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.
Paying more for a prime location and move in ready home (long)
Question of the day - would you go to the top of your budget for a move-in ready home in a great location?
We saw a home last night that is at the top of our budget that we really liked. The home already had an inspection since they had buyers that got cold feet and backed out (they made a full price offer and then realized they were overpaying). The biggest issue when the inspection was done was that it tested positve for radon which is common in this area so the seller's installed a mitigation system last month. The house is very well maintained and move-in ready - the seller's recently resanded the floors, repainted most of the rooms, kitchen was updated with new countertops and refaced cabinets and had the upstairs rugs cleaned and the roof was done in 2000 with a 30 year guarentee and there is no evidence of mold anyplace in the house. The other thing is the location is great - it's in the most desirable elementery school for the town and is also walking distance to the school, downtown area and two great parks which is huge for us (the other house was on a quieter street, but not walkable to anything). We can definately swing it, but it will be tight, but we wouldn't have to do anything to the house if we didn't want to. The difference in the mortgage payment each month between this house and the house we had the offer on is less than 200/month. As DH just pointed out we could of easily been spending 400/month on fixes to the other house since the inspection showed it wasn't as well maintained as we were told and that's not including the roof which would of pretty much wiped out our emergency savings.
TIA!
Re: Paying more for a prime location and move in ready home (long)
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
We are doing the same thing. The house we are purchasing is at the very top of our budget, but needs absolutely no work done. It's completely renovated and move-in ready. Neither DH nor I are DIYer's, so this fits perfectly.
I would, though that's the opposite of what we just did.
I can tell you from our experience, the little stuff adds up fast! Replacing light switches, adding towel racks and toilet paper hangers, hanging blinds, smoke detectors, etc. - $1000's spent at Home Depot and counting.
I would, as long as you are totally comfortable with the top of your budget and have extra money to make any cosmetic changes you might want. As PP noted, things like paint, new hardware, changing out light fixtures, etc. do add up. I'm sure that even when a house is move in ready you probably want to change a few things.
We sort of did this, although the house wasn't quite at the top of our budget. I made sure we had enough extra $ in cash reserves so that we could afford to paint and do the little things we wanted to do to make the house seem more "us".
As long as top of the budget is still a comfortable place to be, absolutely.
I wouldn't want to move there and then have to stress out about the payment though.
This totally. Do you have a solid emergency fund in place and stable jobs?
We *absolutely* would have gone to the top of our budget to avoid this, but here that wasn't an option...the top of our budget would only have gotten us a move-in condition home that either wasn't in our desired location/school district or didn't have all of the amenities we wanted (minimum one car garage, basement, four bedrooms, etc.). To get both of those things we ended up purchasing a bank owned home that needed A LOT of work (we're three years into fixing it up and are just now about to start the biggest, final part of the planned renovations). So in the end we'll have a top quality house, to our tastes, for about the same as move-in condition homes went for around here when we purchased. But it will have taken a lot of time, planning and energy to get there.
It depends on what you mean by "tight." If buying this house means you will no longer be able to take vacations, go out to dinner, or do other things you enjoy, then I wouldn't do it. If you can own this house and still have fun, then go for it.
To me, "move-in ready" means a house that you're happy with as it is, without doing remodeling/renovations. I would assume, from the OP, that the house she's considering is to her family's liking, not just updated with things they may or may not like. If a house is updated but so completely not your style that you'd rip everything out and start over, that's not move-in ready IMO.
Assuming the OP is satisfied with the updates to the house and the budget allows for an extra $200/month in mortgage costs without stretching too thin, I would go for it. We specifically bought a house that we didn't need/want to do any work to because we're not handy and didn't want to pay contractors to do a bunch of work in a house. Especially if the house is in a great location, go for it.
Mr. Sammy Dog
Do you have an emergency savings account? Are you willing to tighten spending on non essentials if needed.
In addition to the mortgage - how much more are the taxes? Utilities?
Will you need to buy more furniture, decorate?
Do you have alot of other debt?
Need to buy a car?
WHO determined the top limit? If it was the lender - then don't do it. If you made that determination after examining your budget and spending obligations - then yes, I would go ahead and buy the house.
Sorry...work was nuts today. By tight I don't mean we would be canceling our scheduled vacations for the summer or anything, more just cutting back on the frivolous stuff like eating breakfast and lunch/dinner out both days on the weekend and being a little more level headed about our spending. We have an e-fund and savings and we're both in stable jobs. The max budget accounts for the principal, interest, taxes and homeowners insurance and we set that amount, not the lender. The plan right now is to make an offer and if it comes to they don't accept our max price then it wasn't the house for us.
Yeah, maybe. The top limit is a limit for a reason, right? I think most people are willing to go UP TO a certain number if they find everything (or most things) they want. You have. Congrats!
That's not to say some people don't specifically want a fixer, or some projects, or to rip out some projects and redo them to their tastes. If a remodeled kitchen goes for $50k more on the list price, I'd be more willing to just gut and redo the kitchen myself than pay $50k more (plus interest) over the next 15-30 years. But most people want move-in-ready, which is most definitely easier!
40/112