by Rob Purifoy

Created on: January 16, 2009

Living conditions! First and foremost on the list is your answer as to why you should own a home. The typical house is 3 bedrooms 2 baths and a 2 car garage. Can you imagine no one living above, below, or next to you, stomping around at all hours? No parking lot parties, no thieves with all the exposed cars they can handle and a backyard for the kids or for those private cookouts? No more shared walls, where the roaches dwell, no more having unsavory neighbors just a bit too close.

Forgive me if I get overly passionate about owning a home as I'm a Realtor and have been a home owner since the age of 22. In spite of wanting to help everyone enjoy home ownership I also understand that there are a multitude of reasons that some need or want to rent. However, if you want to become a part of the American Dream it's not as hard as you think. I have my own opinion of suitable reasons for renting that cannot be helped, and I'm sure it's not limited to such. I maintain that the basic reasons a person should rent rather than buy is as follows;

Persons in the midst of a divorce cannot obtain a home loan, the lender cannot make a judgment as to who gets what, asset and income wise, etc. These people are forced to rent or stay elsewhere until the divorce is final.

Anyone newly relocating into the area may want to take a year to get readjusted and find an area of town they like.

Anyone that has been previously foreclosed upon (last 3 years) cannot get a home loan and is forced to rent.

New comers to the earning world, college students, new couples with allot of expenses are excused to rent for a short time.

The nomadic job status, you may be here one year and somewhere else the next. In these situations, don't buy.

And lastly, those that just can't seem to own up to their debts or create a budget to pay bills on time.

Let's face it, aside from all of that, we all have to pay a monthly amount to someone if we want a roof over our heads, the question is, who are we going to pay? A landlord that reaps the benefits of tax write offs and your money to help pay off HIS mortgage? Or will you pay on YOUR house that has the ability to rise in value and give you the tax benefits? The other advantage of owning , if I may be so dramatic, is choosing your own destiny. A mortgage on a house is so much less stress than dealing with an individual landowner. A lender does not charge exorbitant late fees after the 5th of each month, nor do they threaten to kick you out after the 13th. No, instead it's a comparatively informal late charge after the 15th, formally late after 30 days and maybe they think of foreclosing after 90 days. This is not to say that you don't have to make your payments and be responsible by any means, it's simply a comparison of how a home owner is trusted to live up to obligations and the renter may not be so much.

My closing argument is this, you really can't get ahead of the game without buying a home in that it's the biggest tax write off we have right now. It's also one of the only forms of assets that has proven to increase in value over the short and long term.

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