Buying A Home
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Thoughs on the perfect house but needs cosmetic updates -

DH and I are our 2 young children have sold our home (pending close date is Aug 24th) We have not found a house that fits are needs yet so things are getting a little stressful!

Anyway, today we found a house that we love, is well made, great neighborhood/landscaping and very clean and shows well. From what we know it is a very well made and structurally sound home. (Build in 1989)

Now the part that needs work: Vinyl kitchen floor, kitchen countertops, dark wood doors and trim throughout the whole house we would like to have white, carpet in master (eww!) , brass doorknobs and fixtures throughout, blue carpet in the basement, tired old white carpet throughout and overall a dated decor. My DH is not handy at all to do any work. The square footage is 3900 and most all rooms needs some cosmetic changes.

I dont want to get in over our head with remodel/renovation but we love the house. The house is priced pretty well as is so i dont know how much we could go under. They already had 5 showings the first day on market. Our realtor said she would be surprised if the house in not sold in 2 weeks.

I would love opinions from you all!!


Re: Thoughs on the perfect house but needs cosmetic updates -

  • I bought my house that needed similar cosmetic changes.  It was worth it and you gain value with every change you make.  I am not trying to accomplish them all at once.
  • If this house has everything you need in a house and is priced well, I wouldn't let out of date decor change your mind.  All of that can be changed along the way what you can change easily is location, size and layout.  If it's a good house, don't let visual things deter you.  The house we bought was all oak trim/doors (I too would really like white), a tiled living room (which with an area rug, I'm now enjoying more than I thought) and horrible brass knobs and light fixtures everywhere (those are slowly being replaced out week by week).  Even if you or your husband aren't super handy, a lot of those projects you can learn to do or of course pay someone to do.  I know we all want to move into a house that is beautiful and exactly to our tastes but those are near impossible to find.  I've actually really enjoyed making our cosmetic updates, the house feels more like it's ours and I'm learning some fun new skills :)
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  • It's all cosmetics, which didn't scare us at all. They are all fairly inexpensive fixes, even if you have to pay professionals for them. Paint the trim (even the unhandy can paint!), carpet is cheap, laying kitchen tile isn't too pricey, etc. If you love the loaction and lot, it has the square footage you want, the general layout works for you, etc., that I'd seriously consider it.
  • Everything you have listed is not a deterant to buying for me. Don't feel that you have to make all the cosmetic changes at once, though.
  • I'm handy and I love a bargain, so that sounds like my dream house. If you're not, I wouldn't let it bother you, since most of those are things you can accomplish on your own over time. And contractors for things like trim painting are surprisingly reasonably priced if you consider the time you'd spend researching and doing the work as time you could be putting in at work or with your kids. Even if you can't get a bit of a deal out of the cosmetic condition, having a house in the right location alone is worth it.
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  • When we bought a few years ago, we let those types of things deter us if they added up to more than we could afford to do in the next year or so.  We felt if we didn't do it fairly quickly, it wouldn't get done as it would be pushed down the list as other things in life came up and took priority.  

    The next time we buy (which I hope is sooner than later), I will not let it deter me as much. I think we passed over certain homes that would have been better suited to us than our current TH(which was sparkly, brand new and move in ready).

    Go for it if you can live with it as is while you plug away at the projects.  It sounds like a good option for you, so I would consider it.  

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  • The house we just bought (closed today) is exactly as you describe--lots of cosmetic changes, mainly paint, trim, doors, some light fixtures, exterior paint, etc. We aren't tackling it all at once. First we're doing interior painting and trim as that's easier to do before all the furniture is moved in. For the other stuff, we'll get to it over the next several months. Though H can do a lot of the basic stuff, he isn't advanced in that either, but we have some friends and relatives who offered to help, and we have found employees at Lowe's, etc. to be quite helpful too.

    I wouldn't let those changes deter you if you love the layout and location of the house and the price is right.



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