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Renting a home has its pros and cons. The decision whether to rent depends on your personal and financial goals. There is no one right answer. There are several factors to consider before making the decision.

Home Renting Pros and Cons

Do you rent? What are some of the advantages or disadvantages you have seen from renting?

I've rented apartments, but never rented a home to live in. I have, however, rented out my home three times when I relocated with my previous job from VA, moving to Rochester, NY and each time it was a nightmare.

The first couple (military) wrecked my yard. Their dog, scratched and dented my central air unit that was in the back yard.

The second woman called at all hours of the day or night Once she called in the middle of the night about beeping in the house. It turns out she had to change the battery in the fire alarm. Also, without notifying us, she had a dimmer switch put into the dining room instead of the light switch that was there. As a result, whenever I plug up an appliance, like a vacuum in my bedroom, it blows a fuse in the whole upstairs. I'm not sure where she got the electrician.

The final renter, changed the wall to wall beige carpet throughout the house to blue and used textured paint on the walls in the master bedroom, but never finished the project. She also thought it was cute to texture her kid's hand prints on a door in the family room that leads to a storage area. Yellow textured, so I painted over them, but you can still see them. The only way to get rid of them is to replace the door.

...just a view from the other side....LOL...

Thank you so much for sharing, Dianne. Your perspective is truly helpful. In fact, I will be writing an article on the Investing site for next week about the disadvantages of rental property. I am sorry you had difficult experiences.

I have never rented (own my own home) nor had rental property. I have had family and friends who have had rental property though. Their initial tenants were wonderful, all you could ask for. Then they rented to new tenants (the old tenants relocated for work, etc.). Sadly, they had similar experiences as you did. A lot of work had to go into replacing damage when these tenants moved out. Eventually, my family decided renting out property wasn't worth the hassles.

I guess with every good possibility comes the bad too.

I'm looking forward to the article Sandra.

I think the way to go would have been to hire a property manager, but at the time I didn't think I could afford it...well in hindsight...LOL