House hunting help me decide

blushingbride_08 · May 2013

We are house hunting and someone out bid us on our dream home. The inventory for the rest of the houses in my desired town is slim. Out of the houses that remain there is one on the intersection of a highway and busy street with lots of traffic ( mini mall across the st), another house is in different city than we desired which has high crime and bad schools but reasonable priced housing, another house is in major need of fixing up ( we would probably need 6 months to fix and I want to move ASAP. Which would you choose?

blushingbride_08 · May 2013

Estwd2:
Is it possible to keep looking? Because none of those sound especially good, especially the second. Yikes! Definitely not that one!

well the main reason we need to move ASAP we are on a tight budget since I work part time instead of full time now. We are renting now and buying a house would save us money. Plus I want another LO before I turn 35 which is soon. I don't want to move while preggo like I did with my ds. Otherwise we would wait.

Stella2008 · May 2013

Like PP said, I would continue to look But...if that really was not possible and I had to choose, I'd pick the fixer upper as long as the location was good. I would NOT buy a house on a major street or in a high crime area with bad schools.

Is the house uninhabitable, or just cosmetically ugly? I'd rather try and hustle to get some of the big, big stuff done in a few weeks before we moved in (floors, painting, maybe renovating bathrooms), and then muscle through and live through the renovations as we have the money to do them.

jf198400 · May 2013

Stella2008:

Like PP said, I would continue to look But...if that really was not possible and I had to choose, I'd pick the fixer upper as long as the location was good. I would NOT buy a house on a major street or in a high crime area with bad schools.

Is the house uninhabitable, or just cosmetically ugly? I'd rather try and hustle to get some of the big, big stuff done in a few weeks before we moved in (floors, painting, maybe renovating bathrooms), and then muscle through and live through the renovations as we have the money to do them.

I agree with Stella

litzo27 · May 2013

I would pick the fixer upper if its in a good district and the price is right given its condition. You may be able to move in and do repair bit by bit. We put in new floor before moving in replacing a horrrible old carpet which was an allergen trap but then we painted the walls, did a master bathroom fixup, did furnace work, etc. over the two years we have been here and had a baby right after moving. Yes its annoying but having little furniture to move helps.

LittleFish1 · May 2013

Would either wait or do the fixer uper IF priced reasonably. Would weigh the costs of the to-dos with the homes price before deciding. Nice thing with fix ups, you can redo it however you want (within budget). One benefit of having older, to be replaced in the future cabinets with little kids in the house, is the crayon or ride in toys bumping into them wont hurt because you can replace them once LOs are older.