Kadie and I almost bought a house yesterday. Well, to be more precise, we almost bid on a house yesterday. We found out about a house that was going up for auction with an opening bid of $50,000.00. We looked at the house and there were many things nice about it. It is 5,100 square feet, a veritable mansion. It’s in a great school district, in a fast growing area of town where property values are expected to continue to skyrocket. With Scooter reaching her teen years in a few months, she will be receiving her own room as we turn the original den area of our house into a fourth “bedroom.” But a real bedroom would be better (her new room is separated form the kitchen by only a flimsy folding door) so we were open to the idea of moving into a larger house.
But there were some problems with this house. First, since its going to auction, the previous owners obviously didn’t have the money to keep it up. It has been unoccupied for four of the previous six years. It needs new carpet and a lot of superficial (though not structural) work. In addition, it is a good 20 to 30 minutes from our places of work, unlike the 2 or 3 minute commute that we have now. The cost in gas and time boggles the mind. In addition, the home has 3 A/C units, all of which will likely need to be replaced soon (about 20K right there).
But, in what covers a multitude of superficial sins, it is large (cue the Olive Oyl song from Popeye). It would give the kids (not to mention the parents) plenty of room.
After some thought and prayer, we elected not even to bid on the house for a couple of reasons:
Given our pretty conservative financial sensibilities and the general slowdown in the housing market, the idea of floating two house notes while our current home sells is terrifying.
I am a home repair incompetent. We’d only be able to afford the house if we did much of the repair work ourselves. But given my own lack of ability in this area, we shouldn’t count on it.
So we decided to stay where we are and save money toward a remodel of our kitchen, and then our bedroom. We’ll save up the money over time and pay for it in cash. We also decided to try out a few small projects (tiling our utility room, changing out several light fixtures, etc) to develop some basic home repair skills.
(And in a final note, we had decided to bid no more than $80,000 for the house. I found out this morning that the final bid was $236,000).
But there were some problems with this house. First, since its going to auction, the previous owners obviously didn’t have the money to keep it up. It has been unoccupied for four of the previous six years. It needs new carpet and a lot of superficial (though not structural) work. In addition, it is a good 20 to 30 minutes from our places of work, unlike the 2 or 3 minute commute that we have now. The cost in gas and time boggles the mind. In addition, the home has 3 A/C units, all of which will likely need to be replaced soon (about 20K right there).
But, in what covers a multitude of superficial sins, it is large (cue the Olive Oyl song from Popeye). It would give the kids (not to mention the parents) plenty of room.
After some thought and prayer, we elected not even to bid on the house for a couple of reasons:
Given our pretty conservative financial sensibilities and the general slowdown in the housing market, the idea of floating two house notes while our current home sells is terrifying.
I am a home repair incompetent. We’d only be able to afford the house if we did much of the repair work ourselves. But given my own lack of ability in this area, we shouldn’t count on it.
So we decided to stay where we are and save money toward a remodel of our kitchen, and then our bedroom. We’ll save up the money over time and pay for it in cash. We also decided to try out a few small projects (tiling our utility room, changing out several light fixtures, etc) to develop some basic home repair skills.
(And in a final note, we had decided to bid no more than $80,000 for the house. I found out this morning that the final bid was $236,000).
4 comments:
Taran, how long have you been living in your home? House prices went up a bit over the past few years. In this part of VA a new home was recently purchased by a local church for a parsonage. Ca 1,800 sq ft. Less than an acre lot. Cost: 315,000. Houses are very hard to get into. I am trying to help Habitat get its footing in our area for just this reason.
DD
DD,
We've been here about seven years now. Our home is 1,980 sq ft and would probably sell for around 150,000. But our home is also around thirty years old. Newer homes here are more expensive, but I don't think they are close to what you're describing in Va.
I'd love tyo hear about how your work with Habitat goes. What a great ministry.
Taran,
You might be interested in getting your house appraised. We bought a house in 2000 for $110,000. In five years we sold it for $169,000 and it could now be sold for over $200,000. You might be able to move up to a bigger house and not feel the pinch as tight as you might think.
Those houses should get a room.
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