What is renting? –
Introduction ๐
Renting is where you pay to use something valuable, like a car or house, for a specified period of time.
You can rent anything from a boat to your everyday necessities like clothes.
Renting a home ๐๐
Renting is commonly used to talk about paying to live in a house that somebody else owns.
If you rent a place to live, you are known as a “tenant”.
The person who owns the house you’re renting is called your “landlord”.
Very often a landlord will pay a business called a “letting agent” or “estate agent” to manage the home and collect your rent money off you.
Renting a home vs buying – what’s the difference? ๐คทโโ๏ธ
Here are some of the main differences between renting and buying a home.
Who owns the home ๐
Renting = your landlord owns the home
Buying = you own the home
Flexibility moving home ๐ฆ๐
Renting = sometimes more flexible to move home because you don’t have to sell the house before you move
Buying = sometimes less flexible to move home because you often have to go through the effort of selling the home before you move
Bills ๐ธ
Renting = sometimes your landlord can include the bill costs e.g. electricity, water, in your monthly rental costs. This can make life easier because you don’t have to worry about bills.
Buying = usually when you buy a home, you have to organize all the bill payments e.g. electricity, water, yourself.
Deposits ๐ฐ
Renting = On top of what you can pay each month, you need to look at how much you can pay towards a “deposit” for the home.
A deposit is sort of like a safety net for the landlord, in case the house gets damaged. ๐ฅ
It’s a chunk of money that:
- you pay at the start of renting ๐ณ
- the landlord looks after, whilst you live at the home ๐
- gets given back to you at the end of renting, when you move out ๐ธ
If you damage the landlord’s home, they might refuse to give your deposit back to you, and use your deposit money to repair the damage.
When you rent a home, you usually have to pay 1 month of rent as a deposit to your landlord for them to hold onto.
For example – if the rent costs ยฃ500 per month, I would have to pay a ยฃ500 deposit and my first month of rent (ยฃ500). This means that I would have to pay ยฃ1,000 for my first month of renting.
As long as you haven’t damaged the house, your deposit should be given back to you when you move out. ๐
If you live in the UK your landlord should put your deposit money into a secure “tenancy deposit scheme” whilst you’re living there, instead of keeping the money in their bank account.
Buying = people usually borrow money to buy a house. This loan is called a mortgage. When you get a mortgage, you have to pay a chunk of money towards the house called a deposit.
This deposit amount could be as low as 5% of the sale price of the house, or it could be really high like 50% of the house price, depending on the loan you want.
If you were buying a house for ยฃ100,000 with a 5% deposit, you would need to pay ยฃ5,000 as a deposit.
When you buy a home your deposit money doesn’t get paid back to you because it buys you part of the home.
The deposit for buying a home can be more expensive than the deposit for renting a home.
Where can I find a home to rent? ๐
You can find a home to rent by:
- Looking at property websites e.g.
Zoopla (UK) https://www.zoopla.co.uk
Zillow (USA) https://www.zillow.com
- Checking newspaper listings
- Looking for “to let” signs in your local neighbourhood
- Joining social media groups to look for listings
- Asking friends and family
Be very careful when dealing with online adverts for rental homes – they can be scams!
Make sure to check that any home you look to rent is from a legitimate person/organisation.
Conclusion ๐
So that’s it!
Hopefully you’re feeling more confident about renting.
If you know any friends or family members who might benefit from learning about rent, share this post with them!
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