Really, I have always been an apartment guy.I lived in 9 different places in my lifetime. I like the idea of moving into a new condo/apt and having fresh walls with new(er) appliances. Cleaning up your place never takes more than 30 minutes. Something broken? Make a call and it will be fixed that day.
My wife is different. She likes a home because of the financial aspect of getting some of your money back that you put in. She likes the room to house all of her knick knacks (books, baskets, photos, etc etc), she likes not having a neighbor 100 feet away (in rural Ohio, its more like 100 yards away).
What you don't realize before you buy a house is all of the SMALL THINGS that eat away at your time and your money. How many hours have I spent mowing the yard? Cutting back bushes and trees? Planting and replanting flowers? Painting and repainting fences, decks, rooms? Laying a new brick patio that we use twice a year?
That's another rub about home ownership. You're great investment is always in a state of disrepair. Water softner goes bad ... 1000 dollars. Roof is 20 years old, and the crumbling tiles are clogging the gutters ... 4000 dollars. All your new lawn care toys are cluttering up the garage .. storage shed costs 2000 dollars.
Don't even get me started on DIY home improvement. How many Saturdays have I made consecutive trips to Home Depot because the paint wasn't quite right ... or I need a specific tool to finish the job ... or the "easy to use" driveway sealer wasn't so easy to use? Even after you complete a job (and I have now redid every room in my house), you never focus on the good .. you only see the bad. Look, there is that trim piece that I didn't cut correctly. There is a ceiling tile that is chipped. Look at that wall paint that creeped up into the ceiling.
I now long for the day, in 30 years, where I can move into one of those retirement condos. The one's with less space, clean walls and no grass to mow or bushes to cut.
