Your renovation will cost 30-50% more than you think and at least 1.5x the time you think.

I am I the process of redoing my second home that we bought 13 years ago knowing kitchen would have to be redone. Same in last home.

For similar kitchen 20 years ago for 45k we are over 200k.
One closet expanded 35k, a bathroom 55k.

We thought the house needed 100k in updates and planned/saved for 150k based on previous experience.

We bought the fixer upper and it's been massively stressful. Finding reliable, affordable contractors is challenging so we are not done yet and it's been quite a while. Friend doing a gut remodel and major addition is already well over the builder's estimate.

1st preference - build a custom home

2nd preference - buy a new SFH that I mostly like and renovate to make it more to my liking.

3rd preference - buy a new SFH that I mostly like.

I would never want to do major renovation to a house that would mean gutting it and rebuilding it. I am not of an age that I can tolerate it. Plus, everything is very expensive now.

It depends whether or not I like the already renovated updates. Sometimes I like the renovations that a prior homeowner did for themselves, but I generally don't like the flipped updates.

It would depend on the quality of the updates. The flipped houses I have seen use low quality materials so you basically have something new, but it's at the cheap end and may not last. I would go for a house that had been thoughtfully updated by previous owners who appreciated quality materials. Otherwise, I would get the DIY house and put in nice stuff (especially if I planned to live there for at least 10 years).

I LIVE for a renovation project. Fixer upper all the way. It helps that we have a contractor we trust and has done beautiful work consistently. Also in most cases I’ve seen recently where friends buy houses that were renovated for sale, they cheaped out. I’d rather pick my own materials and know I’m budgeting for what I want to prioritize.

I think it depends so much on the person. I love renovations so I would always choose that option but I totally understand why people would chose an already redone house.

Really for us it depends how much we like the location and existing house. Money is not a concern for us.

I would have felt a little bad renovating an already redone house, but I would definitely have wanted to!

As it happened, what worked for us was buying a fixer-upper. It was the most bang for our buck.