Don't Overpay for Rent

On my post warning against overpaying on rent, James poses this question:Is it better to rent an apartment or buy a manufactured home? I found a good location where they are selling a 2 bedroom manufactured home for $170K. The mortgage calculator says, for a no downpayment for 30 years at 6.12% interest, I pay $1,032.39 monthly.Today, Im renting a studio at $1,000 a month. So I thought would the mobile home be better? I mean in 3 years, I would have paid out 36,000 (more if the rent goes up). That money goes away. But I buy that mobile home, I can sell it in 3 years for a super discounted deal, say, 80,000. I would not be only be able to regain the 36,000 but also would have made money.First, I think you’re getting too exotic by thinking about saving money by purchasing a mobile home and reselling it, recouping some of the equity and thus paying out less in rent. It’s certainly a very interesting decision and analysis but ultimately I think your assumptions are going to be your undoing on this one.If all your assumptions go through, that you can purchase the mobile home and resell it at the stated prices, it sounds like your plan will work. Your assumptions, however, are very difficult to support and I am clearly not qualified to give you an advice on that. All I know is that there is a social stigma associated with mobile homes and I have no experience selling one, either first hand or anecdotally. What I do know is that you’ll have to put that mobile home somewhere and generally mobile home parks charge some sort of land usage fee that you didn’t figure into your calculation. You also have closing costs and selling costs that you haven’t factored into your equation which may make the decision less financially attractive. Then again, your extra low price of $80k may have accounted for all of this in its fudge factor, who knows.All that being said, I go back to the beginning where I said this is probably making it too complicated and potentially putting yourself in a bad spot, especially if you experience difficulty selling it and have on your hands a depreciating asset that you can’t sell. Would I do this? Probably not. I don’t like committing myself to debt larger than my fist unless it’s a pretty sure thing and I don’t think your trade off necessarily is. It’s definitely an interesting question though.Anyone else care to weigh in?I’ve always seen renting as “temporary” and buy as permanent. So the two years I spent renting in the Baltimore, MD area, I hardly ever took any time to decorate the place and I tried to pay as little as possible. From my point of view, because it was temporary, not actually mine, and something whose cost I wanted to reduce as little as possible, it made no sense for me to pay more than the average rent in the area or even spend money on decorating it. Now, I didn’t pick the absolute cheapest rent (though I had a roommate and am fairly certain I was paying a pretty good price for rent) but I was pretty close to it and I did very little upkeep outside of vacuuming. As the saying goes, who washes a rental car?Now, I don’t entirely agree with the idea that renting is “throwing your money away,” as many homebuying proponents espouse, but I do see it merely as an expense that should be reduced to as little as reasonably possible. The reason why it’s not throwing your money away is because the housing market has always been difficult to predict, though the trends were always pointing up in the long run as they are even now, and because a house isn’t always a winning proposition even if the value goes up. You’re throwing a lot of money away in interest payments (a small part of which you get back), you’re throwing a lot of money away in maintenance, and you’re throwing a lot of money away in taxes, insurance, etc - all of which are not concerns (though they’re integrated into your rent price) for a renter (I bring these up in the Devil’s Advocate post Rent Forever, Don’t Buy A Home).So, when friends of mine talk about how they can get this awesome apartment with all these incredible amenities for the low low price of something like a thousand dollars per person, I wonder to myself why they would pay so much for rent when cheaper options, though with fewer amenities, exist. Granted, part of this is in perception, some people like to rent in nicer areas with great amenities and are willing to pay that price, I certainly would pay a higher price for a nicer area (from a crime, convenience perspective, etc. within reason); but sometimes the numbers are exorbitant - I know people paying at least twice what I paid in rent!Are you the stingy renter like me? What are your thoughts? Or are you on the other side, willing to spend the money for a really nice place, please share your perspective!For apartments in New Jersey go to Raritan Crossing. They are pet friendly apartments and New Brunswick NJ apartments. Rentals near Metropark and apartments in Middlesex county. For apartments in central NJ this is the place for you with Apartments in Middlesex County NJ. Raritan Crossing has apartments near metropark, apartments near Rutgers and apartments near Robert Wood Johnson