better to buy the project or the done house?

[hypaingea]

Traditionally I would say the project but we are looking at houses to move too & what I'm finding is the "done" house with the extension or loft is priced 100-120k more then the complete wreck which needs a new kitchen, central heating, rewiring etc.

It goes against my instinct to buy a done house particularly if not my style but then the projects seem too expensive once you factor in all the work. I can't find anything in the middle

I think it's been this way for a while now. Unless you can do a lot of the work yourself, it's no longer cheaper to renovate.

Renovating obviously means you get exactly what you want though... but also the stress and the mess!

Yes good point about stress & mess. It's frustrating as I'm quite fussy so like a project (can only do painting myself) but the numbers are not stacking up.

Depends on the house- if it's my taste of fairly neutral, fine, but I would struggle to buy a house where a lot of money had been spent on things I hated. Saw one a while ago where everything the agent pointed out as a selling point just made me think, "I'd rip that out, and that, and that..." expensive plastic grass and big AC units and everything purple and grey.

We bought a 'done' house in that it's a new build so just needs decorating but we're stating from a neutral base and happy to live with it as it is for as long as it takes.we're (relatively) cash rich but time poor and this was a major factor in looking at new builds

We did a full renovation on a large ish house for £100k ish a couple of years ago. That included a full replumb, rewire, new kitchen, bathrooms, decoration and flooring throughout. So the price differential might be ok. We spent 15% of the property value on renovation.

I’d rather have the project because the last house we had was ‘done’ and it had so many faults. Cost us £££ to make it right.

I don't think people save money renovating, unless they can either do work themselves, or they have family in trades. Despite that I would always pick the house that needs a lot of work.

There is something quite romantic about renovating. I love living in a partially completed house and slowly uncovering the potential, step by step.

You can get exactly what you want, without compromise, which just isn't possible in a pre-done house. I love looking at magazines or visiting properties and getting ideas.

Yes it can be stressful and frustrating (currently renovating a listed Victorian guesthouse and that council could not be more sluggish). And you have to accept that it won't be perfect now.

But give me the dust and chaos any day!

@OohRahhMaki123 I really enjoy the process too & getting it to how I want is priceless. I guess I'm nervous because of the current economic climate & the ones I have seen that need work are literally back to brick impossible to live in projects.

I'm going to keep looking & hopefully will find something that's a project but not too much of one.

@Tonsiltrouble I just assumed that in the current climate what would cost 100k is now 150k.

It depends on your budget. If you have the money for everything you like, living out during renovation, project is better. Otherwise, done house is better.

We can live with family & have a good reno budget just feel like I should keep some more back for additional savings.

I wouldn’t currently, building inflation is massive at the moment and really only growing with the global financial issues.

There's another way to look at it, always buy the worst house on the best street, rather than the best house on the not-so-good street. The better location will always work for you.

[quote hypaingea]@Tonsiltrouble I just assumed that in the current climate what would cost 100k is now 150k. [/quote]
I think this is pretty accurate. The work we were quoted about 60k for just over a year ago is coming in at over 90. I really wish we could DIY some of it but neither of us is at all handy.

I'm most of the way through a renovation. We bought an 'undone' house for probably £170000 less than it would have been cost if it had been 'done' (comparing it to other houses on the street); we've done structural work (taking down walls) replaced all the windows for double-glazed wooden sash windows (every ready-done house we saw had been given plastic windows) we've insulated the attic, put in 3 new bathrooms and redone the plumbing, put in a new kitchen, and I reckon we'll have spent about £100,000 - so we've still sort of saved money, and will have exactly what we want.

I should point out that DH fitted the kitchen, I've done most of the painting, we've both done the tiling etc.

I don't think it's the additional cost due to increased cost of materials, it's also taking longer, uncertainty of supply chain, etc.

It used to be worth buying a doer upper but these homes are now still expensive (can’t find them at good prices anymore) and the building works are extortionate so nowadays you won’t get your money back. It’s worth doing if you intend to stay in your house over 10 years minimum and are cash rich. Also if you can live in a building site for a long period of time as most works is taking a long time to complete due to material shortages and importing delays

Done house is great as long as you are happy with the kitchen and bathrooms.

For me it’s about the period of time I’m willing to do the works over. At the moment we’re looking at houses with two doubles and a box room - fine while we’ve got two under two as DS will be fine in the box for a good few years. But eventually - when the kids are old enough to be on a different floor to us, so a while yet - I’d like to do the loft as a master shite. So I’m happy to buy the cheaper ‘not done’ house, reap the longer term benefit and do the loft to our own spec on our own time. If it was something like needing to remodel the downstairs immediately I think I’d bite the bullet and stretch to what we could afford that was ‘done’. But I’m saying that from the perspective of having two small kids and no appetite for a project right now, we’ve done them in the past and I love having everything to my own taste

‘master suite’

The cost of doing work is absolutely bloody mental these days.

Mental.

Get the done house

We've gone from a new build that needed nothing doing to it to a house that hasn't been touched or redecorated since 1985. It's definitely not proving cheaper as we bought mainly for the location. As stressful as it can be to not have everything feel nice and new and knowing it's going to take years to do we've gained a real sense of satisfaction from knowing that we're making this home exactly as we want it for us. We saw so many houses before this one that we're expensive because they had a snazzy new kitchen fitted that was OK but not what we'd have chosen.

Hmm, we grappled with this recently and sold our doer upper part done - we bought a much bigger house with no need for big project work (structural extensions) as they were too expensive and too uncertain on costs and timings.

New bigger house needs lots of stuff doing to it over time but is more than liveable and fundamentally seems in decent nick. It was bashed with the 90’s brush so magnolia, spotlights and cheap hollow doors everywhere!!

Think I would go for the more done house - even though you aren’t planning on structural work. Builders availability and material costs/availability are horrifying right now and likely to get worse. You will still put your stamp on a more ‘done’ house.

If the done house is pretty much done to your taste, particularly the layout and size, then I would go for the done house. The stress of getting trades people in, the length of time and cost seems too much right now

@PinkGlassEye

There's another way to look at it, always buy the worst house on the best street, rather than the best house on the not-so-good street. The better location will always work for you.

The location won't do much for you if you're stuck in a shit pit/too small house though. So many people buy houses in areas they can't really afford, then are stuck when the quotes come in and they realise they can't afford to extend or do all the work needed.