move or stay?

so we bought our home in 2014 for 340k, and were told by a few realtors that we could get anywhere from 510-550 for our home now. It is a 2 bed, 2 bath 45x100 cape. 2 bedrooms on the first floor with one bath, and full finished basement with another full bath. There was a kitchen extension put onto the house before we moved in. Our taxes have gone from 13,000 to $8,500 with the STAR reduction and tax grieving.

Things that we eventually need to pay to fix: The kitchen is pretty outdated as it was done in the 1960s. The appliances and flooring are all new, so we would just need to do all new cabinets and countertops. The upstairs is unfinished, but could easily fit 1 big bedroom and half bath, or two little bedrooms and a half bath undormered. We also would like to do ductless AC units throughout the house and get rid of the window ACs.

We love our location, and don't want to move to another town. There are almost never any homes for sale in my neighborhood, and when there are, they are gone almost immediately. A house was just listed around the block from us and we took a look at it before the open house tomorrow. We love it. It has a half dormer with a bedroom upstairs, another bedroom downstairs, a bathroom in the hallway, and master bedroom on the first floor with master bath. It has central air, gas heat, a newly renovated kitchen, and full finished basement. It is listed at 599k, but the realtor said they priced it low to get more buyers in, with the intention of selling it for around 615-620k. It also has a fireplace, which we don't have.

The cons: It is a 40x100 home so it is a little more narrow that our home is now, there is no extension in the back like we have, the taxes are in the 11s but can be grieved down, mortgage rates have gone up (our current mortgage is 3.125%), and we would have to hope our house sells for what we think it will.

So what should we do? Should we just stay and do the kitchen and upstairs in our current home, or go through the whole moving process and sell our house the way it is? We got a quote to do the upstairs and it would be 25k for one bedroom, a half bath, and ductless AC for the home. Not sure how much a kitchen would cost, but I would imagine another 20k or so.


sorry for the long post..

move or stay?

I'd probably stay if you can make your current house work for you. Sounds like you have a lot of equity and low payment. Which is great. Unless you can swing buying that house without selling your current, that house will likely be gone and house hunting in this market is not fun at all. You have to be prepared to sell and not find anything especially in a high demand area. There is seriously nothing out there. To me it sounds like for another 50k you can make your house work. Your transaction costs to buy and sell will be about 30k. So really it's the difference of $20k to make your current home work if you think of it that way.

move or stay?

I would stay in your current house. If you have that much equity, then why not make your current house your dream home?

Re: move or stay?

move or stay?

I would stay.
Not knowing where you live I don't see how a 2 bedroom with an outdated kitchen can sell for 515-550. I've seen so many houses priced high and then drops of at least 30k.

Re: move or stay?

Re: move or stay?

Stay and make your house your own!

move or stay?

Do you mean you bought your house in 2004? Is 2014 a typo? Just curious what town the value has gone up so high.

move or stay?

sent some of you FM with the location. We got very lucky with the price of our home. They were the original owners and cared very much about selling to a nice young couple. They were at the open house because they wanted to personally meet all the prospective buyers. I bought 3 years ago, and the fair market value for the home at that time was 399. In the last 3 years, it has definitely upped in value, and in the last 1-2 years all the homes in our neighborhood sold in the 500-650 range, with a couple of homes selling for over 800. Any of the 3-4 bedroom homes in the area aren't true 4 bedroom homes. They are all mostly capes with finished attic spaces essentially.

ETA: we are in nassau very close queens in a good school district

Message edited 6/2/2017 1:40:07 PM.

move or stay?

We're in a similar situation (though I don't think our home has appreciated THAT much in 3 years-that seems a little nuts). We're strongly leaning towards selling, but we also have zero desire to remain in the area.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by the finished attics? I have a cape with 2 bedrooms and a full bath upstairs. I'm not especially real estate savvy, but I don't see why they couldn't be considered true bedrooms?

Re: move or stay?

I always say stay because moving and buying something new while trying to coordinate the sale of your current house seems like a huge PIA. Not to mention the moving process itself.
Therebis so much that can be done renovation wise and addition/extension wise that you can always make your current house into your forever house.

move or stay?

I would actually probably move. If this house is like your dream house, and how you want yours to be and if you don't feel you can do it for less than what they listed theirs, then jump. There's a house near me I am absolutely in LOVE with. If this thing ever goes on the market I will be selling mine

Re: move or stay?

Message edited 6/3/2017 8:54:56 AM.

Re: move or stay?

Re: move or stay?

Posted by LuckyStar
Interesting, I didn't know that. The bathroom is dormered, bedrooms are not. It was listed as a 4 bedroom when we bought in 2014. They both have closets, which is what I always thought constituted a bedroom. I'm not sure what difference it would make in terms of selling? If a buyer sees 4 useable bedrooms, does it matter if they're "true bedrooms?" They're not an illusion, kwim?

If you don't want to leave the area, I would expand/update your current house. We want to sell because we want to leave the area. There's no way I'd go through the hassle of coordinating buying/sellng to move a few blocks away unless it was an insane deal or I suddenly acquired an army of children

Re: move or stay?

Posted by mommy2be716

Posted by LuckyStar
Interesting, I didn't know that. The bathroom is dormered, bedrooms are not. It was listed as a 4 bedroom when we bought in 2014. They both have closets, which is what I always thought constituted a bedroom. I'm not sure what difference it would make in terms of selling? If a buyer sees 4 useable bedrooms, does it matter if they're "true bedrooms?" They're not an illusion, kwim?

If you don't want to leave the area, I would expand/update your current house. We want to sell because we want to leave the area. There's no way I'd go through the hassle of coordinating buying/sellng to move a few blocks away unless it was an insane deal or I suddenly acquired an army of children

Yeah it doesn't really make a difference, but the bedrooms feel more cramped when they have the slopes in the ceiling and everything. I liked that this house had the half dormer, and the bedrooms had more head clearance.

But yeah the bathroom in your home is probably bumped out because of that rule. Maybe your cape is like a 50x100 or 60x100 and is longer, but if we put two bedrooms in our house right now it would be really small up there. I think we would have to do one big bedroom