Ms Office Tune Up

The Case:
Should you rent or buy a place to live? What kind of home does your family need? How much space is needed for your family and their activities? How much money do you have to pay for housing? When is the best time to buy a house?

Whether to buy or rent should be a relative decision; but there are out-of-pocket expenses that you will be faced with when you buy a house. If you have the extra money; there’s no problem; however, if you can barely pay the mortgage: you will have a problem. Is there any checklist you can use? With a simple calculator perhaps?

Tune Up:
The thing that is most important is that you have to define your values and priorities. Sit down and list the factors about a house that are important to you. If you are married and have children, ask every family member who is old enough to make their own list. Then compare the lists. They won’t be the same and you will probably have to talk with each other about the differences and compromise to make a single list for the family.

What are your housing values? This work sheet is designed to help you think about how important each of these features is to you. Ask each person in the household to help rate each feature.

• Essential: not worth considering without this feature.
• Desirable: more appealing than a comparable place without this feature.
• Acceptable: not a feature that you seek, but it is not objectionable.
• Undesirable: would make the place difficult to accept.

There are many psychological aspects to the question of rent or buy. While these may be debated in length it is important to get the financial part of the question right. But the point is; make some criteria. The following Microsoft Excel template can help you make a decision about it.

Download:
Buy vs Rent a Home Calculator – MS Excel 2003 (5kb)

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