Deciding whether to buy or rent is an important decision. Renting is more readily available and accessible to more people, where buying while initially can be more expensive but save you money in the long term. Making this decision should not be approached lightly and take must be taken before making a decision. This guide will help you decide which option is best for you.RentingRenting property is the easier option for most people looking to move into a new property. Renting is readily available to most people and is a real option when looking for a new home. There is less paper work involved in renting a property and can usually be sorted and ready to move in within a couple of weeks. Letting agencies usually take care of all the paperwork and you will only be required to sign a few forms. For this service you may have to pay admin fees which can be upwards of £150 to £200 per tenant depending on the letting agency and the checks they are going to run. If one of the checks is a credit check expect your admin fee to be slightly higher. These admin fees are usually required again when you leave the property as the letting agency will complete quality checks to make sure you have left the property in good condition once you have left. Some letting agencies will try and place blame on you for previous faults so be sure to catalogue and make the agency aware of anything that is wrong as soon as you move in so you are not liable. This should be less of a worry if you use a reputable letting agency; preferably one that you know someone else has used and received good service from. Other fees that are likely to apply are security deposits. A security deposit is usually a month or month and half worth of rent paid to the agency to cover any correction they may need to make once you have left the property. In order to get this back it is important to keep the property in good condition and as mentioned earlier make them aware of existing faults in the property.A lot of people are put off from renting as they feel they are wasting money by not paying into an investment in their own property. To avoid this there are schemes where you can take up an option to buy a rented property after a certain amount of time of being the tenant. These schemes often mean that your monthly rent payments go some way towards paying part of a deposit to take the property on yourself. These schemes can vary from different agencies. If this is something you feel you would be interested in you would have to check with the letting agency if it was an option and also check for local housing schemes for rented properties. Most importantly you need to make sure you can afford everything once you move into your new home. Calculate your bills for utilities as well as council tax on top of your rent. You may not be able to afford a property when you take all the bills into consideration. There are plenty of calculators online that can help you budget and work out if you can afford to move.