<prompt> Human: My lease is up in a couple months, and apartment prices have shot up almost 50 over the last 3 years... Should I also be looking at renting condoshousestownhomes in addition to the apartment options? Is there other risk Im overlooking?I dont feel comfortable taking out a mortgage on a home I would only live in for 5 more years Im still in grad school ;  <response>: In a house, there are more opportunities to clash with your landlord, depending on what arrangement is made for yard work.If he does all the yard work, no worries. Your landlord may give you a discount if you take care of those things, but if you say you will, and you do not, expect conflict.Some landlords will just expect you to take care of the yard work. I have a friend who is a landlord who kept getting notices from the HOA for yard violations, as the tenant did not care for the lawn adequately. He was constantly harassing his tenant about this, causing ill-will. When the guy was late with his rent, my friend filed eviction notice as quickly as possible to see the end of this lawn headache. If the tenant had not been a problem, and had a temporary money problem, I think my friend would have worked with him. Instead, he saw the opportunity to get rid of his problem and evicted him.Landlords love the tenants they hear from once a month, when the check is delivered. When tenants start causing problems for them, expect discretionary decisions to not go your way, such as how much rent gets increased at the end of your lease, if at all, or how they choose to deal with late payments. If you annoy a landlord, he may raise your rent, thinking that either you will leave, or the landlord will be compensated for the annoyance.For somebody who owns 1 or 2 properties, he cant really get in trouble for this kind of behavior, as proving fair housing law violations would be difficult. Alternatively, if he has 5 or more properties, and raises the rent consistently on one property without touching anothers rent, favoritism could be claimed. Landlords avoid blatant favoritism, because if another tenant can make a case that he is discriminated against for a protected reason race, family status, religion, etc., it can mean huge trouble for the landlord legally.So, when landlords dont swing you any favors, it may not be because they are being assholes, they are just trying to make sure they dont get themselves in trouble with the law. 