when we bought at the height of the market we bought a neglected, unlived in property, and used our savings/profits from last sale to do it up and extend it
the money didnt stretch far and we find ourselves 5 years down the line with some work left to do - the house needs a new bathroom and the outside needs doing - it needs a new drive, garage, and the garden while large and south facing could be wonderful, however is at present still a jungle in need of work, with a garage which is unuseable and needs some money spending, probably needs about 6k spending outside and about 3k spending inside (new bathroom from floor to ceiling)
we have enough equity in the property to use to do these things. However, that leaves us little for a deposit on the next house should we chose to move....
we currently have a couple of loans which when paid off could fund quite a good sum to overpay the mortgage and bring it down quicker (could overpay by around a further £300 per month) if we chose to use the equity - we could not save the amount of money needed for the improvement very quickly, and by which time, the children will have totally outgrown the need for a garden, and probably moved out! (one is on the way to uni now....)
the garden is bad - the front wall is falling down, the gates fell down a while ago and the neighbours have actually complained!
would you use your remainiing equity to fund the improvements - i have spoken to a broker and they have already confirmed we could do it....in fact they have a mortgage offer ready and waiting....we would still have about £20k equity left....but obviously this isnt enough to fund another move.
i wanted to move but having looked at what property is out there in my required locations, and having weighed it up, i think we could have a lovely home here if only we could ever finish it!
what would you do?
opinions please.....