We all have to live in rented houses and apartments till we finally save up enough money to buy one of our own. Not that there is any great problem in living in a rented apartment. But there is always that niggling feeling that this is not our own place; that it belongs to somebody else. You cannot make any long term modifications in the house. Making major renovations are out of the question. You do not even have the desire to invest in that perfect couch merely because carrying it around from one rented apartment to another would be such a bother.
Rented houses are all right from the point of view of a temporary state of affairs. However, as soon as we feel settled in our jobs, our families, and our lives in general, the urge to return to a place of our own begins to rise. John Denver sang, “Take me home country roads / To the place I belong.” We all want to belong somewhere. And that sense of belonging does not really come when you are living in a rented apartment. The only way to get that sense of belonging? Get a place that you can finally call your own.
Of course, shifting from the status of a tenant to that of a homeowner is no easy task. For...