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I have always relied on the kindness of landlords.
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I’ve made my peace with being a renter, but I still want to buy a home again, and I’m fortunate enough to have found myself living in a city that offers affordable home prices. Many Americans aren’t this lucky, and indeed, the median purchase price of a home as of Q4 2022 was $467,700, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. For a reality check about the state of housing prices, note that at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic (Q2 2020), that same figure was $322,600.
Even though I live in a pretty inexpensive city, I’m still going to be signing on to pay a lot of money in the course of buying and owning a home. And one of the oddest reasons why I’m so excited to get a mortgage loan directly relates to my experiences as a renter.
Landlord maintenance has been uneven
I’ve lived in rental housing of all types (multifamily houses, apartment complexes, single family homes) in several different states and cities. I’ve rented from individuals and larger property management companies. And while in some cases, I had excellent experiences with landlords, in too many others, I have not.
I’m the kind of tenant who is easy to work with, pays rent early every month, and leaves a home cleaner than I found it (I have had my ENTIRE security deposit returned to me on multiple occasions). Unfortunately, this has not always meant that problems with my rentals have been addressed promptly and correctly.
In one case, the dangerous mismanagement of an apartment complex I briefly lived in spurred me to move out after just 10 weeks (and discovering my lease was invalid) — and I had just moved from another state without the ability to check out the apartment ahead of time. This was easily the most stressful and extreme example of my struggles with rental landlords, but far from the only one. In other cases, a relatively minor but incredibly annoying problem like a leaking sink was finally fixed — after weeks of me politely calling and texting. Ultimately, I’m looking forward to buying a home so I can just fix problems myself.
Homeowners are responsible for maintenance and repairs
While it may seem weird to eagerly anticipate spending money on routine maintenance and surprise repairs, I intend to rely as much as possible on a home maintenance fund I’ll be saving up in the meantime. I have friends who’ve gone into debt to fix unexpected problems with their homes, and I want to avoid this if I can.
It’s also extremely likely that I’ll be buying an older home (as my city is full of them, and a new construction home will be far out of my budget), making it even more important that I’m ready to handle issues as they crop up — because they most certainly will.
So, although it is a bit strange, I can’t wait for the day that I notice a leak, or my heater stops working, or any one of a myriad other things that can go wrong with a house. I won’t be happy to spend my own money, but I will be thrilled that I get to pick up the phone and call someone to fix the problem and know it’ll be done sooner rather than later.
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