Should we do this move ?

[a1z0]

We currently live in a 4 bedroom extended house (Was originally 3 bedroom ) . We have alot of equity in the house as we put a good deposit down and then used cash to build the extension.

Looking at the prices of houses in our area we have realised that if we sell ours and buy a 2 bed house in the same scheme. Then extend that. We'd have a similar sized house with a better layout/storage than we have now. factoring in the move costs and build costs we'd be left with about £20,000 left over plus a slightly cheaper and shorter mortgage. Our children are 10 and 7 so thinking ahead to university etc. it would take us about 8 years to save that sort of money.

It would probably take about a year for the plans/build etc.

Last time we moved we couldn't find a house we liked after selling ours and ended up living with the in-laws for a number of months. Which is my fear, we sell this and don't find a 2 bed in time ! Plus I remember the mess and stress of the extension.

Are we fools to be thinking about doing this ?

I'm not sure it's worth the hassle for £20k extra equity. Things often end up costing more than one anticipates and two-bedroom houses often don't extend to four-bedroom houses well, imo. Given the amount of work that would be needed to upgrade a property in this way, I would only be prepared to do it if the house I was buying was tatty and an unbelievable bargain. Where would you live while all the work was being done?

But it seems it's £20,000 plus a smaller mortgage. I'd be tempted OP if you've got a good builder in mind?

Builder costs have gone up in recent years so I would ensure you've done your sums with current costs. Personally I would only do this if I was wanting to sell anyway and an amazing 2 bed that would extend to give both good bedroom and living spaces and had a great garden to justify the hassle and risk.

I probably wouldn't. I could increased my mortgage when I moved, but chose not to as I wanted to be comfortable, but slightly regret this as house prices going up and if I had stretched my mortgage, I would have had a more expensive house and my equity would have grown faster. We are talking London suburbs here.

There have been a few of the 2 bed semi's that have been extended, one of the mums at school lives in one and you wouldn't think it had been extended.

The difference between the value of the 2 bed house and the value of ours is around £100,000. So we would have that amount to move, fees, build costs etc.

We did the extension on our house for £30,000 a few years ago. (Extra room downstairs and bedroom with large separate shower room upstairs ) The 2 bed house extension would be a bit bigger but looking a building warrants for similar builds the max i've found is £50,000. So the figures do stack up.
There would be no need to move out while the extension is being built as we stayed in our house the last time and it was fine.

It's just the thought of moving again and disruption while the extension gets built, and also the children sharing a bedroom for a while.
But the chance to have a smaller mortgage plus money left in savings is really making me think about doing it.

Be wary of making your decision based on other people's building warrant sumissions. Most are likely to be an estimate based on notional square meter cost( and skewed if the fees increase at £50k+ builds) rather than actual builders quotes as these tend to come in after the warrant has been submitted. £50k seems very cheap to me though you may be in a cheaper area than me. Personally would base costs on £1500 m2 plus extra for kitchen but get real builder's costs before I took such a big decision.

I agree with whiteagle - builders often collude with property owners to keep the build cost low on the paperwork to avoid higher building regs costs and to show the taxman that their contracts were low. Also make sure that the sort of extension you are considering would be agreed - it sounds like a side extension and I believe restrictions have been imposed on those.

You would also need to make sure you'd get planning permission. In our area. Lots of extensions to turn w and 3 beds into 4 beds have been turned down on the grounds that the area has enough 4 bed houses but lacks affordable 2 and 3 beds. The council is reluctant to agree here. Might be different where you are.

We just did an extension a few years ago so we know the rough build costs and would use the same builders.
There is no restrictions on side extensions were we are (Scotland )
The council were we are don't have issues with houses getting extended as there is a massive new build estate happening on the other side of town which has a large number of affordable houses and also the council did a deal with the company and are getting a substantial amount of new council owned houses built.

I actually wanted to do this the last time we moved (Buy a 2 bed and extend) but DH didn't want the disruption and thought it would cost alot, so we bought the 3 bed. It was only after when he realised the cost of putting an extension on the house (Which we did ) that infact it didn't cost as much as he thought it would be or as much hassle (I hated the cleaning though )

The term left on the mortgage would be halved which is appealing to me. especially as it would mean being mortgage free before we are 50.

I don't know, i'm veering from just going for it to worrying about being stuck without a house.

I wouldn't bother if you like your current house and can afford it comfortably enough. Uni is a long way off so you have that time to save anyway, and you can always borrow against the equity in your house if you need money. You don't need to be mortgage-free by 50. It'd be nice, sure, but not sure it's worth all the hassle and unknowns of the scenario you're describing. What you actually say about your current scenario seems great - what most people would kill for - so am not sure that you're not just in grass/greener mode rather than appreciating what you've got. Obviously, if you want to move for it's own sake, itchy feet etc, then go for it. But the reasons you give now really don't sound worth it to me.

Have you also accounted for all the costs of moving? Legal fees, land tax, estate agent fee etc? that would eat into any profit you might have from the sale