Why I Got Fed Up With Renting

     For years I operated under the belief that I would never be able to own my home.  The walls of social media echoed with cries of the dying middle class and the impossibility of home ownership.  But there came a time when I could no longer stomach the trials and terrors of renting, landlords, and property management companies.  Many factors contributed to the day I got fed up with renting.  Here are just a few:

1. RENT: At the time I was paying $890 for a 500 square foot apartment with no storage.   I had to sell a lot of my valuables (like my bike) just to fit in that place.  Then I learned I could be paying $1000 on a mortgage for a place twice that size.  That seemed like a no brainer to me.
2. PETS: At the places I rented there was always a limitation on how many pets I could have and what type of pets.  I wanted to own what ever I wanted without having to pay a "pet deposit" or have "pet inspections" from my landlord.
3. PROPERTY MANAGEMENT: Property management companies are really good at creating a lot of seemingly insignificant rules and regulations, and being extremely non responsive when problems arise.   After a pest invasion spread from a neighboring apartment to mine, I found myself tied up in the red tape put up by the company.  That was the final straw.

     Now, in my home I have an extremely reasonable mortgage, I own a cat and a dog that I have complete regulation over, and I am a member of my HOA and have a say in what happens in my community!
​But those are just my reasons.  I asked a few of my clients and friends to tell me why they decided to stop renting and buy a home.  Here is what they said:

​I was sick of paying another person's mortgage. I would rather use my hard earned money and invest it in a property I love, and thus invest in my future."
​~Chelsea Duckham, home owner since 2018

I bought a condo for one main reason: I was tired of lighting approximately a million dollars on fire every month for rent and wanted to start paying myself instead of a rental company. It still makes me happy every day to come home to my place and have it be my place.
Ultimately I want a house where I can raise a family and have a dog that I don’t feel guilty about, and getting a condo is a first step that I could afford at the moment in pursuit of that goal." ~Mackenzie Jacobs, home owner since 2016

I was living in a 550 square foot apartment that had gone from $975 to $1100 per month. I decided that I should at least look for what kind of place I could buy and pay the same amount each month for my mortgage payment instead. 
From the day that I closed I no longer had to worry about rent prices going up in Denver. I had always planned to live there for a couple of years and then use it as a rental property. So, when rents went up in Denver it was great news for me as a landlord. Now that I've moved and am renting it out, my renters are paying my mortgage plus a few hundred a month into my pocket."
~Max Milhan, home owner since 2015

We decided to pull the trigger and own instead of rent because we wanted a home to take care or that was our own. We were renters for decades and every home or apartment we rented we took care of it as if it were our own. We would paint  or landscape, etc. But, we always said that we wished we could be taking care of something we owned and not someone else's property."
~David Baker, home owner since 2017

    Do you have a great story about making the switch from renting to owning?  Or, do you want to buy your first home and make your own story?  Let me know.  I'd love to hear your story or help you create yours!