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Not sure which direction to go...(long)
I mostly lurk on here, but I have a question. I posted a while back about buying my parents house and doing renovations to it....
Background:
DH and I have 13 month old twins and a 9 year old DS. We currently live in a 3 bedroom 1 bath 1500 sq foot home that we purchased and remodeled in 2008. We got a GREAT deal on it - only paid $60,000 for it (brick home) and put approximately $25,000 in renovations to it (basically did the entire house minus new kitchen cabinets and bath tub - roof, flooring, new HVAC, you name it - we did it). I know that we should be able to get quite a bit more for it when we sell it being as though it is in a good neighborhood right next to the only elementary school in town.
Anyways, when the twins were born, my parents approached us with purchasing their home when they build their new one. Their house is the house I grew up in. It was built the year I was born (1980) so it is almost 32 years old, but it has been remodeled (but not to my taste) in the past 10 years. It is 4 bedroom, 3 1/2 bath and about 2900 square feet. We immediately thought this was a great deal...they are going to give us a GREAT deal on it...
Well...fast forward a few months - DH got a pretty nice pay raise - from grossing about $4,000 a month to grossing about $10,000 - $12,000 a month (oilfield and makes commission). With this pay raise, I was able to quit my teaching job and work part time at my parent's business...but it also got me to thinking - maybe we could build a new house. However, I do not want to put all of our money towards mortgage payments...so, I know that we couldn't ever build a house the size of my parents house and have our payments where we would like them, but we could possibly build a new smaller house.
Soooo....do I buy a older larger home at a great price - or build a smaller one but it be new???
If it makes any difference, we would eventually remodel my parents house if we buy it, paint the exterior (don't like the color brick), and redo the floors, kitchen, etc...
Sorry so long!
Re: Not sure which direction to go...(long)
I will never understand how some people have it so good. You are one lucky woman! Personally, I'd go with the parent's house. You can update it as you like and if you get it at a good deal, go for it!
I have two friends who both live in the houses they grew up in, both completely remodeled to their tastes. There is something very special about that. Think of the memories you would have there watching your kids grow up and remembering the things you did in that very same house.
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
Older home.
Also, not to be a wet blanket, but what if your DH loses the great job? You've already quit your teaching position... Would your build-a-house budget work on his old income?
I'd go with the older home. It's where you grew up in and it has a lot more value in it- especially sentimental ones.
ETA: your siggy is so adorable!
I would go with your parents' home. If the choice were between a generic older home and a new build I might feel differently, but the great price, larger size, and sentimental value of your parents' home make me think it is the better option.
I agree with PP to go with older home. How special to raise your children in the house you grew up in.
Thanks for all of the responses!
We are about 95% sure we are going to buy my parent's house for all of the reasons above - I do think it is going to be very special raising my kids in the house I was raised in.
As far as the job goes, we've thought about that as well. He does work in the oilfield and anyone in the oilfield there are oil booms and then the bottom falls out. They are projecting that the boom here in South Texas should be great for another 10 years at least. We will set up our house on 30 year fixed note (hopefully), but pay it off sooner so if/when the oilfield busts, we won't be struggling back on just his income. As far as teaching, I don't see myself EVER returning to that field - just too political and not focused on the kids. My parents own an a/c company and as of yesterday, just signed a contract on a building to open a second location that I will be managing it full time starting in May (so hopefully a raise of some kind will be in my near future as well!) - so we will have a 2nd income coming in along with DH's current income. We currently do not have any credit card bills or debt outside of the usual mortgage and car payments. We try to buy everything with cash...
Again, thanks for all of the responses - I appreciate it!
The layout of my parents' house is actually really good. It had an addition added on in 1992 - which added another master suite, a storage room (Dad uses it as his "hunting room", a utility room and a 1/2 bath. And they also closed in the garage into a den, so the house has 2 regular size bedrooms, a 2 very large master suites, a formal living room and a den as well. The two smaller rooms are next to each other, so we will put the twins in those two rooms. Then the 1st master suite is right off of the formal living area, so older DS will get that room and the newer master suite is across the house, so we will move into that one. OR, we thought about having the twins share a room, DS get the 2nd smaller room, us move into the older master suite, and leave the HUGE master suite as a playroom until the twins need their own room.
I know that all in all, it is a very nice house - and VERY well built as my Dad did most of the work himself (he is VERY talented). There is nothing structurally wrong with it - and nothing is too terribly outdated - they replaced all the flooring in the house within in the last 5 years (just not to my taste) - the roof was replaced within the last 10 years and they recently got a lot of professional landscaping done. What really sells me on this is that they are actually going to build on some new land they bought that we can actually get to by going through what will be our back pasture. We will be moving from in town to about 3 miles out in the country - which will be great for older DS as he wants a dog so badly and in town we don't have enough room for one. We plan on buying one of those 4 seater Mule/Polaris things to go riding on the property and down to the river (I know, sounds so country!) but the twins love riding on my Dad's.
Now that I am typing all of this, I don't even know why I thought to second guess myself!