Which is harder?(house related ?)TL;DR
thetheisens
member
Which would you consider more difficult while pregnant with a toddler(well, and a ten year old, but he is no trouble), selling your current home and buying a bigger one or remodeling you current home to try and accommodate a bigger family?
Our house right now is about 1,400 square feet, 3 bedroom, 2 bath. Right now we have a playroom in our den, but we are thinking of swapping it with the dining room(which is twice as big) and getting a smaller bistro type table and putting my grandma's big table and hutch in storage for now. Upstairs we have a smallish room that we have shelved for toys and storage that is right next to a big hall closet. I think we could get a 4th bedroom if we knock the wall out, it wouldn't be huge, but fine as a nursery. Our kitchen also needs an overhaul, we need to do that if we sell though too. About 3 years ago we refinanced and went to 15 yr mortgage. The payments will kill us when we start paying for two kids in dc. If we don't sell we will have to bring it back to a thirty year mortgage anyways.
The other option is to just sell and buy a bigger house in about the same price range(which means it will probably be a little bit of a fixer) and sell our current home. We still have to do some work before selling, a kitchen face lift, some yard work, finishing a few projects, and major decluttering. Dh thinks we can come out ahead on the house, but I am not as optimistic.
I can't decide which seems worse. We could remodel and still feel cramped or we could attempt to sell and realize that we can't sell for what we need to get out of it and find a suitable new house. We have to do something, the current situation will not work with a new baby.
I would appreciate any insight, advice, or personal experience! Sorry, so long! Cookies for everyone who gets through this!
Re: Which is harder?(house related ?)TL;DR
Selling your home would be the biggest factor. With the market right now, how long will it take to sell in your area?
It really seems to depend on price. I would guess six months is average. People seriously suck at staging and putting decent pics online here. I would at least get that right. I'm scared to sell. It seems like a huge PITA, but I don't want to be crammed in here.
ETA: do you like your house and neighborhood? It sounds like you'd end up remodeling your kitchen now and doing some renos on the new house so if you don't hate where you live IMO it makes more sense to stay and do one reno.
We are in the same boat. Our problem is the market here is moving very fast. A house gets listed on Friday and is sold by Monday with multiple bids. You don't even have time to really think through the process.
I am dreading a remodel. Though it would make the house function better for us, what we really want is a bigger yard, and no remodel can fix that.
ETA: I was gone all week so I missed your BFP announcement! Congrats!
The storage room has five large windows, it is more like a sun room on the back of the house. We just use it for storage. It would not have a closet though, but neither does my older ds's room. Our house is 100+ years old.
I understand what you are saying about having to remodel a new home, but if it was bigger than our current home I feel like it woud be more worthwhile. It would be a home we could live with before remodel, not a complete gut job.
I do like our neighborhood. We are walking distance to school, elementary, middle, and high school, and we are six blocks from J's dad and a block from my mom. If wr moved we wouldn't go far though.
I do like our house, we just need more room. Dh hates because it doesn't have a garage. We have off street parking, so I could care less. Selling while pregnant scares the sh!t out of me.
Yeah, that's where we are. We would like to stay, but there are things we can't change with a remodel. Our market is the opposite, not fast at all.
I went through the house selling while PG with Vi that sucked andI'm going through renovations now.
I don't think your renovations sound too bad, yet I agrr with other renovation can take forever and cost twice as much as you think. Our bathroom was suppose to be done right now and we have not even began tiling. The kitchen face lift, what does that entail?
I guess at some point in time you would like to move, I would just do it now.(if you can at least break even) It will just be harder to move after three kids. Do the least amount of fix ups as possible and move.
I would put it on the market and go from there. If it sells, then move. If it doesn't, then remodel. But thinking ahead, if you feel you are going to be cramped in there by the time J is older, C is 3, and baby is almost one and mobile.....I would move.
If we going to sell we will just paint cabinets, change hardware, paint the walls, and put in new laminate counters(the ones we has right now are old yellow laminate painted pink, gag). If we stay we want to move appliances around(when we put in the second bath we had them do the wiring and plumbing for the new placement) and move a few cabinets to get a breakfast bar area.
I would have a realtor or two come in, and ask what you should do before listing, and also what they think the house should go for. That will give you a more realistic idea of what it would take to get you out of your house.
Interest rates are crazy low. Our rate on our new house is 3.25%. If you take advantage of the great rates, and moving to a 30 year, your monthly payments should go down considerably.
I would much rather move or reno while pregnant. It's easy to care for a baby when it's inside of you- once they come out, everything is harder, lol.