Renting A House Versus Renting An Apartment: The Pros And Cons

From growing families to space concerns to parking, these are all things to consider when making the decision between renting a house and an apartment. For a breakdown of the benefits and disadvantages of both rental arrangements, keep reading.

The Benefits of Renting a House:

1. More space, including outdoor space. Typically, a house is going to provide you with more room inside as well as outdoor space like a yard. If you've got pets, children or a lot of stuff, this could be a huge incentive.

2. Parking. While many apartments come with a parking spot, a large number of urban apartments, particularly older buildings, don't. If you have a vehicle or two, you may want to look at renting a home with parking.

3. Privacy. Typically, a house is going to afford you a lot more privacy. With no neighbors listening through the walls or complaining about your footsteps in the morning, you have a lot more freedom in a home.

The Benefits of Renting an Apartment:

1. Low maintenance. Depending on your rental agreement, renting a house may also mean taking on shoveling the walkway, mowing the lawn, maintaining the garden and general upkeep of the house. In an apartment, the grounds and outdoor maintenance are all taken care of for you.

2. Professional management. Typically, homes are rented by individual property owners while apartments are managed by a building supervisor and a property management firm. This means you have on-call support that's professional, business-minded and knows and follows the tenancy laws.

3. Location. If you're looking for a prime location right in the downtown are, in the heart of the city, you're most likely going to be looking at an apartment. Single-family dwellings are usually found in more suburban or outer-city regions.

The Disadvantages of Renting a House:

1. Landlords. As mentioned earlier, houses tend to be rented by individual owners and while you may know your rights as a tenant, they may not.

2. Maintenance. Along with the space and size of a house comes additional maintenance. There are more windows to clean, more floors to vacuum, more lawns to mow and more gardens to tend.

The Disadvantages of Renting an Apartment:

1. Neighbors. If you're a loud person or someone who needs a quiet environment, apartment living may not be for you. Remember, in many apartments, there are people and families living on all sides of you.

2. Space. From available closets to cramped storage units, apartments don't usually offer a lot of storage space.

3. Infestation. Though you may be a clean individual and maintain your home similarly, that is not necessarily the case with neighbors in an apartment complex. If, for example, others in the complex have roaches or ants invading their abode, those same pests are likely to eventually find their way into your home as well.

Additional Considerations for Either

Before you sign a lease for a house or an apartment, make sure you understand what is and isn't included in the space. Some include heat and power in the rental agreement, while others don't. Others include cable television and grounds maintenance, while others don't. It's important to know exactly what you can expect from your landlord and what they expect of you before you sign.

You should also ask about pets, children and roommates before committing to a space. Make sure you understand whether animals, kids, or even extended house guests are permitted on the property before you sign the lease.