We live in a neighborhood where houses tend to sell with before they even hit the market. All the houses are older and cannot be torn down/rebuilt. I want to stay in my neighborhood and there are no houses here like I want. So to me, it would definitely be worth it to put 200k into my house.

If you want to move soon or if there are options in the area you want to live that look the way you want without remodeling, it makes more sense to move.

I absolutely would, if I loved the neighborhood, lot and house (other than what is being renovated), I'm planning to stay a while, and the renovations will make me happy. I'd accept that only a fraction of the renovation cost will be an "investment" into building home equity, and the rest is a cost that I'm willing to pay to increase my enjoyment of the house while avoid the expense/hassle of selling/buying/moving. I spend a lot of time at home these days, and want to love my surroundings!

-Signed, currently spending $70K on landscaping for a $500K house. I know it's not a wise investment and I'll never get it back in home value, but it'll make me happy for the next 10+ years that I plan to live here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would,

Moving is expensive. You have to budget atleast 20K between real estate fees and fixing up the house to be sold. Then fixing up the next house is another 5. That's 25-30 K gone.

Additionally, there is no way the new house would have all that I would get if I designed the renovation myself. So that's another 25-30K of value to me, personally. Add these up and you have 50-60K lost in the move.


The way I look at it, I am losing about 50K by moving. If I spend 200K to gain about 100K in resale value, I have really lost only 50K (100-50K cost to move). I love my location, and my land is very flat, so a 50K loss is not that bad.

You are underestimating moving "costs". If I could solve or close to solve my issues with my current house in place, I would have in a heartbeat.

I agree. This is a "best case scenario". Plus, I am a licensed real estate agent so I included 2.5% in buyer's agent fees only-no sellers agent. Additionally, the last time we sold a house, we spent at least 15K in repairs/fixes/paint that would not have been necessary if we were to stay in the house.

Anonymous wrote:Depends on how much you want to stay in your neighborhood. We love our neighborhood and want to be comfortable in our home so we have no plans to move. If your house is just an investment and you are not involved in the community, the answer is different. Moving is also so much work!

We put/will put 150K+ into a renovation just for this reason. We have no desire to move, because we won't find another house in this location or this close we could ever afford. That said, we have one of the smallest houses on the block (which also means that someone may see our eventual sale as a teardown). The renovations greatly improved/will greatly improve our quality of life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would,

Moving is expensive. You have to budget atleast 20K between real estate fees and fixing up the house to be sold. Then fixing up the next house is another 5. That's 25-30 K gone.

Additionally, there is no way the new house would have all that I would get if I designed the renovation myself. So that's another 25-30K of value to me, personally. Add these up and you have 50-60K lost in the move.


The way I look at it, I am losing about 50K by moving. If I spend 200K to gain about 100K in resale value, I have really lost only 50K (100-50K cost to move). I love my location, and my land is very flat, so a 50K loss is not that bad.

You are underestimating moving "costs". If I could solve or close to solve my issues with my current house in place, I would have in a heartbeat.

Funny - there really are no easy answers! I'm one of the big reno PPs and if I could solve or close to solve my issues by moving, I would have done it in a heart beat. It's all tough, I guess, and expensive.