Anonymous wrote:I bought a fixer upper in Bloomingdale in 2003. It was uninhabitable without a functioning bathroom or kitchen. I was 28 years old, single and had no idea what I was doing. The house is now fully renovated and looks amazing. I paid less than $200k for a house that's now worth $800k or more. Sure it was stressful at times and a steep learning curve, but I it was the best investment I ever made and I am grateful every day.

On the other hand, the link that you posted isn't a "fixer upper" in any sense of the word. Sure it's not fully updated, but it doesn't look like it's anything beyond the ordinary.

Sigh, I'd guess 90% of the increase in value is you bought in a gentrifying neighborhood before the housing bubble.

Renovations rarely add value and most never recoup even a dollar for dollar investment.

Renovate your fixer upper for your own enjoyment, not as investment!!!!!!

Fell in love with a fixer upper. Saw all the potential, loved the "bones" of it. DH did not want to buy it. We didn't. Looking back I realize that it would have been a money pit. We would have spent most weekends and a lot of disposable income on nonstop house projects. If a family is OK with that then you may succeed. I realize now that it wold have stressed us out too much to have the house at the top of our to-do list for the first 5-8 years.

As pp said, there is a difference between updating a house and a true fixer-upper.

OP I think this house looks awesome. What a great yard and floor plan. The kitchen and bathrooms look a little eh, but you could do a phased approach to updating them, favoring things like painting and simple hardware fixes to reworking plumbing and buying new appliances. I love the idea of making my slightly ugly but good bones house beautiful. It isn't there yet since we are doing much the work ourselves, but I don't regret it. We could not have afforded to buy in this area if we had bought an updated house. I think the main question is can you live with it as is, or will it need a lot of cash upfront to live in. From the posting it looks like the former. In fact, I think the paint in most places is pretty nice, which our house was not. I say go for it!

The biggest downside for us is finding the time to work on it, and not being able to have people over when we're in the middle of a project.

We are in an actual fixer upper. Some days love it, some days dislike it. One big lesson is that if you move in and can not update right away (we spent $50k just to move in), learn to live with it. We spent way too much time despairing over all the things that still need work; now we're focused on all that we love about the house and yes, there are some significant projects in our future. DS is handy, I'm not, so while some work occurs continually and DS likes doing projects, the process is wearing.

I really hate my fixer-up because it is not in bad shape, but instead just has a bunch of builder grade materials. I really wish we had gotten a different home because the cost of the updating is pushing way more that a new home. In that original home, I see similar issues (you certainly could live in the home with the existing baths and kitchen but will get annoyed every time you look at them). Also that home is not particularly cheap when you consider that updating the pool, kitchen, and baths may run about $200K (an much more if you start looking at new windows/doors).