Move or Renovate

I would vote to renovate if the addition can be made in a way that still "flows" with the overall style of the house and if the lot can handle the addition and if the location (i.e. immediate neighbors' home value) can support the increase in value and if you plan on saying there for another 10 years as 10 yrs in a tight economy is a decent deadline by which you can recoup your costs and add equity.

How long have you had your house? Are you paying into the principal or just the interest still? Are houses in your area selling? Will you take a loss if you sell? What would happen to your finaces if you buy the other house and it takes a long time to sell the one you have? What kind of interest rate are you going to have compaired to now? These are things you need to ask yourself.

Sadly sometimes you won't have a choice on the matter. I was in the same situation and decided to move- but we couldn't sell our house even though we had already put $15 thousand dollars worth of a new roof and siding into the home. Good luck with whatever you decide. Now I feel like it is better to stay put and make changes, especially with all the hassle of putting the house on the market, keeping it spotless for showings while having kids in the house, getting our hopes up, and still only getting an offer ten grand below asking price. (We could not afford the Realtor fees with such a low offer.)

We had our upstairs completely gutted and redone when our daughter was about 10 months old. There was a TINY TRAIL to get through our downstairs for the couple months that this took....... The three of us were living in one bedroom. BUT, all in all, it worked out great.

We changed the old plaster 4 bedroom upstairs to 3 bedrooms and a bathroom, sheetrocked. Had to add outlets, light switches ext. The house was pretty old. But now we feel like we have a new house! Everyone gives us compliments. As much headache as it was in the process, it was so worth it for us!

You have to look at your situation. Can you afford to sit on TWO houses for awhile??? Because you can't expect the other people to hold it for you while you try to sell your house...... Most people wouldn't do that. Or can you buy the new house and then let your house go for cheaper than what you'd normally so it's gone??? You and your husband can go talk to a realtor and see what is most possbile for you guys.

I had some friends who bought a house and then found out they were pregnant with their 3rd child, totally unexpected. They added on and when he got transferred they nearly couldn't sell the home because the selling price was so much more than the other homes in the area, they ahd to cover the loan on the addition plus the house itself. They finally had to sell it to the company that held the mortgage. I think this is something that needs to be researched by your family. Talk to a realtor or appraisal person and find out if the area can carry that much of a price increase.

As for doing renovations with kids in the house, you never know what you're going to uncover inside the walls or floors. Mold, mouse droppings, any number of things, things that can make the family ill.

As for keeping the house clean when selling and living in the home, it is terribly hard, you have to have a perfect house at all times because the phone might ring and the realtor is on the next block with a family that really wants to see your house.

I think the best way to sell a home is to live somewhere else while it's on the market. That way the freshly painted walls stay clean, the pieces of furniture you use for staging stay nice a tidy, etc...but that's seldom the choice one gets.

Ditto what the other said. It also depends on your local housing market--how likely are you to sell your current house (make profit)? Do you have money to do the renovations? Do you qualify for a "home improvement loan" from your bank or credit union? As far as doing repairs with kids... yeah, that depends on your kids and how much help you can get from friends/family. Moving shouldn't be too bad, but YES, it is hard to keep the house "fit for company" when you're showing it! My DH works out of town (M-F) and between my 1-year-old and TWO cats, I have my hands full keeping our 950sq foot condo clean!
Good luck!

We just moved last fall. My kids were 8 months, 2 and 4 at the time.

Getting our small home ready to sell was a huge job with little kids. We were lucky to have supportive and helpful in-law's in town who could watch our boys for entire weekends so we could paint, prep, declutter, etc. Then we were lucky that our home (a starter) sold right away.

The actual move wasn't so bad... again, my in-law's helped out a ton.

I think the key is having help to get the kids OUT of the house as much as possible when moving.

Jessica

If you have a good starter home candidate, I'd vote for trying to sell now before the first time home buyer credit expires to hopefully help in finding a buyer quicker.

We moved last year with an 18 month old who was on the go constantly and into everything. With the current market, we averaged a showing a week in the spring and then barely any all summer and the house finally sold in the fall. (It was a relocation, so we had to sell.) I made sure that her toys were confined to one room and we had a big tote that any toys currently being played with could easily be tossed in and taken to a closet when we had a showing. My husband was at the new city part of each week all summer, so I was also a single mom part-time trying to keep the house clean. It wasn't easy, but managed. (And yes, there were a few times I was finishing the cleaning at midnight after my daughter was put to bed for a showing the next day.)

My daughter is in daycare, so at least the move itself was pretty easy to deal with. She went to daycare while the packing went on each day. The day of the move, I picked her up from daycare and off to the new house we went.

You know we just went through the whole moving in to a new house after selling our old house . We tossed the renovating back and forth and selling won . It was a very stressful 3 months before we sold the house only because we bought our new house before selling the old house . So we had two houses for 3 months . But it is hard to keep the house clean and be ready at any time to leave so some one can look at your house . Talk to a realestate person and see how the houses in your area are selling and the prices they are going for . I do not know if you have animals too but we have cats and that is another pain to get them out of the house to show to people . No one wants to see your animals when they are looking at your house . Good luck at what ever you do it is a big project what ever you do .

Talk to a realtor in your area. They can tell you how much your house is worth today, what your house would be worth with the fix-ups and how much it would cost to move. Figure in the potential $6500 tax credit too, again, ask the realtor about it.

Figure out how much you'll spend on the re-build and what your new payment is. Then compare it to the new place, payments roughly the same?

For us, we decided to move to a similar house but with the improvements we wanted to make and it was the best decision. GL!!!