Advantages of Buying Office Equipment versus Leasing

No matter how you look at it, new office equipment can be quite expensive.  One computer alone could easily cost more than $500. 

 Now multiply that number by five or 10 times that amount if you need to replace your old office computers.  That figure doesn’t even include other equipment such as a new copy machine or a flat screen TV for a conference room.  With such a large investment, you might think that it makes more sense to lease the equipment instead of buying it up front. 

 However, that’s not the case.  Here’s why. 

You own it
With a leased piece of equipment, it’s not yours even after paying five years of monthly payments.  At the end of the lease payment, regardless of the amount that you’ve paid, it will need to be returned.  With a purchase, it becomes yours from day one.  Even if you have to pay monthly payments on your credit card for the next year or two, it’s still yours from the time you check out at the cashier. 

You can sell it when you want
If you’re leasing a piece of office equipment, you won’t be able to sell it even at the end of the lease term.  On the other hand, if you own the equipment, you can sell it even after one year of use.  That can be extremely beneficial if you no longer need the piece of equipment.  Let’s say that you open a small clothing store and purchase a computerized register.  After one year’s time, business is not as what you expected so you decide to sell the business.  The second hand market prices for computerized registers are close to what you originally paid, so you only lose a couple of hundred dollars.  If, however, you had leased the register, you would lose all the money that you had paid over 12 month’s time since the equipment would have to returned at the end of the lease period.  And if the lease period was longer than 12 months, you might have to pay an early penalty charge for breaking the lease before it expires.  That alone can add up to hundreds of dollars.