Nearly all of us will rent a place to live at least once. Perhaps the most important consideration when renting a home is the monthly cost. As a cost-conscious consumer, it may surprise you to learn that the property with the lowest monthly rent may not be the least expensive place to live. Aside from location, you are paying for amenities. Houses tend to offer more privacy than apartments and have yards, garages and extra storage spaces. They also tend to be bigger than apartments. The downside to all these goodies is they come with a price tag. The yard for the dogs and kids needs to be mowed in the summer. It can mean buying a lawn mower and gassing it up every time the grass needs trimming or paying the entrepreneurial kid in the neighborhood to do it. All those private driveways in snowy climates need to be plowed or shoveled. Again, if you don’t want to invest in snow removal equipment, you will need to pay someone to keep the driveway and walkways clear in inclement weather. Apartment dwellers know that landscaping and snow removal are included in the monthly rent they hand over to the landlord every month.

THE BOTTOM LINE: Choosing to rent an apartment or a house is a lifestyle choice as much as it is an exercise in carefully monitoring your expenses. The cost of renting a house may seem in line with renting an apartment when comparing rental prices, but remember that most house rentals are full of hidden expenses. Even the relatively small water and trash removal bills start to add up to a lot of cash. If you are trying to decide between a house rental and an apartment, consider making a list of the amenities included at each location. Any amenity not included in the rent is an additional expense. Estimate the cost of each item, then tally up the column for apartment rentals and the column for the house.