Anonymous wrote:We bought a $1 Million blah house when nicer homes in the neighborhood are selling for $1.25. It will take us more than $250K to get our house to that condition, I wish we'd known, we would have just spent more money and bought a nicer house. Finishing the basement alone is going to cost us $200K.

This is us as well. Truly sucks.

Anonymous wrote:We bought a $1 Million blah house when nicer homes in the neighborhood are selling for $1.25. It will take us more than $250K to get our house to that condition, I wish we'd known, we would have just spent more money and bought a nicer house. Finishing the basement alone is going to cost us $200K.

This is so true.. Always buy the house you want not the house you think you can renovate to get there. It sucks there's a huge markup/competition for newly renovated homes but there's a good reason why they command such a premium.

We bought a $1 Million blah house when nicer homes in the neighborhood are selling for $1.25. It will take us more than $250K to get our house to that condition, I wish we'd known, we would have just spent more money and bought a nicer house. Finishing the basement alone is going to cost us $200K.

I love renovating and don't really like to live in a house that has not been personalized to me. So I would always buy a fixer upper that I can then renovate. But I really enjoy the process. I don't actually think I save that much money doing it this way, if any, but I'm fine with that. I can't understand why people hate renovations and wouldn't want to do that, though,

Anonymous wrote:I would never do a renovation and live in a home at the same time. I would sell and rent instead as I find it cheaper and have places to put the cash from the house.
In 5 year, I will buy a house someone else renovated and have cash left over.

But you won't know the quality of the renovation. A neighbor down the road bought a couple years ago a brand new house. Looked beautiful on the inside and out, but ever since they bought it all there has been is WORK! Allegedly a lot of the work was not great quality (including the sewer line that had to be redone/fixed multiple times). They purchased for $1.7/1.8 million and is probably work now $2million-$2.3 million.

We also bought a home, not from a flipper, but from a family and the couple ended up divorcing. They renovated, but did not tear down. We also found issues (during inspection) and had to fix things that should have been done correctly during a proper renovation. When they offered to fix before close, we declined and asked for money. We paid more to fix issues, but I rather have it done correctly and how I want it. I thought they might do a cheap fix.

My husband wants to redo our primary bath. I think it is totally fine. It is not how I would build my own bath, but I rather not spend $ in that area. Our kitchen is new with top of the line appliances, but I don't love the layout. I am not fixing it, but looking for better ways to organize and make it my own.

My SIL put in new a backsplash, countertops, appliances, sink, painted the cabinets and put on new hardware. Makes the kitchen look brighter and more updated. They love it, cost a fraction of what a full remodel would cost. They rather spend their $ in other areas. My mom also did this in her kitchen and she doesn't like it. I think it looks fine, but she needed to renovate the bathrooms and get all new windows and wanted to save $ before redoing the kitchen. But every time I visit she comments on how she hates her kitchen and how she has no space to cook. So, I also think it depends on your personality/if you have the funds/etc.

Anonymous wrote:Bought a house for overmarket that I didn’t realize is an extreme fixer upper bc prior owners spackled over problems that are structural.

Ugh. We are house hunting right now and I'm so afraid of this.

Bought a house for overmarket that I didn’t realize is an extreme fixer upper bc prior owners spackled over problems that are structural.

There are so many factors that go into this.

Do you love the house? Love the location? Love your neighbors?

Feel meh about all of the above?

Did you buy an extreme fixer upper and lose steam and now you have a house that isn't very liveable?

What is the situation?

I will say stay within the neighborhood average sales figures unless the neighborhood is a ready for tear down.

Where do you live? What's your house worth? When was it built? How much is your house worth?

I would never do a renovation and live in a home at the same time. I would sell and rent instead as I find it cheaper and have places to put the cash from the house.
In 5 year, I will buy a house someone else renovated and have cash left over.

Repairs will always be part of home maintenance. Every home will eventually need a new roof, new windows, new furnace/heat pump. Each major system is expected to last a range of years. Sometimes it just happens that they all go at once. Not worth moving over that.

Renos--depends what you need/want. Did you suddenly get pregnant with triplets and you already have 2 kids--then yeah, not worth adding onto the house. Time to move.

But if the kitchen is old but functional and it's really just cosmetic, it comes down to personal preference. You can renovate the kitchen. But if you don't like the kitchen, the master bath, the layout of the main floor, and the the lack of mud room, then it's time to move.

There really is no right or wrong answer. As PP mentioned, some people invest more than they will ever get back. In that case, some thing other than money is driving the decision.

A house up the street from my parents was partially demolished and the remaining core utterly gutted, as part of a major expansion and remodel. New owners are also building a deeper basement (!). They are spending several million for a house that will be worth maybe $2.5M, possibly up to $3. They will not get their money back. But they clearly do not care.

Depends, need more info

At what point w repairs and Reno’s do you just sell and move?