October 30, 2010

The Downside of Renting

Renting can be better than owning a home for many reasons. Although I fully believe that renting is the best option for us right now, there are some times when living in an apartment can be difficult. This past Wednesday was one of those times. While I was driving home from work, I got a call from Nathan. He asked me, "Do you want to see if you can do a take your dog to work day on Friday?" What?!?

Apparently, one of our neighbors saw fleas in their apartment, so an exterminator was scheduled to fumigate all the apartments in our building on Friday. It would be safe to return home by the time we got off work, but we still had to figure out what to do with the other member of our family.


Nathan had already spoken with the property manager and the exterminator before he called me. The exterminator told us that they wouldn't have to treat our apartment but that we should put a towel by the bottom of the door if we left Nenya there. We decided that didn't sound too safe. I probably could have gotten permission to take her to work with me, but that wouldn't have been the best situation for either of us.

We ended up taking her to a doggy daycare. The place had good reviews, and it was only $15 for the day with the coupon they had on their website. 


Here's a screen shot Nathan took of their live webcam. On the right you see three workers and a big group of dogs, and on the left you see Nenya. What a crazy girl! We think she was probably trying to tell them that she needed to go out.



Even though it was an inconvenience and extra expense for us, it was good for Nenya. She normally sleeps a lot during the day and is ready to play as soon as we get home. She had such an active day that she was worn out by the time Nathan brought her home.

So, this wasn't really  a horrible experience. It's just frustrating that we can be told we have to leave our home since it's not really ours. And since we share a building with several other people, the actions of one of our neighbors could cause some really awful consequences for us. For these reasons, I do look forward to the day when we can be homeowners.

What's your opinion on renting versus buying?

1 comment:

  1. My opinion... look for a house to rent. :)

    Well, you saw my rant on facebook about owning. :) This current 1 month long renting experience is our 2nd time renting a house. The 1st was in Ohio for 2 years. Oh, then there was the year and a half we lived on base which was also a house. So I guess we've been in rented houses for about 3.5 years. No thin walls, you don't have the same situation as above, it's like having your own home, but without the maintenance. Some landlords allow you to paint - even without repainting when you leave, if they like the colors. Some let you plant your own stuff, if it's aesthetically pleasing and you don't leave a mess. You have more freedom than you do in apartment complexes.
    Your only worry is that you may want to stay longer than your landlord wants to own the home (my worry here). And you may have to buy your own appliances... and sell them or put them in storage when you leave if the next place has them, then buy them again for the next place, and so on.
    And I haven't, so far, seen cost being different. I wish we'd thought to look into rental homes in NM.

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