To Rent an Apartment or a Home? The Breakdown of Amenities!

If you are about to find yourself looking for a new place to call your humble abode, there are some factors that you may want to consider when it comes to choosing between and apartment or a home. Each has its own array of pros and cons to offer, and each can be the ideal or tragic situation for the individual. Here is What You Get With Most Apartments Generally speaking, you will get quite a few decent amenities with the average apartment when you rent one. Sometimes, however, they are amenities that many people overlook. For example: a pool and a Jacuzzi are commonplace at any decent apartment complex. You do not have to pay for the water for them nor the maintenance; they are included in your rental rate. Another overlooked amenity is covered parking and barbeque areas. Finally, some apartments will even pay the electric bill for you included in your rent, depending on where you rent from. The usually fare of amenities also applies: dryer and washer, or pay ones in the complex, full bathrooms and decent sized bedrooms, and in some cases real fireplaces and nice balconies. An important note is that most apartments only allow small pets, so you folks with the big dogs are up the creek without a paddle. What You Get With Most Home Rentals You do get quite a lot when you rent a home as well. Most homes are void of upstairs and downstairs neighbors – that is a huge amenity. You get your own backyard and front yard, but you must maintain it yourself. You get more privacy. You may even get your own pool and barbeque pit – at an additional monthly cost. Of course, in most homes that you rent, you will also tend to get more space, more parking, sometimes a nice garage and obviously more room overall. But, you will tend to pay more for it, most of the time. And, you will have increased monthly bills from other costs like pool maintenance and landscaping, and so on. The Differences in Cost There is typically a decent difference between the costs of renting an apartment versus the cost of renting a home. For example, an average, amenity-rich apartment in Phoenix, Arizona, that has two bedrooms and two bathrooms, and some other add-ons like covered parking and so forth, will run about $800-$900 per month. Whereas a similar home with similar amenities will cost about $850-$950 per month, not to mention landscaping and other added monthly costs that you have when you rent a home, but that you do get with an apartment rental. Which Makes More Sense? Really its all about what your needs are. For those with large animals, who need a backyard, an apartment makes no sense. For some, the added space and privacy of a home, as well as the increased amenities, far outweighs the difference in cost. When considering which makes more sense, it’s really about your individual needs, and not a generalization.