A decision that I had to make was to buy a house or not. Prior to
getting a house I was living in apartments. It wasn’t a bad option but
there were some things that I didn’t like about living in a building with
multiple people in it. One of the reasons was that the neighbour that
lived above me was hardly there, he was deployed so it was largely
silent. However, he moved a new person moved in. two adults and
two terribly snot nosed kids with terrible attitudes. They yelled swear
words outside of their windows and their parents didn’t do anything
about it. They also had 3 big dogs that they did not pick up after and a
little dog that I only saw once, so not sure where that one was going
to the bathroom. Remember those 3 dogs? They did not pick up after
them, but heaven forbid, I forget one little turd from my dog they
would be pounding on my door to tell me they stepped in her poo, but
when I pointed out the huge turd piles, they left behind, they were
mums the word. Terrible people that didn’t know what a bathmat was
and the ceiling in my bathroom leaked multiple times and had to be
replaced 3 times and when they left, they left the back door open so
that it froze the water line and le it burst, and that was the
replacement of the kitchen ceiling. They also had to cops called on
them multiple times as well. The absolutely trashiest people ever.
After those terrible people I did not want to have to go through that
again. So, I bought a house. The only issue I have right now is the field
mice that make their way into my house and some roaches that I am
trying to get rid of due to one of my neighbours fumigating their
house across the street. Not only that my monthly payment is
cheaper than my month rent was and there are no inconsiderate
people living above me either.
The first step in my decision making was “identifying the problem and
uncertainties” (Datar, 2018) The problem was inconsiderate
neighbours that made living an absolute nightmare and soured my
renting experience.
The second step was “obtain information” (Datar, 2018). I looked into
the renting prices of other apartments or houses, and I looked at the
costs of getting a house. In the end I decided that buying a house
would ultimately save me more not just in money but sanity as well. In
my area renting is not that cheap all things considered my city is
nicknamed junk town for a reason. And if it’s cheap it’s probably got a
drug dealer living somewhere near it.
The third step was “make predictions about the future” (Datar, 2018).
Honestly there was only two options, I could continue to rent and
potentially get another terrible and rude neighbour, or I got buy a
house have the space I need and want without having to worry about
people above my head.
The fourth step is “make decisions by choosing among alternatives”
(Datar, 2018). I chose to buy a house as the only thing I have to worry
about with my payments is escrow, with my current job () I know what
causes payment increases and therefore know what to do to try to
mitigate the increases to my payment. I also don’t have to wait
forever and a day to get something fixed, (they never did fix the
window in the 2nd bedroom at my old apartment).
The fifth step was “implement the decision, evaluate performance,
and learn” (Datar, 2018). After multiple viewing of houses and going
over budgets I finally picked a nice two-bedroom house in a non-flood
zone (no flood insurance for me) with a nice walk-in shower that also
came with a empty lot right next to me, cool (but also field mice L).
Haven’t looked back since.
The opportunity cost is that with a house if something breaks it’s my
responsibility to fix it but with an apartment all I had to do was call it
in to the main office to get it fixed, so that would mean I could save on
money that I would have used on repairs by myself.
The qualitative and quantitative factors both played a part in my
decision. The quantitative factor being the money that was spent on
closing costs and the down payment that went into the house, the
time that was taken into looking at different houses and the multiple
inquiries into my credit that were made to get a good interest rate.
The qualitative factor was the risk of getting another neighbour that
was as terrible as those people that ruined my renting experience. As
well as the fact that I didn’t need to pay for repairs. I took both of
those factors into consideration and decided that the risk of owning a
home far outweighed the risk of getting another shitty neighbour
with the owners taking far too long to fix something in my apartment.
As I said they still hadn’t fixed the window that was in my 2nd
bedroom that was like that when I moved in, and it took quite a while
for them to replace the ceiling in the bathroom the 3 times they had
to do it and the kitchen ceiling took some time to do as well. The hole
in the kitchen tiles was also not patched for about 3 months even
though I pointed out before I moved in. all in all I think I made the
right decision in getting a house.
References
Datar, S. M., & Rajan, M. V. (2018). Horngren's cost accounting: A
managerial emphasis, global edition, 16/E 12. PEARSON EDUCATION
LIMITED.
