Housing Adventure: Home Viewing Marathon
It looks like spring is finally here — or, at least, people are starting to put some more houses on the market. There were several that caught my attention and we’re going to go see a few this weekend. In analyzing the different properties, I heard myself say “this one might be falling down as we speak, it just might be perfect.” It took a moment to realize what that really meant, that “enter at your own risk” is a red flag for us, a flag saying “hurry and check me out.”
The partner and I have been starting a conversation about the advantages and disadvantages of buying a house in need of repairs (often, serious repairs). Do we want to conserve our cash and reduce our purchasing power just to be shelling out big bucks for necessary improvements, or do we want to stretch and get a house that isn’t going to need repairs (and isn’t going to leave as much leftover each month for other things)? I have some serious romantic notions about the diamond in the ruff house — but will it turn out to bite us in the end? Or, if we get a house that is livable, but more expensive, are we going to feel stuck when there isn’t extra cash to make modifications we may want? At least starting from semi-scratch allows us to really build in what we want in a house.
Also, both the partner and I have the skills and drive necessary to make most of the improvements. In fact, we both enjoy projects like this and wouldn’t back down from some major projects. But, we’re also seriously considering how much time it would take, how much time we have, and realizing that it will cost at least twice as our inflated estimates. Overall, we see strong benefits in both options and will probably just see what the market offers us this summer and pick which ever one gives us what we want.
Our home tour this weekend will be digging in realty dirt and seeing how bad some of the houses are looking. None of them are in good shape and each will need its own set of drastic measures to make living there possible. But, they all fall very far under our housing budget, are in areas we like, have plots of land attached (though still not enough), and would leave us with a lot of extra cash each month to pour into the place (not to mention the savings we won’t be throwing at the down payment).
I figure this will be a good eye-opener, even though we already looked at similar houses last year, and will re-frame our mindset a little. Of the four we want to see, there is only one that looks like a very strong contended. I have high hopes for it but reasonable expectations for the overall process.
Mike
March 1st, 2007 21:33
Some advice - we did a fixer-upper and it cost 3 times what we thought - admittedly we didn’t know what we were doing and you might say we didn’t research at all and we paid for it financially.
My point is to make sure you know what you’re getting into. Nothing wrong with a fixer if u can swing it.