Make our 2 bed into a 3 bed, or move to an actual 3 bed?

[Narniaprincess]

I have recently moved into my partner's 2 bed house. He has worked very hard decorating it and it is in a nice position on the estate. He hasn't lived there that long. Unfortunately it has a small kitchen, a rubbish view from the front, no living room overlooking the garden, no garage, no bath in the small bathroom, and most of all, a small garden.

With some structural work like moving walls etc, we could make the kitchen bigger, create a view to the garden from the lounge, do a loft conversion for a third bedroom and potentially a bathroom with a bath too. However, the garden will still be small and the front view will still be bad.

OR, we could move to a 3 bed house on the same estate and get everything we want, including a slightly bigger garden. But, it won't be on quite as nice a position on the estate, will need decorating, and my partner feels that all his work on the current house is wasted. He also feels like he hasn't lived there long enough (3 years).

Bearing in mind that we are ultimately saving up for one of the 4 bed houses on the estate which will be our forever home - if we move to the 3 bed the stamp duty and estate agent fees will eat into our savings.
Whereas if we stay in the 2 bed and do the work, then hopefully we would make our money back when we eventually sell.

Would you stay put in the 2 bed and do the big structural renovation work to make it liveable, or move to the 3 bed? Or even stay in the 2 bed and do no work at all and just live there saving up until we can move to the 4 bed (I think I would be very miserable doing this)?

Do you have children? If not I would stay in the 2 bed and save for your 4 bed forever home. How miserable can you be with a newly decorated roof over your head.

I suspect ‘genuine’ 3 beds will always be worth more. Can you live with a 2 for a while then jump to 4 in one go?

This. Or even if you have kids, let them share for a while/do temporary dividers.

I wouldn't move to a three bed if you know you want a four bed soon.

Have you looked on zoopla or whatever at the ceiling sale price of similar properties on the estate. Then get quotes for the works you want. Then see if there is room for profit. If not I’d stay put.

eg current house cost £350k ones with similar improvements sold for £380k, works cost £25 so you’d have £5k left over for moving costs and fees etc.

Personally I’d stay put until you can afford the 4 bed and keep all your money for that.

Presumably youve been with your partner less than theee years so it’s still a new rejationship so things may not pan out anyway so prob best to wait a bit before doing anything and let him enjoy his decor.

The amount of work you are proposing will realistically take 18 months-2 years by the time you find builders, you either do it in one go and have the hassle and cost of moving out while the work is done, or have to two a two stage renovation. If you then want the pleasure of enjoying living in it you need to plan to stay at least 4-5 years more.

How would.you fund the renovations? If you are saving to upsize anyway would that be all your house deposit savings gone and then reliant on an increase in value to fund the next move? You need to do the sums carefully as building coats are so high and If you overdevelop a small plot when there is plentiful supply of 3 and 4 beds on your estate then you risk losing money. If you already have the approx £80-100k saved for the level of work you are proposing on his 2 bed then why not just wait a little longer until you can afford the 4 bed?

How many kids you already have also factors in, if you only have 1 or 2 small ones don't underestimate the hassle of all that renovation!

Turning two into three beds will probably mean you exceed the ceiling price for similar properties. It’s worth doing if you intend it to be to benefit you long term, but that’s not what you’re saying.

Keep the money and save up for your next big move.

I don’t see any point in converting a 2 bed into a 3 bed if what you actually want is a 4 bed. Save the money - a converted 2 bed won’t be worth what a 3 bed is I shouldn’t think, and with the current cost of building work I wouldn’t be surprised if you lost money doing the work. Live with it, keep saving and just trade up to a 4 bed when you can afford it.

Stay with the 2 bed and live with it as it is. Why would living there make you miserable? If your DP has done work to it to make it nice, surely it can't be THAT bad. Okay so its not the house of your dreams, and doesn't have the layout that you want, but its a roof over your head and seems like a nice enough house, so learn to live with it as it is.

I don't get why you would want to do work on it, spending all that money when you are trying to save for a 4 bed anyway. It just doesn't make sense to me.

Another one asking if you have children. You sound utterly miserable, disproportionate to the absence of a bath or the view out the window.

Is there a middle ground like you do some work but not all the work on the 2 bedroom house whilst saving for the 4 bedroom forever house. Don’t expect to definitely get your money back on all the work you do, but it could help you sell more quickly so when the house of your dreams comes up you will get a quick sale on yours.

Personally I would not be moving walls and doing so much structural work if you are not planning to stay there long term. This is a huge expense, lots of disruption and a lot of work to be done to pretty much every part of the house. I would save as much as you can so you can move on to a house you actually want i.e. the 4 bed. Moving to a 3 bed makes no sense in terms of the expense.