renovating or move? (feedback, appraisal, investment, sale)
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We bought our current home, which was build in 1979 (readld) as 2nd owners right at cusp of market crashing for a great price, in NJ within a very highly desirable neighborhood 5 years ago. Our home had nothing updated with unfinished basement, with exception of really good stone tile throughout the kitchen/foyer.
Over the past 5 years, we've put in about 50K worth into updating/expanding our master bathroom, put in a professional closet in our walk-in closet, updated our den/living rooms by putting in hardwood floors, moldings, build-in cabinets for storage and hardwood floor in dining room. In addition to that, we also put in window treatments in those rooms and just put in new HVAC system with 10 year warranty.
Dilemma: our kitchen is really badly laid out with our eat in table in the way of traffic from den to work-area of kitchen; only allows one person passing through it. Can't open panty doors people are sitting at eat-in table cuz they're in the way, poor natural lighting here. No mud room & small laundry room that's so small. So we want to renovate our kitchen by expanding the walls, tear out bay window into french doors and change our existing deck into a patio where said french doors will lead out of. Also want to finish our 920 sq. ft basement, so being in friggin NJ where labor alone costs anywhere from 50-70 bucks an hour, we're easily looking at towards of 100-180k to do everything we want. On top of that, our roof will need to be replaced by 7 years time, we don't have vinyl siding which we want to change out.
There's a house round the corner from me for sale at a great price with everything we want; updated bigger kitchen, mud room & bigger laundry room thats easily accessible from driveway, office with full bath which could be used as an in-law suite as there's already 4 big bedrooms upstairs, better flow. It has two wood burning fireplaces, one of which is in the kitchen, fenced in backyard (ideal for our 2 boxers) and a fairly new pool with safety fence around it. It also has a half finished basement all set up for kids play-area with berber carpet.
Move to stay put to renovate??? The cons we can see is that it may take a while to sell our house cuz our kitchen isn't updated, no finished basement and is smaller home at 2450 sq ft. Homes in my area generally have 3,000 sq ft, which the home i saw is at; 3,200.
feedback appreciated! also im aware that even in putting in all our x money into our renovations won't be returned back so im thinking perhaps that money is well spend as a downpayment in a upgraded home?
Do you need to sell before purchasing a new home? Reading through all your particulars, I would move, depending on price considerations. Sometimes an older, outdated home does turn in to a money pit when you want to get it the way you want it. Not to mention the headaches of major remodeling.
It depends. How much money does your new house cost. Being relatively conservative, how much can you sell your house for? Do you have any appetite for a 3-4 month construction process?
My initial thought is that if you have the money and don't want to endure a renovation, you should trade up.
Do you need to sell before purchasing a new home? Reading through all your particulars, I would move, depending on price considerations. Sometimes an older, outdated home does turn in to a money pit when you want to get it the way you want it. Not to mention the headaches of major remodeling.
The owners will only consider offers without financial conditions ;ie needing to sell first, etc. I noticed that home have been on the market since November, which is bit strange considering it's listing 50K BELOW appraisal price, so it tells me they really only looking at offers in cash or first time buyers. We do have the funds to buy it outright but that would require dipping in our investment accounts though, so when our current home sells we will put the profits right back into it. Husband doesn't want to do it.
We do have the funds to buy it outright but that would require dipping in our investment accounts though, so when our current home sells we will put the profits right back into it. Husband doesn't want to do it.
Check into bridge loans which allows you to buy before your current home sells. Put current home on market asap. I think it would sell fast with some features you mentioned.
Check into bridge loans which allows you to buy before your current home sells. Put current home on market asap. I think it would sell fast with some features you mentioned.
Thanks, I'll check into it. From what I understand bridge loans are very hard to come by, even for people with excellent credit scores which we have. That would really be ideal as it wouldn't require us dipping into our funds, worth a while to check into!
Just because I've got some nice features with this house; nice large flat lot, decent sq ft size, updated master bath, etc it may take a while to sell simple because kitchen's decor sucks so bad in addition not having a mud room. Won't hurt to talk with our realtor who closed on our current home and see what he says too.
Better to remodel IMO and get what you want done exactly the way you want it done. You could do the remodel over a period of time. Plus if you shop around, you might get a good deal from a contractor considering they are not that busy these days.
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ld) as 2nd owners right at cusp of market crashing for a great price, in NJ within a very highly desirable neighborhood 5 years ago. Our home had nothing updated with unfinished basement, with exception of really good stone tile throughout the kitchen/foyer. 
