Project house or max budget on finished article

[fiorentina]

I'd love some advice on two housing scenarios please.

We have our house under offer and have been looking for a while and seem to be considering two ends of the spectrum in terms of houses to buy. The area is v competive and we've offered over asking price a few times now and missed out. I feel I'm starting to get confused through desperation!

This weekend we saw two properties, one a reasonable project, needing total redecoration, extension, rewiring and new kitchen and bathrooms and the other at the top of our budget so needing to stretch us a bit more financially but almost perfect and perhaps would be a him we would live in forever and not need to move again. Obviously no guarantee we would get either again..

I just cannot decide which is more sensible for us and one DS and baby on the way. I fully intend to return to work and need to as I am the main breadwinner.

Any advice much appreciated.

We bought the latter and 6weeks later we have no regrets. We moved in and got on with our lives enjoying the house, garden and the new neighbourhood. We weren't specifically looking for a house with all the work done but our offer on the project house stood rejected when this one came on the market. We viewed it, it was all done up to our taste not that we had any taste, 1st time buyers always lived in rented so magnolia was all we knew .

We have no kids yet but I can imagine it will be tricky for you. Still, I know people who have taken on projects and with babies and toddlers, it was frustrating especially living in the house and doing the work at the same time.

Is the project house a 'love house' or not? That should help you decide if you are prepared to go through the disruptions of the project.

You should also consider the work done on the 2nd one, is it to your tastes? Us the workmanship good enough to justify the cost? What have the other similar houses sold for in the road?

We've got the former. I would really think twice about it. The work costs more than you think, and will be uninhabitable for periods. Rewiring especially makes the most horrific mess of every room. It's kind of taken over our lives as well.

We have no regrets because we couldn't afford the done up article, and also we wanted it done to our taste. If the costs are looking equal, and you see a house you like the style of then don't hesitate.

Thank you. Very interesting and useful.

Project isn't my dream home but could be really nice for us. We've agreed we'd certainly rent to start with if we go down that route (our buyer may rent back to us as its an investment) and only move in when work is more cosmetic.

I'm trying to overestimate the costs of doing it all up to make sure it wouldn't be overvaluing it compared to other houses in he road. Finished house is in a v mixed road so very difficult to guess the ceiling price.

Thanks again.

Project house!

Because:

• you'll pay less stamp duty
• the changes will be done to YOUR taste
• other people's refurb spec is unlikely to match yours, leaving you with a choice of re-doing or putting up with
• you can control the quality of the work
• you can control the pace of the work
• the sense of satisfaction after the work is done is IMMENSE

Having said that, rewiring is VILE, get it done before you move in. Assuming you have to repaint every room anyway, it's not going to matter if you have to live with a stripe of new plaster in every room anyway. You can put new power points (lots of them) where you want, get wall lighting in the reception rooms, etc etc.

The other rooms (bathrooms) can be done one at a time, transferring the learnings from one mini-project to the next. It CAN be fun, satisfying and moneysaving if you plan ahead and really think it through, and find good tradesman (really not difficult these days, even if you have to wait for the right person to become available).

Good luck with your choices!

With decisions like this I think it is more a question of opportunity cost than actual cost which can be the deciding factor.

We were recently looking to move and faced the same dilema, we have two very children, I've got two years hard slog left on my PhD and DH works stupid hours. We decided not to take on a project as the thought of having to spend the majority of our precious freetime sorting out house related projects and then having to channel all of our spare cash into getting these projects done was the dealbreaker for us as we just weren't prepared to make the sacrifice.

So my advice would be to think about how long and how much said project would take and just really think about what the reality of this choice will mean for your everyday life and if you're happy for it to be that way because the end result will be worth it then go for it.

With 2 children (21 months and 4 at the time) we went for the latter. We both work full time and have enough to do with garden, allotment and family time.