Buying A Home
dutchgirl76
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Love it or list it
My husband and I went to a house warming for our friends this weekend. They just sold a colonial house and bought another one in a different town closer to work. Going to this house warming is giving me new house/improvement fever. My husband and I love colonial style homes, but we live in a modified cape because that was what was available on the market when we purchased our house. I'm not even sure what I like about that style more than what we have other than maybe all of the bedrooms on one floor, right now we have 2 up, 1 down and an office that could be a bedroom if we needed it.
When we bought the house we knew we'd need to make a decent amount cosmetic updates, although there was nothing new on the market to avoid this issue. Fast forward to 4 years in the house with no cosmetic updates. I keep joking that we're at the point where I want to update or list it like they do on that HGTV show. I know it's hard to save and pay a mortgage in your first few years, but it feels like 4 years is a good time to get going. We have some funds put away for improvements, but I don't think we'll be able to cover more than 1 room with the current funds if we want to be responsible and save emergency money. I looked a little bit last night at what's on the market (in my area it's very much a limited sellers market) and the few colonials I saw were more expensive, but not updated so I think that is helping to talk me down. I don't want take out a bigger mortgage just to make the same improvements in a new place i.e. spend more. I don't know if we could get a home equity loan right now given how much we still owe and I really don't want to add more debt as we're still pretty young. Ideally I'd rather pay as we go even if it takes longer to do the updates. The other issue we have is that we can only live within a small radius of my husband's job, so we can't look into other towns that would offer more land and space and/or variety of houses. I'm also pretty happy with the town we live in, at least happier there than some of the other options we could move too. I'm happy being almost equi-distant from my family and his family, we'd only be able to move closer to his family and further from mine based on the radius.
I guess what I'm looking for is advice on updates, are they worth it if you know in the back of your mind you'd sell down the road? Has anyone done improvements and found they actually like their house more? I want to believe that if we update our main floor bathroom from 60's tile to a more modern look and re-finish our basement to a more open, livable space I could be happy, but I don't want to spend all that money if we're just going to move and end up with less profit on the house. I really want to get an estimate on improvements to make this more real, but I think I'll be defeated if we're way off on what we have. Any advice on how to gauge what we might be looking to spend?
Also, help talk me out of these granite counter tops and silver fridges. I love the look but I"m afraid to go that route since trends change every few years. Anyone else still have their old white or black appliances and counter tops because they still work?
Re: Love it or list it
@dutchgirl76, you are right up my alley! I bought a 100-year-old house 4 years ago that needed a lot of necessary repairs as well as some updates. We worked on the necessary repairs first and those were done in the first 2-3 years. I primarily saved money as I went along and paid for things as I had the money ready.
My house is a duplex and I totally redid the kitchen a bit over one year ago for the renter side. The previous kitchen was functional, but old and starting to fall apart. I spent $3300 total and put in basic cabinets, a seamless tile countertop, and a copper-look backsplash. I was then able to raise the rent with new tenants by $150/month. My H DIY'ed the countertop and backsplash. Here is what is a bit funny about the countertop. It is actually square porcelain floor tiles with hairline grout between them so they look almost seamless. Not granite, but still pretty. Both my side and the tenant side have white appliances. I think stainless steel is a pain and tricky to clean properly.
Heck, in my own kitchen, I bought my fridge in white about two years ago and my white stove four years ago. I have laminate countertops that I actually really like and that go well with the kitchen colors. No one would mistake them for granite, but they have some of that swirly variant color look to them in shades of darker blue/gray.
The two big updates I made were replacing all the windows and adding a back deck to the house. I don't think the new windows really added much value to the house, though they would be a perk to a buyer. The back deck was built by my husband and the supplies were $2600. I would estimate that improvement added a $10K-$15K value to the house. Cha-ching.
I already love my house and will definitely love it even more once I put in a few more updates down the road.
Although I have no plans to sell my house anytime soon, I definitely consider cost vs. resale value when I make improvements. And I think that could really be the best of both options for you. Focus on updates you want that will also increase the value of your house at least up to the amount you will spend. And/or, updates you would need to make anyway to make the house more marketable. Then it is a win-win.
Kitchens and bathrooms are usually the best areas to get the most bang for your buck on renovations. I don't know very much about basements and their value because we don't have them where I live.
I don't have a pic where my tenant kitchen is completely done, but I attached a pic where it is done except for some of the backsplash.
I have to brag on the backsplash. It shines like its metal, but it is actually a heavy duty, thick plastic. Unless they look really closely or touch it, most people think it is copper. It was $20 for 12 squares. I spent $120 on it.
I also recently purchased a duplex that needs a good bit of work to be rentable. More flooring projects, more redoing kitchens, more painting, and the list goes on.
Let me know if you have any questions about renovation projects and/or ways to save money on them. I feel like I've done it all, lol.
To us, #1 is that the space works well for our lifestyle. We have that here. Our house is a 1966 cape with a surprisingly open floor plan and good bones. We've been here a year and are ridiculously happy, especially since just a few years earlier we weren't sure we'd ever be able to buy.
That said, its interior touches are ridiculously out of date. I attached pics of our countertop and bathroom to give you an idea. We've decided to just live with it and upgrade as we can. A full HGTV makeover would probably cost us $50,000 but we love the space and the neighborhood. With the bathroom we're "leaning in" to the pink retro touches. Our first major upgrade was the heating system, which didn't help cosmetically at all
Kitchen appliances aren't in good shape for a picture right now, but they are white and work. We don't want to build debt for this stuff either, so if you do stay put you're not alone!
Never recover
I don't think granite or stainless steel appliances are going out of style anytime soon. Those have been higher end standards for years. Though, the VERY latest in home appliance colors is Slate.
Here is what that looks like, if you are curious:
http://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-27-7-cu-ft-French-Door-Refrigerator-in-Slate-DFE28JMHES/205605581
But don't even bother looking for this color on lower or mid-grade models, lol. I've only seen it available for the really high end stuff.
It's not for everyone, but another option for the stainless steel look without the stainless steel price is to buy a used appliance set. You'll typically save 70-80% off retail, even for appliances that are only a few years old. Used appliance stores even typically offer some type of warranty. Craig's list is another option, and some stores advertise on there. A private sale will be "as is", but most of the time the appliances are plugged in and you can at least see it is working at the time of the sale.
My big "used appliance" win was, when I bought my house four years ago, I bought a 1-year-old high end LG washer/dryer set (including pedestals) for $600 in a moving sale. It retailed for $2600. That set is still working great!