Finished house or project house???

[Wishingwell2022]

We are looking to buy and have seen two houses.

House 1 is finished, big garden and room to extend (loft and downstairs) but perfectly fine as it is. Semi in nice enough area. £450k.

House 2 is a probate, never been changed in 57 years, a lot of work to do, but is on 1/4 of an acre and LOTS of potential. Detached in nicer area. £500-550k.

House 1 we think we’d move from again, but house 2 we wouldn’t.

House 1 is perfectly fine as it is but we’d definitely add a loft conversion, which would be £50-60k.
House 2 would be a 1-2 year project, living with it as it is, and would need to spend £100-150k doing it up.

If it makes a difference I work from home, DH works out of home in an office, and we have a 4 year old.
We have experienced a 10 week loft extension before, but I know house 2 would be more extreme and for longer (double storey extension).

What would you do?

With any doer upper it depends on your budget, tolerance for dealing with multiple trades, timelines which slip and if you can do any of the work yourself
Competent trades people are in high demand with long waiting lists and materials have all gone up massively in price
It’s horrible living in a building site but if you think house 2 is your forever home then short (ish) term pain for long term gain

We went for house 2. Covid & Brexit have meant a shortage of builders etc and rocketing prices for the materials. Two years down the line we've done about a quarter of what we planned. We will get there but probably another year. So just really saying go in with your eyes open and the large garden was brilliant in lockdown for DS.

House 1 in this market. Every day of the week.

Do you need a large house, large garden, enjoy sourcing and managing builders, gardening or paying a gardener, choosing kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, tiles, trailing round home improvement stores etc etc etc.

House 1 sounds perfectly fine. House 2 sounds like a complete nightmare unless you view the time, energy and expense as an enjoyable hobby.

We bought last year and faced with similar choice bought the pristine one. Also slightly preferred the area. We were already seeing the articles about post Brexit labour shortages and increasing materials costs. We are so glad we did. For the limited amount of work we've needed like fitted wardrobes and a bit of reconfiguring the entrance to a cellar, getting workmen has been a nightmare. They don't return calls or don't turn up. If they are honest they just say straight out their diary is full for months. I can see the appeal if house 2 would avoid future moves and the associated expense but go into it with your eyes open. Construction is grinding to a halt.

House 2 subject to having a very good budget for doing the work and as @rubyslippers says a good tolerance for living in a building site. Otherwise House 1.

I’d be really wary of a project house at the moment. Building costs and materials have increased massively since covid and that’s if you even manage to find trades people with availability. A few friends and family have had building work done on their house in the last 18 months and all have said it’s been a complete nightmare for the reasons I mentioned. All went over budget too.

This is the worry, I know building materials are going up cost wise, and good tradespeople are like gold dust!
We know some friends in the trade - plumber, scaffolder, plasterer - and my DH is happy and capable of doing a lot of the manual stuff (digging etc) himself, so it’s whether we go for a house that would be our forever home now or one where we know we’d move again.
The other thing with house 2 is it’s on a road where houses never come up for sale, it’s in a lovely village and has a great community. But then house 1 is closer to where we are now (house 2 is only a 10 min drive away), closer to bars and restaurants, but we would then need to do the loft conversion so would be spending £50-60k on a house we know we’d move from…

We bought house 1. I do regret it, we can just about afford a detached now and the neighbours on our attached wall are soooooo much noiser than I expected (lovely middle aged couple, unfortunately they love loud tv at 1am, garden parties and musical instruments).

We sunk a load of money into this house and won’t get it back on resale.

So for me, house 2 every time.

You say you have a 4yr old - i think what would be a huge deciding factor for me here would be the school situation (unless you’re going to HE). What are the primaries and secondaries like in each area?

We currently live next door to an HMO, so this is also the worry with a semi. The house has recently been sold, refurbed, and I’ve been promised it will be let to a ‘better clientele’ but you never know!

HarrysChild - Both are good! DC doesn’t start school until Sept and is also adopted so we can choose any school we want, so that’s a huge stress we don’t have to worry about.

It sounds like your budget is closer to £700k (£550k for house two, plus £150k for works).

On that basis, I’d keep looking, using your expanded budget to find something closer to house two, but in a better state.

We bought recently and the temptation to take on a project was huge, but given the time to get tradespeople (and we’re in Ireland so that’s even without UK labour shortages- sheer demand and impacts of lockdowns), massively rising costs of materials, and just general feelings of not wanting to live in a building site for years, we went for a finished house and don’t regret it one bit.

That said, we did end up compromising a little on location.

If you're buying a fixer upper you need to have a really clear understanding of what work actually needs doing, how much it will cost, how long it will take and whether you can live in the house while it is being done.

We bought a fixer upper. It needed everything doing. But it was a flat in a well maintained building, it was completely empty and had been uninhabited for 7 years. So we could see everything there was to see, we could see there were no cracks in the walls, no water damage etc. Just a structurally sound blank canvas which needed everything doing. We had some rewiring done, the radiators replaced and moved, knocked the kitchen through into a bedroom which became the dining room, put a wall up between the living room and the dining space which became a bedroom, had two bathrooms put in, new fitted kitchen, all the walls plastered, new flooring (tiles and hardwood) throughout and four replacement windows.

We also didn't have kids at the time and had a big chunk of cash to spend, so we were able to get the bulk of the work done in 4 months and live with my in laws (ten minutes away) during that time.

For us it was absolutely the right decision and we now have the kind of property we never would have been able to afford if we'd bought it in a liveable condition. We're hoping to move up the ladder in a few years' time and will have a very large deposit (or renovation fund) for the next place.

But it's not for everyone, and you need to do your homework about exactly what needs to be done and how much it's likely to cost before you make a decision. You might want to try and haggle the price down as well, because renovations always cost more than you think they will, even if you have a realistic idea of what needs doing.

I did house 2 many years ago with a one year old and then another one came along a year after. We had to do re-wiring, central heating and boiler, just everything. I'd never do it again. It costs way more than you think it will. However if you afford to do it without having to live in it then I might.

House 2, location location etc. If you can live in it as it is for now, and gradually get it sorted you'll be quids in at the end of the day. Don't forget if you have to move again that's another lot of money on stamp duty, EA and solicitors fees. Aside from which one you can afford as a forever home in a nice location may never come up again/come up again in your budget. Whatever you do to house 2, will only increase it's value, and it'll always be a property in the best area.
If you're not able to tackle many of the jobs for a while you may well find building material prices stabilise, and the fact your DH can do the manual stuff says to me you'd be more than capable of tackling House 2,

House 2, and don't set a time limit on doing the work. Be prepared to wait for the right builder and book him now for possibly next year
I've done it with toddlers and it's fine

If you have the budget including contingency then go with house 2.

If you don’t - don’t do it. We had no choice but to buy one to do up and we have no budget. We just have to scrimp and save each month to do little bits and it’s miserable (but less miserable than our last 5 landlords serving notice as they wanted to sell meaning we moved 5 times in 7 years).

If you can face living in house 2, I'd go for that.

Our current place was very outdated (still had a, downstairs loo accessible only from outside and tiny 70s kitchen) but livable. After about 18 months we moved upstairs for 3 months with our 2 kids while 3/4 of downstairs was totally rebuilt, then there was another month of replacing upstairs bathroom and creating new ensuite.

We're really happy that we got to redesign this house and love the results.

If you are convinced you are going to stay there long term then house 2 as you can do it up at your own pace. However, having done this previously, the work can consume your like and leave little time for social pursuits - always coming home from work to more work etc. you need high tolerance of dust and dirt.

Little update, estate agent for house 2 said they’ve had an offer of £550k!!!!! We wouldn’t go more than £500k as it needs so much work, so that’s now off the table!