Lately I been seeing great influx of traffic from renters who are new to the home renting arena especially around Northwest Houston. There are lot of reasons to this new breed of people who like to rent home instead of renting apartments. One, there are more houses on the market for rent than ever because sellers like to rent instead of keeping the houses on sale for ever in this bad sellers market. Second, apartment rents have gone up many folds in recent years.

As per an article published by Newyork times, in August, rents paid for primary residences were up 0.4 percent compared with July, and 2 percent above a year earlier. The reason is simply a matter of increasing demand for rental properties.


(Credit – Newyork Times)

Third, in a better economy, the people who are now renting might be looking to buy a house. Even with interest rates at historic lows, lenders are making prospective borrowers go through ever more hoops to qualify for loans. Fourth, unemployment is around 9.2% and many people are insecure about their jobs so they do not want to commit to mortgages and trying to postpone their decision. Finally, many Gen X and Y’ers want to try out their home ownership dream by renting homes and see whether they can keep up with it. Also with more rental house on the market, they get to have more space for the same money compared to renting an apartment.

Renters – Get Prepared

Whether you are trying out or really renting to get more space for you money, there are lot of things home renters need to be aware before renting it. Here is a short list of things to think about,
1. Maintenance – In apartments, property manager would take care of any issue in a matter of mins by making a call. In case of homes, it depends on who manages the property. Whether it is given to property management or landloard itself. Also whether the lease agreement is drafted to have tenant pay for part or full cost of the repair.

2. Security Deposit – Sometimes you need to shell out high security deposit sometimes equal to 1 month rent or more compared to apartments it may be on the higher end for many renters.

3. Lawn Mowing – Many times lawn/yard needs to be taken care by the Tenant and watered property to keep with deed restrictions. That might not work for many renters.

4. Utilities – Sometimes you need pay high utility cost compared to apartments because of more rooms, watering lawn and so forth.

5. Keeping up – With more space comes more work to keep up with dust and dirt.

These are some of things you need to think about before renting a home. Otherwise renting a home has all perks from backyard for kids to play to formal dining space and much more to enjoy and have fun.

Seller/Owners/Landlords – Try it out

Landlords and Owners please don’t hesitate to try the new breed of home renters who are coming your way. If you are seller,hestiating to rent while you are trying to sale the house, think about rental income better than keeping the house in this rough market for so long. It might help to rent for a year or two and put it back when the market gets better.

If you been renting, try to help out people who suffered foreclosures and bankruptcy because of job loss in the tough economical conditions. If they have good background and decent credit before things fall apart, I would surely consider to give them home and help them out.

In conclusion, it is a good rental market for both renters and landlords. Just work together to help out each other and help the economy as well.

About Vijaianand Thirnageswaram

I am a Proud Realtor of Texas, trying to guide and help clients to find their dream home and educate them to buy them for right price. I am also a Candidate for CFP who has more financial knowledge which allows me share and educate clients in any financial decision making process.

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