From Renters to Homeowners: What You Won't Miss About Renting

Blog posted On April 03, 2025

Dealing with unresponsive landlords? Running out of patience when your ceiling is leaking and the maintenance office isn’t returning your calls? For any multitude of reasons, you may finally be on your last straw as a renter. Is it time to ditch the landlords and claim the keys to your own kingdom? Below is a refresher on all the frustrations that could pop up in a rental unit, taken from a myriad of rental stories and anecdotes.

Rental Nightmares

There’s a number of benefits to being a renter. You don’t have to commit to living anywhere for longer than a year, allowing you flexibility with your future timelines. And if there’s an issue with the unit, it’s on your landlord to fix it! Sounds great, right? Well, that’s only if you have a responsive landlord. And in many cities and areas, negligent landlords are common, often waiting until the last minute to make urgent repairs despite constant follow-ups and calls from their desperate tenants.

Here's a few instances of rental frustrations that can happen:

• The washer/dryer unit breaks within the first month
• The oven doesn’t work
• Major leaks from the apartment above cause severe water damage, mold, and property destruction
• Sliding closet doors come off their tracks and won’t reattach
• Repairs, even if they’re made, are shoddy and the same issues can come back with a vengeance a few months later

Admittedly, all of these issues can happen if you’re a homeowner. However, the advantage of being a homeowner is that you can attend to repairs right away and don’t need to wait for the landlord and their maintenance staff to get around to fixing it. In the case of truly negligent landlords, these issues will go on for months and put the renter at risk for health concerns, especially from leakage and mold permeating a structure.

The Benefits of Homeownership

Those rental woes sound pretty unpleasant and can add extra stress onto your already hectic lifestyle. Here are a few benefits to taking on homeownership and leaving the stressors of renting behind you:

• If emergency repairs on your home are needed, you can attend to it right away
• No more ghosting from your landlord, ditching the need to constantly harangue them to do the bare minimum on their investment
• Start building equity for yourself instead of the landlord’s home
• You don’t have to worry anymore about your rent going up every year, sometimes by hundreds of dollars
• Your fixed-rate mortgage can give you the peace of mind that your monthly payment will stay relatively the same year to year; note that taxes and homeowners insurance are likely to increase, but the mortgage portion will remain unchanged
• Another benefit is that you can lower your monthly mortgage costs by refinancing if rates drop; on the flipside, most renters have no control over their rent
• Mortgage payments are now more comparable to rental payments and, in some cases, cheaper

Ready to Leave the Renter Lifestyle Behind?

There’s far less benefits to renting these days than there ever have been. Affordability has changed, the landlords have become less reliable, and at the end of the day, renters are becoming fed up with unpleasant living situations. If you’re ready to take homeownership into your own hands and make that transition from renting to homeowning, we’re here to lend our professional advice and recommend the best loan options available.

Source: Zillow