The ups and downs of renting after owning

Life is supposed to run in one direction. You grow up, go to college, begin a career. You move from your family home to a dorm (maybe a sleazy group rental), then get an apartment. Somewhere along the way, you meet your soul mate, and the two of you buy your first condo or house. It's supposed to be smooth sailing thereafter, moving every so often into a bigger, better house, until you "downsize" to a Florida condo for your golden years.

But this ideal game-plan turns out to be difficult to pull off, especially in the middle of a depression (and can we call it by its proper name, please, three years into the economic collapse?). College graduates are moving back en masse to their parents' house. Marriages have a 50-50 chance of making it. And Grandma's condo in Florida is under more water than Atlantis. She's about to move back in with your parents too.

And so it is with the millions of Americans who have lost or will soon lose their home. Some are flopping with family members. Many more, however, are reacquainting themselves with the joys and despair (mostly despair) of renting space from a landlord.

First, the upside. If you have endured years of never-ending maintenance chores, gardening, lawn-care and DIY projects, the idea of putting all (or most) of that burden onto someone else's shoulders may be just what the doctor ordered. Let's face it. If you have spent a year or two worried about how you can pay your mortgage, you have probably not put a lot of money or time into upkeep. Am I right? You've said to yourself, "I'll let the next guy worry about that," as toilets and showers cease to function, the foundation crumbles and subsidence in the back yard gets steadily worse.

Not my problem anymore.

But the time eventually comes when you move out. Hopefully you worked it out with your bank. Maybe they even gave you a few grand as a thank you for not ripping out all the plumbing and cabinetry on your way out.

Now you are once again a renter.

How does that make you feel?

Like a child again (and not really in a good way). You feel like you've stepped into a time machine. You're in your post-college youth again, but this time with wrinkles and kids. Hopefully you have a little more money, but that may be the only advantage over your younger self. Because your younger self saw living in an apartment or a rental house as an adventure! It was moving forward, toward full adulthood. Younger self took the keys a threw them in the air, shouting "you've arrived!" Older rental self is depressed by her new surroundings. It's not home. It has all your stuff. It's home-like. But it's not yours.

So, let's sum up what it's like to rent after having owned for a number of years.

The pros:

1. Something goes wrong, you call your landlord
2. Landscaping is either included in the rent or amounts to little more than mowing
3. If there is a feature that you hate, just tell yourself it's only for a year
4. There's a better than even chance that renting is cheaper than owning

The cons:

1. You cannot just redecorate your place to make it your own
2. Most rentals are rentals because there is something slightly (or greatly) "off" about them
3. You will not always be able to spot the problem before moving in
4. When you do figure it out, there won't be a damn thing you can do about it