I am still a bit skeptical on how great cloud mining is. The biggest part that confuses me is: why are people renting out the space instead of mining for themselves?

I've heard that genesis-mining.com is pretty reputable. To my knowledge, it allows you to buy GH for a one-time price. You get paid as long as what you're mining surpasses their electricity costs.

Is cloud mining even worthwhile? I just don't see how you could make a profit from it. BTW, I'm not looking to make big bucks off mining. I'm just looking to make a few bucks here and there without a huge initial investment.

Part of the reason I am interested in cloud mining is because I'm not too fond of the initial cost of mining hardware(ex. the $500 price of an AntMiner s5).

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!