So we bought a house for 12,000 dollars, It is a 2 bedroom one bath and VERY old. We have been living in it for about 5 months now and I am wanting to do some upgrades on it like new flooring, and other cosmetic things. We live in a very low valued property area, our house and property value is about 18,000. We are planning on staying in this home for about 5-8 years probably and we can't decide if we should upgrade some of the stuff or not. Also The House was built in 1890, it is okay shape, has aging. Anyway I just wonder if you guys think it would be worth our time and money to do a few upgrade or not?
If you are going to stay that long then it will be worth it for yourself. You should do it for you and not always to hold value in a property. You may not get to see the investment pay off monetary wise, but at least you will enjoy the flooring and other things. I would do it, but not too much and know that it won't increase the value of the property too much. What I have learned from renting is that even when an owner puts in a new kitchen or bathroom, anything over 2 years old is considered 'old' in a buyers mind and also realtors.
I would've definitely taken advantage of an awesome deal like that. $12,000 dollars for a house is really good. Considering the fact that they generally cost 10 times that easy. Think of it like this, you have a good 50K you can put into the house full of brand new stuff over time and still have a house cheaper but in better condition than if you bought one used. This is the perfect investment to me.
Thanks for the replies, I think we are going to put some new flooring in it, cause I can't stand the carpet blech! Luckily both me and my husband are carpentry gifted and can do it ourselves!
What a great investment for you and your husband and you both have the carpentry skills too! I bet your house has a lot of character and charm too, unlike a lot of these cookie cutter homes. Congrats to you and have fun with this project!
I also agree that it is a good idea to fix up the house and property. Even if youonly plan on being there a few years, you never know what might happen during that time, and you might end up living there a long time. Since you bought the house so cheaply, you can afford to put some of the money into rennovating the house that you saved from renting or purchasing a more expensive home. Sometimes, areas that were of low value are restored and the neighborhood becomes more valuable. If this happens where you are at, then you house would be worth more when you do get ready to sell it. On the other hand, spending a lot of money to make it look better for a sale is not always going to bring the price up either. I knew some people who did a lot of work on their house, and then thought it should sell for a lot of money, even though it was in a low-income part of town, and were very unhappy when it didn't sell like they thought it would.
I would probably make changes if I could afford to, but would also keep the general value of the home and other homes in the neighborhood in mind. If you're looking at long term, and plan on keeping the house as a second home or rental property after you move out, I think it would be good to upgrade it, but I would also be careful not to over-invest. There are plenty of decent lower priced options, such as vinyl plank flooring, versus the higher cost of hardwood. I would go in that direction rather than laminate, since it can last longer. There are places such as Builder's Supply, where you can buy nice products for lower cost, rather than paying retail, and I'd stick to a neutral color scheme. If your home looks nicer than the others in the neighborhood, and you can keep prices low, you can still attract renters/buyers, without breaking the bank. The neighborhood I live in is by the water, with a private beach, and some have come in and built McMansions, thinking the value would keep increasing, but since the city hasn't been maintaining the streets, people are starting to having difficulty selling their homes here, and those that do sell, sell for lower than asking, because there's less interest.
I've heard that renovating old houses can be quite pricey if you have to hire people to do most of the work. Another way you could save even more money is to learn how to do some of the "fixing" yourself since you plan to move out within 8 years. It's not that hard once you get the tools.
We bought this 20-year old house in 2001 at a lower price because it is needing much improvement. The purchase price was 1.6 million pesos which can be 3 million if the house was spic and span in terms of state of condition. And to put it in a good state of condition, we had spend 400,000 pesos. In effect, we spent a total of 2 million to buy a house worth 3 million. But the cost does not include our labor and worries and stress in having the repairs done.
Why stay for only 5-8 years? From your description, it sounds like a great house to live in. I would love living in such a house. What you need is to take up DIY as a hobby. Invest in some tools. Make the repairs yourself. You will save a lot of money and get a lot of satisfaction. Paying someone to do it is very often something that costs you a lot of money and a lot of heartache.
It depends. I'm not a craftman, thus my skills are not an added value to really worth save money by investing my time.
I like the location of the house but eventually I really want to live out in the country for I can have the animals I want and just because that' s were I want to be eventually. To fix the house up that we live in now, that is want we have been doing, we have been doing a project every weekend.
We live on a very small fixed income; so if we were able to actually purchase ahouse, we would look for one in a depressed area where housing was cheap, and then buy a house that had what we were looking for as far as size and location, and culd afford. That way, the payments would be kept low, and we could spend the money fixing the house upto suit our needs. As @Aree Wongwanlee said, it would be great to have a house that suited you, and then stay there and make it a DIY project. Since my dream home would be close to water (lake, river, ocean), having a house in an area like @Diane Lane mentioned, that the prices have fallen, but is actually the kind of area that I would like to live in.
If that low valued community was in the country I might. In the city I would be afraid that there might be a lot of crime in a low valued community. I have been living in the country for many years now, and I really don't think I could go back to the city if I tried. Country living is wonderful!
There are two thoughts on upgrading your home. 1, You improve your home for yourself with no concern about the amount of money your are investing and getting a return on the investment when it sales. 2. Only do the improvements that will increase the value of the home in the community it is in. If you over improve the property no matter nice if the community does not support that value it is money you spent because wanted to.
It is a small rural community of about 100 -150 people that is why it is so low valued, we bought the house because I was sick of living in town, this is like a stepping stone to our dream home in the middle of the country.
This is a good idea if you have the expertise and the interest in house construction and repairs. Over here, it is difficult to hire a good carpenter because he is either too smart to fool you or just pretending to be a carpenter. And if you are successful in getting a good worker, you have to worry about the materials which have so many tricks - sizes and measurements are not accurate. A 20 footer iron bar measures only 10 feet and 10 inches, the wood is the same so it can ruin your measurement. But in fairness to this thread, we also have plans of moving to the rural area, be it an empty lot or an old house that needs repairs. Traffic is getting crazier everyday not only in the city but also in the suburbs.
I would love to do this. I'm happy for you, and I hope it turns out to be a great investment in your future. My daughter was looking at houses to get one cheap and redo it, but they have now decided to buy land build. I always wanted to flip houses when I was younger. Between our family members, we have quite a few skills and an in law who is a general contractor who could help with pulling permits. Since I'm no longer as able as I once was, I'd be happy enough to get a low priced house for us to work on and keep for ourselves at this point, since I could take my time. I'd love to fix it one up exactly how we want it over time.
I know that people can buy an extremely low price house, no matter of teh neighborhood, remake it with own skills and then sell it under higher selling price. It is called if I believe a house flipping. If you possess remarkable skills in-house improvement and building you can make a fair living out of this. It is fairly easy but it does require skills, knowledge and some money.
Buying property to recondition and then sell on at a higher price seems to be the norm these days, and I think gone are the days that people buy a home intending to live their for the rest of their lives. I can see the attraction of doing this, but I think to make it work a person needs to have a large amount of money to not only buy the property in the first place, but a lot to invest in the project and while further down the line when it can be put up for sale again then you are going to be able to make a decent profit, it is a long term strategy and it does come with some risks.
