Homeless or Home Free?

The house we're living in now has a buyer and the escrow process has begun; if it all goes well 30 days from now we will not be responsible for paying a mortgage for the first time in about 20 years.  We'll be paying rent on this place until the owners are able to live in it, but when it comes down to brass tacks we will be homeless, in this case meaning we don't actually own the home we're living in.  But perhaps you could call it home free instead, free of the responsibilities that come with having your name on the deed.  After all, the news is filled with stories about how nice it is to be a renter instead of a homeowner in these perilous economic times.


And yet, I rented for many years back in my 20's and I know first hand that renting as a long-term lifestyle can be problematic.  That's because someone else has control over where you live.  They can ask you to leave for a variety of reasons, they can limit the pets you can have, whether or not you can hang pictures, smoke, play your music at 3 am, or invite someone to live with you.  Yes, you have the freedom to pack up and leave anytime, but your landlord can also raise your rent every year, to a point where you have to leave, and then they will raise it again and get someone else just like you to live there instead.


Renting is no picnic, although I anticipate for us our two months of renting our own home will not be a problem.  But unless you are in a transitory phase of your life, where you might take a job in another city at any given time, I can't see the advantage of giving up so much control to be a tenant on someone else's property, with them telling you not to paint the walls while taking a mighty tax break on letting you live in the place that legally, financially and practically will always belong to them.


Nope, we may be home free soon, but we won't really be home free in the true sense of the word until we've secured another house to buy -- where we can bring our pets, hang our pictures with molly bolts and stake a claim that says "this is our place now."  


But just like the dawn breaking in the east, I can see that day coming, and oh, it's going to be a happy one.  We're closer now than we've ever been.