When it comes to choosing between buying and renting your home, the decision can be challenging. While home ownership offers you security and autonomy, renting offers you flexibility and less responsibility. If you’re thinking about buying a home and are weighing up the pros and cons of buying versus renting, you’re in the right place.
Below, we’ll guide you through the benefits of both, as well as the benefits of buying a new construction home you may not yet have considered.
Benefits of Buying vs. Renting in Nashville
Investment in Your Future
Buying:The most obvious benefit of buying a home is that real estate is an asset, and so can help you increase your net worth. If you are lucky enough to be able to make a cash purchase, you can invest that money and often get back far more when you eventually come to sell the home. If you’re like most of us and need a mortgage, you’ll be paying at least a portion of your monthly payment to gain more equity in the property.
Provided you pick a great area (such as the greater Nashville area) and maintain the home, your home will increase in value over time. Nashville has an appreciation rate of 30.7%, which is a significant 5% increase each year.
Renting:When you’re renting, all the money you pay is simply to pay to live in the home. In some cases, renting may be “cheaper” on a monthly basis than buying, meaning you may be able to save more money or even invest it, but you’ll need to be proactive about it and the monthly costs of renting vs buying are becoming more equal as the cost of living increases.
Customization and Personalization
Buying:When you buy a home, you have complete control over how it’s decorated: it’s all yours. You can change the walls, the floors, countertops, landscape the yards, change the lighting–anything that doesn’t require permission or permits–whenever you feel like it. And if you do want to make a major change, you can do so provided your home is suitable and you’ve got the right permissions.
Of course, this all comes with a cost, and older homes can deliver some nasty surprises when you start renovating. While some people love the process of stripping a home back, putting everything right, and redecorating, most don’t. Fortunately, buying a new construction home not only means you won’t get any surprises when you redecorate, but often you can personalize the home as it’s being built. That means you’ll have your dream countertops or flooring as soon as you move in.
Renting:While you can sometimes paint walls in a rental, and perhaps do some gardening, most of the time it’s a case of what you see is what you get. That means when you’re searching the listings for a suitable home, you may have to make sacrifices on what the home looks like in order to be in the location you want with the size home you need. Plus, often if you do paint a wall or two, you’ll have to paint it again before you leave, meaning double the cost on a home you don’t own.
Flexibility
Buying:If you need or like to move around a lot, buying can be more of a challenge. House sales typically take about three months, and there are costs involved with moving beyond simple logistics. You may be subject to realtor fees, closing costs, and mortgage fees. If you want to move more often than every 3 years or so, you may want to look at the costs and the area you live in and see if the numbers make sense for you to buy.
Renting:If you move often for work or simply like moving often, renting usually makes more sense. Beyond your contract, you’re not tied to the property and can leave and go somewhere new in a short space of time, incurring only your moving costs.
Energy Efficiency and Modern Conveniences
Buying:While older homes may need significant upgrades in this area to lower your bills and be energy efficient, new homes offer the latest technology, ensuring your home is good for your wallet and the environment.
Renting:When you’re renting, you don’t have much control over whether or not the home is energy efficient. Many aren’t, and there’s little you can do to improve the situation. Drafty windows? You’ll have to pay for the additional energy it takes to keep the home at the right temperature, or use all the hacks in the book to lower your energy bill, which isn’t always comfortable and can be time consuming.
Community and Lifestyle
Buying:New communities, like those we develop, are designed with modern lifestyles in mind. They often include amenities such as parks, walking trails, and playgrounds which foster a strong sense of community and neighborhood friendships. Also, because all residents have been through the same experience, it’s easy to find common ground and work toward common goals.
Renting:While some rentals are in communities that offer amenities and have residents that foster a sense of togetherness, many aren’t as comprehensive or well-maintained as in new communities. There’s also the risk of ending up in an area that thinks your opinion on neighborhood matters aren’t important because you’re just renting.
Maintenance
Buying:When you buy, all the maintenance of the property is down to you to manage, which can be a blessing and a curse. While buying a used home may make you feel like you’ve started a side hustle as a handyman, buying a new home will ensure your weekends are free of maintenance tasks. Better still, new homes are under warranty, meaning not only are you unlikely to need to do any serious maintenance for many years, but if anything does go wrong you won’t be out of pocket and trained professionals will come to do the work for you.
Renting:This is one area where you may assume that renting wins – you don’t need to do anything, right? Well, hopefully not, but we’ve all heard of (or had) landlords who will barely lift a finger when something breaks.
Buying New is the Best of All Worlds
Deciding between buying and renting is a significant decision that depends on your financial situation, lifestyle, and long-term goals. However, the benefits of buying a brand-new home–such as building equity, personalizing your space, enjoying better energy efficiency, low maintenance, and strong community ties–make it an attractive option for many.
If you’re considering making the leap to home ownership in the greater Nashville area, we invite you to explore our Legacy South communities. Discover your dream home and start investing in your future from a place of comfort today.
