these choices would impact your quality of life.” 

John Donlon

Using several thousand real-life journeys into home-ownership my team and I have developed a score to help you figure out how you would perform at either activity: Continuing to Rent or Buying a Home. 

You can access our Home-Ownership Aptitude Score® here, for free.

The Score reduces the results of thousands of conversations with tenants and first-time homebuyers into a predictive tool to assess how continuation on as a tenant or transitioning to become a homeowner would potentially fit your personality. 

If you don’t have the time to access your Home Ownership Aptitude Score please consider these takeaways in the meantime.

• Preserve as many options as you possibly can. Consider going to a Tenant at Will feature on your lease if it is allowed (even if it costs more). This will help you avoid being backed into a corner with a termination date or trying to force the future home of your dreams to come to the surface during a specific period in time. 

• Build a home ownership budget. Not just tax and insurance. But all the hidden costs such as design and décor budgets. Yard equipment and tools. Remember Tax rates vary between different cities and real estate taxes only go up (never down).

• Create a Mood-board of Story Board to visualize your new home. Fill it with a smoker, guests from work, chickens, a favorite beverage display, container gardens, a tire swing, a drum set, a zip line, car lift, a reading nook.  Is your home speaking to walkability to a neighborhood café? Or is focused on privacy and a yard for pets? What style home is this? How big is the lot, or is it a condo? And where is it located?

• Read our article on Motivations to Own a Home.

• Find out more about:  Competing in the sport of buying a home.

• Common topics that speed up the home buying decision: Am I ready to Buy a Home Yet?

Please consider us a free resource on your real estate journey. No question is too small or too complicated for us to help you with.