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You would have to "pay for it" either way. A big factor for me would be adding up how much it would cost to renovate the old house. And time. Do you have time to renovate DIY or would you need to hire someone (costing some more money)?
@nyebride: Yes very true...but I think that I would rather pay to have it already in place than pay a contractor and have to live in a construction zone if we did renovations ourselves. We would for sure be hiring someone--neither of us know the first thing about renovating! And this is all hypothetical for us anyway, we're not buying anything for at least a year, if then.
I'm probably biased because DH is a remodeling general contractor, but I'd definitely prefer a fixer upper. It drives me batty when I watch shows like House Hunters and people complain about paint color. To me a house is about location and good bones, and price of course. If you do the work yourself, or pay someone, you get to choose all the finishes and make it totally your own.
I'd rather buy a house that needs minimal to no renovations (but I don't count changing paint color and fixtures and such to be renovations). Neither DH or I have to know-how to take on a full re-doing of a kitchen or bathroom and since DH is out of town all week, most work for renovations would fall on me.
But I'm prefectly happy to pick up a paintbrush to change a wall color or a screwdriver to change handles and fixtures and such!
@Mrs.KMM: Oh totally, we're fine with making those kinds of basic changes--even though we'd probably still get someone else to pain for us, lol. I really wanted to paint ourselves when we painted our current apartment, but DH refused and we ended up getting our super to do it. Probably went much faster and looks much better because of that, lol.
@JenniB: I know what you mean about HH--drives me crazy when people are like, "Oh this carpet is ugly" or "I hate this light fixture". Those are SUCH easy things to change, along with the paint!
I would prefer something that is mostly done, but maybe needed a few things done so I could add my own personal touches. (Like light fixtures, faucets, paint colors, crown moulding, etc.). But at the same time, it would have to be done in a way that suited my tastes, or I would rather do the upgrades it myself.
Ditto on getting TOTALLY IRRITATED about people complaining about SIMPLE fixes. The only one I'll agree with is wallpaper, now I definitely wouldn't want to tear down a house full of that!
@JenniB: When a friend was looking for a house last summer, she would totally disregard a house because of a wall color. You can paint it!
Personally we go for the cheaper fixer uppers because FI is super handy and i can do things like painting. We have thought about buying an already renovated place but, in the long run there usually not our taste anyway and we feel better off to save $40,000 and do it up how we like.
@bananarama: That's true too...some kitchen/bathroom renos that I've seen aren't my style at all (don't like the tile, cabinets, etc). but I feel like I would have a hard time changing it, since it would be brand new. That might turn me off getting a particular place.
@bananarama: I'll second that too! Just because something is already renovated doesn't draw me to it. It has to have been renovated in a style that fits DH and I too or what is the point?!
Well, for our first and current home we wanted something that wasn't a total fixer upper, but wasn't totally done either. It can be easier (depending on lots of variables of course) to build equity in a home when you make some upgrades. Its fun, and we are learning a lot.
For our next home we will probably look for something that doesnt need much work.
I would go for the fixer as long as it didn't involve tearing down walls and changing the structure. I think it would be fun to put the work in and you'd learn so much about the house. And you can add so much more value to the house by doing upgrades yourself and you can get exactly what you want in the meantime. You pay a premium for upgrades someone else does since you dont have to front the money - thats why people can make money flipping a house.
The downside is that renovations require money since you (usually) wouldnt take out a loan for it instead of paying the premium and just paying a little more on your mortgage payment, and of course time and the learning curve.
But with that said... i ended up with a move in ready. The only thing I would change is the bathroom vanities. It was the only house with this kind of layout we liked and just happened to renovated by the last owner.
My style doesn't match most people's, so i'd rather renovate myself. I lov really modern stuff, and it seems like most houses we've seen are all updated in a more traditional fashion. Don't want to pay for those upgrades and then still want to rip it all out, you know?
When my fiance and I were looking for houses we saw several that were foreclosures. They were beautiful houses and great prices but would have needed A LOT of work. We ended up buying a house that needs the smaller things (wallpaper, paint) and still needs some upgrades we want (new kitchen and finished basement) but looking back we are so thankful we didnt buy anything that would take any real work. We love just being able to enjoy our home and doing the upgrade things that we want to make it our own!
I would go for renovating the house myself :) I can just envision it now! But I only feel this way because my FI can renovate pretty much anything. If it's something we were going to live in for a while, we would definitely want to renovate it. In fact, when we were looking at buying a house (not going to anymore) we envisioned renovations all the time!
Since I bought a fixer upper in December, I would go with definitely getting an already updated place. My dad, FI, and I have been doing all the renovations and it's finally going to be ready to move into this weekend. We replaced basically everything, the floors, ceilings, kitchen, bathroom, appliances, repainted the entire place, and installed light fixtures. I would say it was cheaper to get a fixer upper, but it was such a huge hassle. When FI and I buy another home we definitely want someplace that is move in ready and only needs little fixes. I never want to replace an entire kitchen by ourselves again! :)
The DH isn't exactly a DIY/ handyman type person (actually I'm more of a handyman woman then he is... lol) So yeah, when we do buy a home it has to be pretty much move in ready.
I actually feel like its cheaper to buy newer/renovated because the cost is KNOWN. Projects tend to balloon. I actually like DIY'ing and would love to take on a home renovation at some point-- but I wouldn't do it until I had a lot more money than I have now because I wouldn't want every set-back to be a calamity for our finances.
Hubs has been working on our house for a whole year now. It is really stressful and has become really annoying. He loathes the house and we never do anything fun anymore.
Alot of work was done before we moved in - new flooring (tile, hardwood and carpet), new appliances, new windows, popcorn ceilings removed, ceilings and walls painted, new front door. But there were tons of things that were done after moving in: new interior doors (painted, new hinges and knobs, new door frames), new fixtures on kitchen cabinets, guest bathroom vanity/sink, new light switch covers, new light fixtures, new baseboard (measure, cut and painted), repainted fireplace stove, overhaul of master bath exhaust and garage/laundry exhaust.
And now we are finding out that we can't have any tilework upstairs because the floor flexes too much???!!! The grout is all coming undone and a few tiles have become loose. So the tile in the kitchen has to be replaced with hardwood and who knows what we're going to do about the counters and backsplash. The grout it cracked everywhere.
Perhaps I speak out of youth and inexperience but SO and I definately want to get a fixerupper. He's super handy and so is every other male on his side of the family. I mean, it's silly to the point where he will look for things that aren't quite right and spend hours fiddling with them in our current place (I can't even begin to tell you how many times our closet door has been taken off it's hinges! And it's not even our place!). Plus, I'm very particular about certain things and would rather that they be done to my taste and done right (to be frank, when you are buying a renovated house, you never know how well the job was done until a year later when the sheetrock the previous owners put up starts to slowly buckle - been there, done that). My third and final reason for wanting a fixerupper is that we're on a very tight budget as far as house costs go because we don't want an enormous mortgage. You can get a lot more house in a much nicer neighborhood if you got a house that needed some work vs. a newly renovated place.
But I can totally see why it's not for everyone. :)
@kperry3: That is lucky that your FI is handy/knows how to do stuff. I feel like that's important when you own a piece of property and can't just call the super/landlord!
@CorgiTales: That is SO true! I feel like that would happen to me--I'd see all these finishes and extras and things and I would just want to include them all, lo.
@JoJo Bananas: Ah that sounds annoying/frustrating :( DId you know that you'd have to do all that work when you bought it? Are you guys thinking about moving soon or are you just anxious to get the work done?
@STBMrsRoss: Have you guys been living in the construction since December?? That's one of my fears--I need tohave working appliances/toilets, etc!
Since I've done both, here's what I am now looking for when we downsize.
A house that needs nothing done to it unless we WANT to do it.
Our first house was in great shape, but needed a ton of upgrading due to its age. We had the original Sears metal cabinets(and only 6 of them) in the kitchen with blue plastic tiles on the walls. Everything was original and the electrical system had never been upgraded, so we had TWO fuses for the whole house. Turn a light on in a room and try and vacuum? The house blew out. Ahhh...we bought what we could afford and loved it because it was solid, had charm and we could work on it when we wanted.
However....we spent the entire 13 years we lived there doing one thing or the other. Every weekend we were laying tiles or sanding floors or stripping woodwork or replacing windows, tearing off the roof or rebuilding the porch. We rebuilt the house and used any of our disposable income on restoring it. Our kids lived with it as long as we lived there, so after a few years, it definitely was not fun.
Our current house is much newer, but is now in need of upgrades too. We're too tired and lack the ambition to do any more major renos, so we are looking for a nice young couple to take on what we don't want to anymore. 12 years here and now we want something brand, spanking new.
If I had it to do over, and the money was there, I'd have had more fun when my kids were young and enjoyed my property. We let friendships die off too as we were always too busy doing home projects. :(
We bought a house in foreclosure. The carpet had to be ripped out immediately and all appliances had to be replaced! The walls needed desperately painting, too. All in all, we pretty much "bought" a good foundation and framing for a house. We went this route because we decided we'd rather have lower mortgage payments and then just renovate each room little by little as funds became available. We're elated we made this decision! 1.5 years later and 75% of the house is remodeled and our mortgage is only $670/month, as opposed to about $1k if we would've bought the same size house completely move-in ready!
@smyley: That sounds like a good compromise--to find a house that is perfectly fine as is, but has some renovations that COULD be done IF you have the desire/motivation.
The other problem with what has now happened in the RE market is that house values have dropped drastically, and we've watched ours go down the tubes when it was always more valuable in our area, considering where we live. We've completely redone 3 bathrooms, the kitchen and put in new hardwood floors throughout and now we're repainting all rooms (only 3 bedrooms left to do), so after we're done, hopefully someone falls in love with it and we can move on.
The real problem will be getting rid of things to fit us in something half the size!
I think for us we are more inclined to buy something that we can make into our own.
So we are definitely not opposed to getting a fixer upper.
I mean there are certain things that cannot be changed in a home. General layout. The house doesn't have to be the perfect home but it has to have the potential to be come our perfect home.
But I'm a architect and so will my husband and he's a super handy in pretty much everything. He comes from a family of builders and tool guys. ;) So we have to desire to change the home to US.
I'm pregnant and by the time we (hopefully) get a new home, I'll be very pregnant, so I won't be any help with fixing up the house. Because of that, we're looking for a place that doesn't need too much work.
We had popcorn too! Pain in the butt to get down but it's been coming off good. We have it EVERYWHERE and a contractor quoted us $20,000 to remove it. We've been doing it ourselves for the cost of scrapers, pastic tarps (and well our sanity). The entire downstairs is finished but the two story foyer is next... eek. How has the popcorn been for you?
I also get annoyed like a PP when people on HouseHunters complain about paint color! I grew up helping my parents flip houses so I'm not afraid of renovations. I'm not able to do anything heavy-duty like install new cabinets, but I've seen it done so I'm more comfortable with the idea. And unless I was injured or it would be dangerous, I would never hire painters.
When DH and I were house hunting we honestly didn't have a preference when it came to renovations. We saw so many terrible renovation jobs (like brand new shiny pink tile on bathroom floors, cheesy frosted glass cabinets in the kitchen, strange built-ins with a million tiny drawers like to hold jewelry) we figured either way we'd have to 'update' a home to our liking. And honestly in NYC, it's all about location so we would rather live in a nicer building on a great block than a totally updated brand new home in a bad neighborhood (like the ones our broker tried to get us to look at). Also, space is at such a minimum I think it's worth it to buy into a bigger space that needs renovations that would be the same price of a smaller space recently updated.
So we ended up with something in the middle. It's technically 'move-in ready' like nothing HAS to be done, all the appliances work, etc. But the tile in the bathrooms are old and the kitchen would be better opened up into the living room. But the apartment would have been totally out of our price range if it had been newly updated, it's the biggest space we saw in the nicest building. It's also on the highest floor so there is no one above us. For us, it was the right choice, but I can understand why others would have wanted a smaller space with no renovations to be made.
@moderndaisy: So exciting that you got the apartment! I've been looking at nyc real estate on streeteasy.com and dreaming about our next apartment. Did you guys stay in the same area or move somewhere totally different in the city to find your apartment?
@hilsy85: I bought an apartment in an estate sale and did a gut reno. What finally convinced me that this was the way to go was that I'd get something exactly how I wanted it, rather than paying for someone else's taste; it wasn't necessarily cheaper than buying new once everything was factored in. It was not a fun process, but on the plus side I was still renting so I didn't live in the construction while it was going on. Having done it once I think I'd do it again under the right circumstances since I have a better idea of what to expect.
If you'd like any specific advice on doing this in NYC, feel free to PM me.
@Frog E.: Thank you! We're not buying anything for at least a year, and even then I don't know if DH and I are DIY people, as I wrote earlier. :) But I love hearing about other people's experiences with it, especially in NYC real estate, which can be so crazy.
@hilsy85: We've been living with my parents while we renovate the condo. It's really stressful not having the space to relax, but it's much better than living in a construction zone! I'm not sure I could handle that.
@hilsy85: Thanks! We have our board interview next week so we're not 100% in the clear yet. I've heard anything can happen so I'm crossing my fingers..
We actually are moving right across the street believe it or not. We did want to stay in our neighborhood (UWS) but were willing to branch out - it just worked out this way. Streeteasy is a great resource, I checked it every day when we were looking. Then it was also a great help for figuring out how much to offer, I could easily see what the other similar units in our building sold for and what condition they were in.
If you are even thinking about buying in the city, I recommend starting to attend open houses. You learn so much that way honestly. I attended so many open houses, I got to a point where I would glance over a new listing and immediately know what the 'problems' with the apartment were. And you learn to weed things out that you aren't willing to live with. Like for DH and I, we had to have some kind of a view and light. WE didn't need full river or park views, but as long as it wasn't a brick wall 2 feet away we were willing to consider it (which you'd be surprised how often that happens). We also actually saw a 3 bedroom in our price range which was huge and luxurious in a fabulous location, but it literally didn't get any light, all of the windows looked out either into a dark alley or the brick of another building. So depressing. Also, we met our agent at an open house about a year ago. When we were ready to buy we just called her up to make the offer.
@hilsy85: Interesting that you thought we owned the place....This is a large part of the reason why I am annoyed with the situation. Hub's parents own the home and have chosen bad renters and haven't really done any renovations on the house ever (built in the late '60s). They wanted us to move in, but we refused in the condition that it was in at the time. Last spring the last renter moved out and renovations began. Hubs and his dad were doing all the work on weekends and evenings. Then we got married and went on our honeymoon. A week after we got back from our honeymoon hub's dad passed away. So he has had to finish the work alone. And it's not like he can say no since his mom is now in a different position. So we spend all our free time working on something that isn't ours. We don't even get discounted rent. (sorry for the rant...)
@autumn865: We had a professional remove the popcorn. It was throughout the house and we didn't want to mess with asbestos.
I am a college student and my SO is always really busy with work, so the thought of buying a fixer-upper didn't have much merit for us. We really lucked out with our place, as nothing NEEDS to be done, aside from sealing the wooden deck and repainting the outside trim. It's only five years old, so the roof is fine, all the appliances are new(ish),and the interior has modern touches that I like. I did some interior painting and have a bit left to do, but mostly, there are just some things that I want to do, like add a backsplash in the kitchen and change up faucets, etc... Much as I'd like to be handy, I'm not very good at DIY and SO doesn't have the time or energy right now.
@JoJo Bananas: Ahh that sounds like a bad situation all around. Sorry for your husband's loss :( The reason I thought you owned is because I've never heard of renters doing any sort of renovation (besides painting). What would be the point, when you're generally not going to be there for years and years? The landlord also won't usually allow it. Your situation is different obviously since you're dealing wth family.
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Would you rather buy an apartment/house that has all the upgrades you would want (new kitchen/appliances, new bathrooms, nice hardwood floors, molding, etc) or buy a home that's older and needs work?
Obviously price is a factor, but I just don't think I"m the construction-DIY-type person (even for my wedding, I didn't do a single DIY project, unless you include slipping table numbers into frames!). I would way rather go with the renovated, new home. Unfortunately, that generally means paying up for it.
What about you guys?