Have you bought a property
How is it, dealing with house problems instead of a landlord doing it.
And if falling ill, catching up with mortgage payments??
If you could say which country you are in too. If you feel comfortable to.
Pros and cons of buying to renting?
I worked 2 jobs when I had my last house. So I did not have a lot of time for maintenance. It’s a lot of work keeping your property up. Even if you don’t have anything break down, you have to deal with things like lawn maintenance, snow removal in the winter, gutters clogging up, etc.
The real estate company had me do multiple things before they would approve the loan too. Like for instance they had me install cabinets in the kitchen. I also replaced a lot of the electrical infrastructure in the house. (I was doing electrical work at the time)Be prepared for work if you want to buy a house instead of rent.
I’m in the USA.
I have owned 4 houses. Still have two of them. A home warranty is priceless. I am in the USA.
Renting is throwing away money every month when you could be building equity.
I am considering a flat.
Maybe a small new studio flat.
It means less chance of things breaking
Thanks for the input
No problem. Sorry if I made it sound horrific. There certainly are lots of advantages to owning rather than renting as TomCat pointed out. I’ve owned 2 houses in my life. And had one apartment. I think I prefer home ownership but it is work.
It’s good to hear the candid details no problemo.
I need to know that stuff
I live with my parents. But I would much rather own than rent. When you rent, once you move out, it’s a total loss. When you own, and you move out, you sell it and recoup your rmoney, maybe even a profit.
You can set up automatic payments online for your mortgage. You can also roll your house taxes into that monthly payment. It’s called escrow.
I’m in the US. The issue with buying a home is all the upkeep. You need a lot more money than the escrow payment to properly care for a home inside and out. Gutters need to be cleaned, grass mowed, trees and bushes kept up, trash taken out, roofs being replaced every 10 years, new appliances as they break down… the list goes on and on.
Condo living is a little easier without outdoors labor. But there are association fees you have to pay in addition to mortgage and taxes.
Apartments are even easier but the rent will continue to increase over the years.
Just realised that I also need to look up how much mortgage I’m expected to pay every month compared to monthly rent. Eek. This is so much effort.
But, maybe worth it.
Owning is more work than renting, but as my parents would joke, that’s what kids are for! I cut the grass and trees. I’ve fixed leaks on the roof. Painted the interior, etc… There are some costs that you have to cover yourself that are inevitable, like the furnace breaking down for example.
When my parents bought the house in the 1970’s it was $60,000, A similar house across the street just sold for 1.4 million a couple years ago. If they had been renting all these years it would have been a total loss, instead it’s a major gain.
Thanks for all the responses. This is really helping me.
If I do get a studio flat. It could be like the baby I never had. 
Good luck! I hope you find the best solution
Thankyou so much Pianogal.
I hope I will be able to actually afford this one day.
If not, it’s okay…
That’s a great attitude. I hope you get to have whatever turns out to be best for you
With owning your home, every time you make a payment, you get closer to owning it. Whereas an apartment, that money just goes up in smoke
My mortgage is paid off, so it would actually cost me a lot more to live in an apartment now.
But like you said, you always have to have a few bucks put away in case something goes wrong. And then there’s regular maintenance. Still cheaper though, and where I am I am totally happy.
Benefits to owning: you build up your finances instead of just spending it. You can stay in the same place year after year without worrying about the rent increasing. You can change it to be exactly how you want. You can have guests over for extended periods of time. If you decide to move, you sell the house and get paid for it.
Cons: if something breaks, you either fix it or pay someone else to fix it. If you pay someone else, it is very pricey. If your furnace breaks, and you’re stuck without heat for a few days, there is no landlord obligated to get you a hotel room. You just freeze. You can’t move as easily, because you have to time the sale of one place with the purchase of another place very exactly in order to avoid being homeless for a bit. If you buy when the market is very elevated (like now) then your house will lose value and you’ll end up paying more than you could reasonably expect to get back for it. You have to pay property taxes.
I have to disagree man,
I think there is a big misconception with the whole " buying a house is an asset "
For the majority, who take out a mortgage and get locked into the rat race, doing everything to pay off a mortgage is not really building equity. Its a liability until its paid off, and even when it is paid off, your maintanence is still a liability. If you sell your house for 100 000 dollars, your still going to need to buy another house to live in? When do you ever see the profit? How many people do you know have downgraded their house and kept a profit? Chances are they have needed to buy even a bigger house, cause they got more kids, or more cars or whatever it is.
I look it at from a health point of view above all. Debt is debt until its paid off, and i think having a mortgage, your biggest debt that comes off your salary, puts serious pressure on your mental health and family problems, and yes so does renting, but you not locked in. Even if you buy a house, and rent it out to pay off your mortgage is a really bad return.
I also think that the older generation who witnessed the property boom that went haywire, still see it as a goldmine. And yea, there is definitly money to be made, just not on the average joe, who works a 9 - 5, stuck in the rat race doing everything he can to pay off his mortgage till hes old, and then once its paid off, still has to work to buy food cause the house is not creating a working asset for him ( 9 out of 10 times ). I suppose his kids get to see the money once hes dead and the house gets sold though.
Im sure interests rates are different around the world and lots has to be taken into account, but my
view is that it is a complete trap and illusion of what an asset is and causes unwanted problems on many of the beautiful things that life has to offer.
Anyways, just my opinion 
I agree @anon39015889
Many millennials don’t want to be a slave to the Bank for the next quarter century. That’s their parent’s way of doing business and most ain’t interested.
But if you are not paying to the bank then you are paying to the landlord instead anyway.
I need to do my research on this aswell as ask my family, but I don’t think there’s much difference in monthly mortgage payments and monthly rent payments amounts if I’m buying a studio flat versus renting out a room in a shared accommodation.
The way I see it is, I don’t want to rely on the government when I retire. That idea stresses me out because you never know in advance how much housing benefit you’ll be entitled to and pension. Especially with things like this covid pandemic which still hasn’t come to a stop.
The uncertainty of that stresses me out.
I’m considering just living in a bought studio flat until I die, not selling it. I just like that stability.
I understand I can save for my retirement to make up for the uncertainty relying on the government, but what if that disqualifies me for housing benefit.
Or if I run out of my savings in retirement and then maybe just have a very poor standard of government reliant housing and pension… Perhaps.
I don’t like those what ifs.
But maybe I’m not seeing the whole picture properly yet. To understand fully.
But thanks for everyone’s responses it helps me to start to get a picture.
I bought a house a year ago
It is farquing hard. Tons of things that you’ll need to do/documents/etc. i hope you have saved a record of you’re income or have tax returns for 3-5 years.
Also, shop around for lenders. Some are absolute scum-of-the-earth. I find local lenders to be the way. NOT the huge banks that advertise on athletic stadiums.
But you need to be handy too otherwise you’ll go broke paying handymen to show up and fix something stupid. Someone said rent is throwing money away. I disagree with that statement. There are SO many costs involved with owning a home.
I’m in the states.