Which Is Smarter — Leasing or Buying an Accessible Home?

If you are reading this blog, then you are likely experiencing mobility challenges, have a loved one who is, or are simply planning ahead. Perhaps the need to use a wheelchair or an accessible bathroom is due to a progressive disease such as ALS, or a traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury. Or, perhaps it is time to prepare for the final stages of life. The traumatic injury of a loved one was the original inspiration for WheelPad accessible modular homes and home attachments. But when does it make more sense to lease rather than buy a WheelPad accessible modular home or home attachment?

Answering Three Questions Provides the Best Solution

1. How long will the accessible living space be needed?

2. Who is paying for the accessible modular home or attachment?

3. How quickly is the accessible space needed?

Length of Time the Unit is Needed

In some circumstances, full recovery or significant recovery from an accident may be possible, and the additional, accessible space that a WheelPad home attachment or modular home  provides is only needed for 3-9 months. Avoiding a long stay at a rehab facility and keeping your family together during this period of recovery while providing privacy and functional space for healing at home are two goals we hear most often. 

Who is Paying?

One of our customers suffered a traumatic brain injury at work, and required the separate space in a busy home to allow for a quiet room for healing and a larger bathroom to allow for assistance during bathing in the first few months of recovery. They have now made a full recovery and have returned their SuitePAD model to WheelPad L3C for refurbishment and re-lease. When there is a short-term need and worker’s compensation is paying, leasing is nearly always preferred because the cash flow outlay is minimized for the insurance company.

How Quickly is the Accessible Space Needed?

In other circumstances, such as with a progressive, terminal illness, it is clear to the family that additional accessible space would improve the quality of life for all in the household. No need to turn your living room or dining room into a hospital room when you can attach a SuitePAD, if only for a few months. Often with diseases such as ALS, time is of the essence. Moving to a larger home, building an addition, or renovating interior space is just not practical when there is an unknown length of time left with a loved one; not to mention the construction noise, dust, and disruption to daily life. A SuitePAD can typically be delivered and installed within 2 weeks, with minimal construction disruption, depending on the location and complexity of how the unit is connected to the house. 

Three is the Magic Number

If a WheelPad accessible modular home or home attachment will be needed for longer than three years, then it makes more financial sense to purchase. 

If you are able to secure financing and can afford to buy the unit outright, and have time to make bigger moves such as purchasing a new, accessible home or building out an addition or renovation that has accessible space, then you are investing in adding value to your existing real estate property investment. 

If someone else is responsible for payment, perhaps Veterans benefits or workers’ compensation insurance, purchasing an accessible modular home addition may also be the best choice because it may be less costly for a long-term period than moving and renting a hard-to-find accessible apartment or into a facility with additional services that are not necessary.

The Smartest Choice is Your Decision

In the end, the choice is yours, based on your current timeframe, financing, as well as any future plans. We’ve had a customer who chose to permanently add a SuitePAD to their property, with the plans of having a home office/guest suite for now, and then a place for mom to stay for her end of life care a decade or so from now, and then accessible space for their own golden years so they know they can safely and comfortably age in place in their own home. 

We originally created WheelPad accessible modular homes and home attachments for those instances when time is an unavailable luxury and every day at home, with loved ones, counts. Life can change in an instant, and a WheelPad accessible modular home or home attachment can make a significant improvement to the quality of life for all affected by mobility challenges. 

Offering leased units creates a choice for those who need a wheelchair-accessible home now for less than three years. Offering a WheelPad accessible modular home or home attachment for purchase creates a choice for those anticipating a long-term need. Offering both options, lease or buy, helps WheelPad fulfill its mission.