Love it or list it dilemma - should we move or renovate?

[AnotherEmma]

Help. DH and I have been unable to decide on this for years. We viewed a few properties but didn't see anything we liked enough, so we decided to go ahead with plans to renovate. Appointed an architect, got plans drawn up, even got planning permission. (Have spent quite a bit on all this already.) Then covid hit and I had a baby and it's been on the back burner... Now we are even more desperately in need of more space and we were about to restart the process of getting the work done. But a house that seems to tick all the boxes has come on the market and we went to view it today. One of us is leaning towards putting in an offer and the other is leaning towards staying put and sticking with our renovation plans. WWYD?!

Pros of staying and renovating are: we like our street and neighbours (semi detached so nice NDN is very important), when we do the work it will be how we want it, cheaper option overall as we will remortgage but won't need as much. We slightly prefer our current location.
Cons are: the stress and upheaval, especially with two young kids... we would have to move out for about 6 months which will be disruptive and obviously an extra cost. No idea when we can even start the work (good builders are in high demand) so it won't be finished for a long long time. Current location is in catchment area of less good secondary school (nb long way off but if we renovate we want to stay for a decent number of years to make it worth it!)

Pros of moving are: new house is lovely, spacious, ticks pretty much everything on our wish list. So tempting to only have to move and not have to go through the long process and stress of getting major work done. House in catchment area of good secondary.
Cons are the expense (would be taking out the maximum mortgage we can afford) and the fact that there is still some work that needs doing to the house, we couldn't necessarily afford it straight away but would need to redo two bathrooms and eventually redecorate much of the house (it is tired but livable). Feels like a bit of a risk as it's unknown, what the neighbours will be like, whether there will be any unexpected maintenance issues and expenses, etc.

It's not really AIBU but I am posting here for the voting!
YABU - you should stay where you are and renovate
YANBU - you should put in an offer and move if it's accepted

I'm surprised you were able to view without having your house on the market. If this house sells before you're proceedable how would you feel? Would you still want to move, or would you prefer to stay in your current house?

@Whinge

I'm surprised you were able to view without having your house on the market. If this house sells before you're proceedable how would you feel? Would you still want to move, or would you prefer to stay in your current house?

I know what you mean; it does sound strange, but perhaps the market is different here. The agent came to value our house the other day and they are not at all concerned it's not on the market yet; they said it'll sell very quickly.

Of course we might not actually have our offer accepted given that we are not ready to go. But we need to decide whether to try.

I would move. The catchment area of the better secondary school would be one of the main things for me.

To answer your question, we don't want to move unless it's to a house we prefer, and apart from this house we haven't seen anything. So we can't really be bothered to put ours on the market if it's not for this house!

How sure are you on your building costs? Do both the renovated house and the purchased house get you similar space or is one a compromise over the other?

I wouldn’t make the decision to stay based on your neighbours - they can move too.

Personally I would probably move. Building costs and timelines are at such a premium at the moment that lots of projects that were cost effective a couple of years ago aren’t any more. And avoiding the hassle with small children feels important. As a disclaimer - we did one renovation project and I hated every long and dusty moment of it and so whilst I would do another if it was the best way to get what we wanted, it would have to really outperform what we could buy. And locally here at the moment that’s not the case.

I work for a builders’ merchant and materials costs are spiralling up every month. Don’t bank on it being cheaper to extend!

Move. You’re going to renovate this house and before you know it the poor catchment secondary will seem like a big deal, and you will wish you had moved when you had the chance.

If you’ve got to move out for 6 months then that’s a move anyway. Either way it’s a move and faff. I’d go with which house and location you really like (love?) the most.

What about plot? Is the other one detached or in a larger plot?
These are the things you can't extend into

Thanks all. To answer questions:

Both houses are semi-detached. They are very similar tbh, but new one is the bigger version of what we have with the work already done.

New house is a bigger plot. It's wider so they have a side extension which we couldn't have (not without losing side access which I don't want to do).

Building costs - we are well aware that they have already increased massively and likely to increase more. But even with building costs, I think moving would cost us more, by the time we factor in stamp duty and other associated costs as well. I need to talk to our shortlisted builders again (haven't touched base for a long time) and see if they can give some ballpark figures.

We used to have a NDN who was really difficult and unpleasant; they moved and our new NDN is absolutely lovely and intends to stay. Of course that's not going to sway it for us but DH seems to care about it.

I think secondary school catchment is swaying it for me, but DH doesn't seem so bothered about that for some reason.

I've given away who wants to do what haven't I

I wouldn’t go with the absolute limit of what you can afford in the current climate, with energy bills rising so dramatically. You could have bills that double or worse and that might mean a tighter and tighter squeeze on your finances, that is quite a precarious position to be in.

I'm with your dh, partly because of what @SirVixofVixHall says but also because schools can change over time. There's no guarantee that both schools will maintain their current rating over such a long period.

Thanks both. They're good points.

I would move. Primarily because of the school and unpredictability and stress of building works.

Everyone I know who’s had building work recently has gone way over time and budget, to the point of financial strain.

You also plan to move out: v costly.

Project managing a building project, even with good builders, is hardcore stress. Lots of builders aren’t good.

Selling a property which has planning permission but the works haven't started is often a good selling point.

Kirstie and Phil are looking for applicants to the next series of LIOLI. Might be a fun way to do it.

@heyitsthistle

Kirstie and Phil are looking for applicants to the next series of LIOLI. Might be a fun way to do it.

Haha, yes my mum has been trying to get us to apply for years

I'd go and 'view the street' - knock on the neighbours doors ask what they think of the road and see what they're like as neighbours.