OP I'm personally torn on this question for ourselves...
In our case, we really like where we live and after several years of passively looking at listing's on Zillow/etc. have yet to find a different location (within a price we'd be willing to pay) that we'd consider moving to...
Additionally, just buying a place means you deal with whatever baggage that place has. If it's new construction - how's the quality? What skills do you have to assess that? (We have none, and no one in our extended circle either.) If it's an older home, it likely has - or will have - issues you'd want to address.
As you can tell, we are leaning towards a remodel. In theory, we get exactly what we want (or at least what we are willing to pay for).
The downside is the inconvenience and risks. For a full gut/renovation - you'll be displaced for a period of time (with the extra costs associated). And there's the risk that they run into problems, with time and cost overruns.
As such, my thought process is (once we are finally ready to pull the trigger):
In our case, we really like where we live and after several years of passively looking at listing's on Zillow/etc. have yet to find a different location (within a price we'd be willing to pay) that we'd consider moving to...
Additionally, just buying a place means you deal with whatever baggage that place has. If it's new construction - how's the quality? What skills do you have to assess that? (We have none, and no one in our extended circle either.) If it's an older home, it likely has - or will have - issues you'd want to address.
As you can tell, we are leaning towards a remodel. In theory, we get exactly what we want (or at least what we are willing to pay for).
The downside is the inconvenience and risks. For a full gut/renovation - you'll be displaced for a period of time (with the extra costs associated). And there's the risk that they run into problems, with time and cost overruns.
As such, my thought process is (once we are finally ready to pull the trigger):
- Define our "needs" and "wants"
- Get an estimate for what it will take to get those in a remodel
- If reasonable, get plans drawn up so we can "see" what we could get
- Add a healthy contingency to the budget
- Do one final "look" at houses we could buy at that budget
- Execute based on what we find - or don't...
Statistics: Posted by SnowBog — Sun Aug 18, 2024 1:32 pm — Replies 52 — Views 5202