英語訪談對話 510 Owning vs. Renting

Todd: So, Akane, I was talking with my friend and he’s just recently married and he was wondering should he rent a home or own a home. That’s a tough call. What do you think?

Akane: It is a tough call but I personally prefer to rent.

Todd: Really? So why would you rather rent?

Akane: Well, because there’s just no extra costs. You don’t have to pay for extra things like maintenance and just keeping up your home. When something gets broken you don’t have to pay to get it fixed. Property tax is already included, things like that.

Todd: Yeah but if you own a home I mean first of all I think the biggest reason is you’re not throwing money away, it’s a solid investment. You can actually make a profit on the home later on.

Akane: That’s true but with this day and age you really never know when you’re going to lose your job or if you’re going to have to move for job reasons and for that reason I think that if you’re stuck with a mortgage and you lose your job then you won’t be able to pay it and what if you can’t sell it?

Todd: That’s a good point actually but you could always rent the house out, right, so…

One common thing that rich people all have is that they own property and they own real estate.

So you could just rent it to someone else.

Akane: Well that’s a good idea but still I think that’s a lot of work for somebody as busy as me and I’m not a rich person.

Todd: That’s how you get rich!

Akane: Right! Well, I don’t think I could be bothered with the hassle of renting to somebody and first you have to find someone to rent it and then you have to make sure that they pay the rent and then you have to make sure that things are fixed It’s too much of a headache for me.

Todd: That’s a good point. You know, actually I think the main reason why I would ever want to own a home is because you could have a dog.

Akane: Oh that’s a great reason; I love dogs.

Todd: When you rent a house often they won’t allow you to have a pet.

Akane: That’s true. Well you can have a cat or fish and maybe a hamster.

Todd: True, but if you’re a dog lover its not the same thing.

Akane: I guess so.