Extend or sell up?

[lbsjob87]

I will try and keep this as brief as possible but I am facing a dilemma. Our house is too small, especially the kitchen and bathroom. It's a 3 bed mid terrace with a pretty small garden (roughly 6m by 12m) so we can only extend up into the loft or out the back slightly. It was fine as a starter home but we now have two kids (one of each so they can't share) and we've basically outgrown it. It's also in a bit of a state of repair as we haven't really had the money to do much to it, so it's functional but far from a show home. We could make it sellable pretty easily but obviously making it bigger is a whole other ball game.

We have two choices. Extend or sell.

The pros of extending are we like the road we live on, it's quiet, 5 minutes from the school and without going into identifying detail, it's very, very unlikely to have any extra housing/development in the foreseeable future.

Also, a big plus is we inherited some money so we could extend without having to take out any loans etc, effectively it won't cost us anymore than we pay now.

But - all the quotes we have had will take most of the money (and it's for pretty basic improvements, nothing fancy) but are likely to cost more than the value it will add - at least in the foreseeable.

If we move, the only way we could buy something any bigger is to use most of the money as a deposit and increase the mortgage by roughly 12% a month, which is doable, but not really ideal. We could get cheaper but would have to move out of the school catchment area which might mean my 3 yo doesn't get his sister's school, things like that.

As a straw poll which would be a better use of the money ? To make the best of the house we have with no extra money owing, or cut our losses and be grateful that the sizeable deposit will make the mortgage gap more manageable.

I appreciate it isn't easy on limited info but just wondering what people's gut instincts would be in this situation?

I'm torn between getting in a builder or an estate agent!

[Waitingfordolly]

Could you stay put a couple of years in catchment area and then move?

[Kidnapped]

Move.

It is the only way to get a bigger kitchen, bathroom and garden.

[Turbinaria]

How much will the move cost you in estate agency fees, stamp duty and moving expenses?

[lbsjob87]

I don't really know, to be honest, Turbinaria - a new house would most likely be in the £225-250,000 bracket, so £5,000 maybe? I haven't got that far yet!
An extension will be roughly £70,000.

[Turbinaria]

Say it's £10000 in total = 2.5% stamp duty 1.5% EA fees and rest are moving costs. I'd move and save myself the hassle of living on a building site. In London the cost of just moving is near to £60000 so extending is more tempting as at least you'd get your money back when you eventually sell

[MrsJamin]

If you're happy with your eldest's school, I'd stay until you have the school offer for your youngest, then look around for something bigger. It's very stressful living through an extension (did it last year).

[Betty4321]

I would stick where you are. With the housing bubble popping in (London & South East) the gap between bigger properties falls or you can extend.