Anonymous wrote:If I tell my wife we could build a NEW house for $400,000, she would be pretty psyched (realizing we'd have to pay off our existing pretty small mortgage).

Would it be a pretty good house (well-built)?

Any recommended builders for doing this in Bethesda? A friend-of-a-friend used Stanley Martin Builders in Arlington, but I don't know if they would do it for $400,000. I'm in Bethesda near Chevy Chase. Thank you.

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If I tell my wife we could build a NEW house for $400,000, she would be pretty psyched (realizing we'd have to pay off our existing pretty small mortgage).

Would it be a pretty good house (well-built)?

Any recommended builders for doing this in Bethesda? A friend-of-a-friend used Stanley Martin Builders in Arlington, but I don't know if they would do it for $400,000. I'm in Bethesda near Chevy Chase. Thank you.

Anonymous wrote:NP here. The idea of tearing down a house and getting a brand new house sounds great. But it must be expensive. Otherwise, wouldn't all of us with crummy old houses (bought only for the close-in location and good schools) be doing this?

It will take a year of your life. You could build something new for land cost + 75K + 400k

NP here. The idea of tearing down a house and getting a brand new house sounds great. But it must be expensive. Otherwise, wouldn't all of us with crummy old houses (bought only for the close-in location and good schools) be doing this?

Anonymous wrote:
This is true. Some tedious people pipe up on every thread to tell people not to add on and that they should only consider knocking down or buying new. It's really not always the best choice but they don't seem to understand that. We just finished an extensive addition and are thrilled with the results. We got the house we want for easily $100,000 less than a new build would have been. At our age, that's not an insignificant difference.

A house is often not just about what you want, but what other people want. There are plenty of nice looking houses built 20-30 years ago but they have serious issues that are extremely expensive and tough to remedy through a renovation or addition. These issues include leaky cinder block basements, 8-ft tall ceilings, too few bathrooms, obsolete floor plans, drab/boring exteriors. In my years of buying/selling/building homes in this area, I've seen maybe only 2-3 homes that would have been great candidates for an extensive renovation. Most of the other homes should be updated mildly to freshen up the fixtures/appliances, maybe new flooring/carpet/plumbing. The rest needs to just be torn down and rebuilt.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the OP. Guess we were frugal about our wedding (only 75 guests) but willing to spend money in real estate if it means a long term investment with a good return. Glad to hear that a $1.2 M house is doable but helpful to be reminded that it would be very dependent on our two incomes remaining the same or higher.

A 10k wedding must have blown. My parents spent around 100 for the same amount of guests.

Bless your heart, dearie, this isn't something to brag about.

Wasn't bragging. Was just saying 10k seems low. I don't know anyone who spent less than 100 on a wedding.

The OP is wise... You, on the other hand sound like a real dumb ass and a spoiled shit..

The 50K credit card debt is concerning. Also, like some PPs, does some or all of your income depend on a career in the law? I always cringe when I see BigLaw associates spending like the salary is going to last forever.

What about savings outside college and retirement?

I'd work on cutting out that credit card debt before going after a bigger house.

New poster here. I'm hoping to revive this thread to see if we can get some additional posters to weigh in. From the earlier posts, I see that people with $350K HHI have mortgages ranging from $300,000 to $1 million. Just for the sake of gathering additional data, I'm hoping additional people can weigh in too.

Our HHI is $340,000 (like the original OP). My DH and I recently made job changes (in my case ramping up at work after having been part-time for a long time.) So our HHI only very recently went from $175,000 to $340,000.

We've lived in a very small house for almost 10 years and have a mortgage of $300K. The house is probably worth $750K.

We'd love to buy a bigger house (or add on to our house). I know our happiness is not dependent on a bigger house, but I think we would greatly enjoy a bit more space (and more updated space since our house is dated). Now that we have a larger HHI, we'd really like to do so. (Granted, I know Dave Ramsey would say to live below your means and NOT buy a bigger house just because your income suddenly went up.) At the risk of being (rightly) criticized, we have credit card debt ($50,000). On the other side of the ledger, we have (a) $800,000 in retirement (combined for my DH and me); (b) college funds are fully funded (thanks to my in-laws) at about $150,000 per child.

Thank you.

I didn't mean this to get off track and into wedding costs but I will say that our wedding certainly didn't "blow"! We decided to have it in Southwest Florida at a beautiful house on the water at a cost of $35/person, with a wedding cake from Publix, an amateur photographer and a wedding dress off the rack (from a cheap wedding store in Paris). There was no way we would ask our parents to pay at the time (we were in our late 20s). $10k was our budget and I wouldn't have spent a cent more.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the OP. Guess we were frugal about our wedding (only 75 guests) but willing to spend money in real estate if it means a long term investment with a good return. Glad to hear that a $1.2 M house is doable but helpful to be reminded that it would be very dependent on our two incomes remaining the same or higher.

A 10k wedding must have blown. My parents spent around 100 for the same amount of guests.

Bless your heart, dearie, this isn't something to brag about.

Wasn't bragging. Was just saying 10k seems low. I don't know anyone who spent less than 100 on a wedding.

then expand your social circle.

Anonymous wrote:Much wiser to use 90k towards a house and 10k on the wedding

We already own a home. My parents would pay for a wedding but not for a home. We own three properties anyway.

Much wiser to use 90k towards a house and 10k on the wedding

I'd say $500,000 tops.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the OP. Guess we were frugal about our wedding (only 75 guests) but willing to spend money in real estate if it means a long term investment with a good return. Glad to hear that a $1.2 M house is doable but helpful to be reminded that it would be very dependent on our two incomes remaining the same or higher.

A 10k wedding must have blown. My parents spent around 100 for the same amount of guests.

Bless your heart, dearie, this isn't something to brag about.

Wasn't bragging. Was just saying 10k seems low. I don't know anyone who spent less than 100 on a wedding.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is the OP. Guess we were frugal about our wedding (only 75 guests) but willing to spend money in real estate if it means a long term investment with a good return. Glad to hear that a $1.2 M house is doable but helpful to be reminded that it would be very dependent on our two incomes remaining the same or higher.

A 10k wedding must have blown. My parents spent around 100 for the same amount of guests.

Bless your heart, dearie, this isn't something to brag about.