You must choose.

Deciding between a home or apartment

• If you’re renting out a compartmentalized house, it’s not only arguably easier to meet your neighbors, it’s often necessary. Renters might convene to figure out things like heating bills, yard usage, and tornado hideout procedures.
• Rental houses are typically older homes and have more unique physical attributes (like ceiling and wall angles and weird little cubby holes and hallways/staircases-to-nowhere), while apartment complexes tend toward universal design standards.
• The other side of the coin, though, is that older homes have older innards, which may or may not comprise pipes (which may not be able to handle the harshness that is Drano), insulation (high heating bills), and basements that can seem more akin to cellars (and have holes for bats).
• Homes typically have bigger yards, which are nice to play in but often require more work.
• Apartment complexes may have thinner walls than houses. So if your neighbor is showering or spinning records or drying their hair, you are probably privy to their habits.
• If a fire were to break out or a burglar entered your place, an apartment has the added safety of extra eyes/ears to prevent or stop them.
• Houses usually have more storage space (garages, basements, sheds, attics), while apartments have shared storage spaces.
• Apartment complexes are far more likely to have perks like a pool or workout room.
• Apartments may have a garbage/recycling chute, while at a home you must take it out to the curb yourself.
• Divided up homes sometimes give one tenant thermostat control, and everyone in the house has to live with it.

Deciding between mom-n-pop or rental company

• Companies often have more visibility in the community (signs, ads, and websites) and are thus easier to find, especially in a time crunch.
• Because they tend to have more properties than Mom-and-Pops, rental companies are more likely to have openings.
• Companies usually have established protocol and employees for repairs, including 24-hour help lines, while Mom-and-Pops require working around their schedule.
• Mom-and-Pops are usually more flexible, not punishing you for a one-time late payment, adapting the lease timespan to fit your needs, etc.
• Mom-and-Pops are more likely to allow minor changes to a property (e.g. painting rooms) than a rental company.
• Companies are more likely to handle snow and lawn mowing than Mom-and-Pops.
• Companies often have a walk-in rent payment option.
• Companies sometimes employ several people, while at a mom-and-pop you’re going to deal with the same people.
• Mom-and-Pops tend to be easier to get a hold of outside of business hours, while companies are easiest to get a hold of during business hours.
• Mom-and-pop owners can sometimes be located far away, while companies are close by.
• More often than not, it comes down to a case-by-case basis. Sometimes you’ll deal with a great company, and sometimes you’ll deal with a crappy mom-and-pop. And vice versa.