do bills increase when you move from an apartment to a house?

[samy23]

When you moved from an apartment to a house, was there much difference in how much your gas/electric bills were?

And did any other type of bills increase?

[laohaire]

Yes, these were the increases we noticed:

- Electricity increased. The house was bigger than the apartment, and we also had more gadgets (like washer/dryer, dishwasher, etc). Also, while we swore we wouldn't personally use more electricity with lights and computers/tv, we did. When DH can be in one room and I'm in another, we use more. In the apartment we were only ever in the living room or bedroom.

- Oil payments increased, due to larger space to heat.

- We pay taxes on our property.

- Repairs. While we lived in the apartment, the landlord had to replace the toilet but that didn't come out of our pocket. But here, we had a leaky roof (which at first we tried to fix ourselves, and eventually bought a whole new roof), and also a new toilet.

- Trash disposal was included in our rent but obviously not included in our mortgage.

- We maintain our boiler and such, have it cleaned every year.

[Monarchgrrl]

For us the water bill went up a bit because we went from laundry on site to our own washer/dryer in the house. It went up by about $5/month. And our trash went up because we didn't have to pay trash before and now we have to pay $30/month. Our electricity went up a little bit in the winter because we're not surround by other apartments keeping us insulated. On the coldest month it went up about $75 for one month and then back down to what we're used to. It's all worth it to us, though, for sure!

ETA: we rent our house so we didn't have to budget in maintenance for anything.

[caiesmommy]

I'll just list the bills that come w or go up w home ownership that dont w apt rental

-property taxes/mortgage insurance-about 200 a month
-water up-laundry increase/outdoor watering if you do that
-hydro-like pp said, more rooms/more lights/outdoor lights/
-gas/oil-more rooms/levels to heat

[KellyAnnW]

When we went from apartment to house our housing payment only went up $150, but all the other bills were a shock.
Property taxes $150
Home owners insurance $100
electric went up $50-$200 depending on the season
Water $50 a month
Trash $50 a month
Street lights and sewer $50 a month.

Plus theres all the items you have to buy. Lawn mowers, trimmers, hoses, tools for simple repairs, etc. It was really expensive! And now you have to be able to fix/ replace things that break.

[mama2peyton]

hi

Edited by mama2peyton - 11/10/10 at 10:01am

[CookiePie]

All of our utilities were included in our previous rent except electric. We went form about 900 sq ft to 1600 sq feet.

electric
heat-oil
sewer tax
property tax
homeowners insurance compared to renters
repairs & maintenence more than budgeted for, & continues to shock us. We are constantly trying to catch up to do the next project on the list.

[KellyAnnW]

The other thing was we had a hard time with was finding basic tools at garage sales. Shovels, rakes, hammers, etc. Even hand power tools tend to be old and expensive.

[velochic]

Yes. All utilities.

Also there are a million little things that you don't think about just to keep up the home... from toilet seats to paint to grout sealer. We budget $5000/year just for upkeep of our home (which includes replacing items that may need replacing... this year, the leaking mini barn and our stove when it finally dies).

[Denvergirlie]

we recently went from a rental house, to another rental house and our bills have defaintely increased.

Was gas heat, now on propane. Cost was huge upfront shock to system, and more on a per btu cost as well. (However, we now supplement with wood heat, so propane heater only kicks on in the dead of the night if it drops below 50 degrees - so our true useage is down, but were we to use it at the rate we used heat in the other house, the cost would definately be up)

Water was included previously in monthly rent, now on a well, so still no cost. However, used to have trash service that was included, but now have to pay $24 a month for trash service.

Electric is way more expensive as well, and literally no changes in comsumption, but rate is much higher with this new electric company vs what we used to pay.

My car insurance went up basically $7 a month due the change of address (higher accident rate in new neighborhood that old).

Cable internet and TV pacakge that we had in old house is not offered at new location, so am forced to save money by using DSL over cable internet. Also now TV free, as refuse to pay $50 a month to watch TV, vs the $10 a month basic cable we had in the old house, another forced savings point.

[samy23]

Just wanted to add I meant from RENTING and apartment, to RENTING a house it would be pretty much the same size because we are in a very good sized apartment right now, so if anything the house might be a little smaller.

My main thought a higher cost for the heating because like pp said, in a house you don't have neighbours all around/above/below you to help keep you insulated.

[rhiOrion]

The neighbors all around you to keep you insulated does seem to make a huge difference. Even when we lived in a townhouse and had no neighbors above us it was WAY cheaper than it seems to be at our new house for gas. I haven't noticed a huge increase in electricity yet, but once it gets hot out I imagine gas will go back down and electric will sky rocket.

[Juvysen]

Well, coming from someone whose water heater exploded a couple years ago and whose furnace died about a month ago... I'd say even if you can manage to keep the other bills the same, houses (if you own, at least) tend to feel like a money pit sometimes. I should mention that our roof needs replacing, we've had some leaks in a toilet so the ceiling below it needs to be fixed, the ceiling in our bedroom where we had a humidifier to high up (we assume, but it took like a year to show up) needs fixing, the bathroom fan is losing a bearing and needs to be replaced, our "extra" (guest) bathroom shower lost some tiles unbeknownst to us and now the wall behind is damaged so the whole thing needs to be ripped out and redone... um, and we moved into this "move-in condition" house 6 years ago.

Oh... I forgot the leak in the basement UNDER the carpet...

yeah, so if you're buying it's definitely something to think about...

ETA... whoops! just saw that you were only referring to renting...

[Drummer's Wife]

For us, definitely - but maybe not as much for you if the size is similar. I do agree that sharing walls with others decreases your heating bill.

We lived in a 3 bed apartment and I would say our electricity/gas was less than $100 per month. That was pretty much all we had to pay for besides rent for housing costs.

Now, we are in a 3k sq ft, 5 bed house and our utitilites are between $200-400 month depending. Plus, we pay $80 something every 6 months for trash/recycling.

We don't have to pay water, as we have an electric powered well (so we pay more for electricity), but the cost of water is something to consider ifyou don't have that expense in an apartment.

[caiesmommy]

Even RENTING a house will cost you more. More then likely your lease will say that you ahve to upkeep the outside.

IE
-mow the lawn every 2 weeks which you would have to provide the mower/gas to run it
-shovel and or pay someone to shovel snow
-plant flowers ect

Then with renting you may not be able to do things like
-hang clothes
-plant vegetable gardens

All the things that can help lower your bills

I would suggest asking to see an average of the heat/hydro over a year and make sure to go through the lease and see EXACTLY what your expected to do for upkeep ect.

We rented an old farmhouse and granted it was an old house we had 2 other roomates and it cost us a FORTUNE! Between heat/hydro/rent/rental insurance/upkeep for the outside.

[zebra15]

Yes it will cost more. Generally when renting a house you will be responsible for all utilities vs renting an apt some utilities could be included. When renting a house you will be responsible for outside upkeep. You could be responsilbe for any HOA fees or fines assessed on the property as well.

You may want to just fix minor repairs instead of having the LL come and do that. With a 'house' someone has to come over or be hired out, at an apt they usually have a mainteance dept.

[shayinme]

Originally Posted by zebra15

Yes it will cost more. Generally when renting a house you will be responsible for all utilities vs renting an apt some utilities could be included. When renting a house you will be responsible for outside upkeep. You could be responsilbe for any HOA fees or fines assessed on the property as well.

You may want to just fix minor repairs instead of having the LL come and do that. With a 'house' someone has to come over or be hired out, at an apt they usually have a mainteance dept.

I agree with this. We rented a house before deciding to buy and it was definitely good practice for actually owning. In the house we rented we paid for the heat which was quite a deal more costly than heating an apartment. Also we had to maintain the yard which meant buying a lawn mower, etc just to do basic stuff.

Like Zebra said in some case you may need to handle small repairs because more than likely there is no maintenance person and that will require tools. Also will the landlord cover water and sewer or are you responsible? Things you may want to ask about so that you can properly determine the cost.

Shay

[bobandjess99]

What Zebra said....gas was included in our Apt, as was trash, water ans sewer - we only paid rent and electric (and phone, cable, internet,etc if you chose to have those things) but now that we have a house, we pay electric, gas, water, sewer, trash, plus we choose to have a phone and internet.
Also, chances are your house is bigger than your apt was, so that is simply more square foot to heat or cool, so you take that into account. I also can NOT agre more with the neighbor thing.....in our apt, we actually didn't have to even turn our heat on in the winter, because he heat from all teh other nearby apts 9it was a big complex) leached into our apt...heck, there were some day I
'd have teh patio door open inthe middle of January, -5 degrees out, letting snow in, because it was SOOO hot, I couldn't stand it! But in a house, all youhave is what you pay for.
Insulation and weatherproofing makes a HUGE difference. Old, drafty, 2 story farmouse with 30+ year old windows, no insulation, and 25 year old furnace will be a nightmare......10 year old ranch with insultion up the wang, energy efficient furnace, new eco windows, etc will be a completely different story.

[mamadonna]

I agree with what others have said. When we went from renting an apartment to renting a house, we definitely paid more in gas & electric. We also paid water in some places, trash in other places, and water & trash in some places, which were always included when we rented apartments.

And make sure you check what phone / cable company the house you rent is wired for. If it's already wired for a particular company and you go with another company, the setup / changeover fees can be outrageous.

In addition to that, each time we moved to a bigger place (1 bd apt --> 2 bd house --> 2 bd house with garage --> 3 bd house with patio & yard, etc. we bought more stuff, and even though we bought as much of it as we could secondhand on Craigslist and whatnot, it still adds up.

And, yes, if you rent a house, you do tend to do some of the smaller repairs yourself...it's just easier, but it does generally mean more out of pocket expenses as well.

From my experience, I've rented both houses that provide lawn service and houses that don't. I would absolutely pay a bit more to rent a house that includes a lawn service. When we rented a house and did all the upkeep ourselves, we definitely paid more (and spent MUCH more of our own time). Unless of course you already own the tools yourself and enjoy and have the time to do the yard work, or if your landlord at least supplies the tools you need. Now that I own my own house, I love doing work in my yard, but I never enjoyed doing yard work when I had to pay for everything out of pocket and supply my own tools.

[BetsyS]

Just a note on yard work.

The thing that pushed us out of renting a house and into home ownership was that the landlord INSISTED on doing the yard work for us. This made my dh over the top crazy. Why should someone else mow our grass???? He never came when it needed cutting (admittedly--my dh is a bit grass obsessed, and in summer, he likes it mowed every 5 days or so), so the grass looked scraggly a lot of the time. But, this was a non-negotiable for the landlord. He absolutely wanted to do all yard work.

We are moving from owning back to renting this fall. One of our non-negotiables is the ability to do our own yard work. We won't live somewhere that we can't mow our own grass/weed our own beds/plant our own flowers.

So, that's just something to think about ahead of time. Landlords can be odd.