Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

I was thinking about it, and while ready to move in homes are great, if you don't change anything, then it might be boring. It's like you just moved your stuff into someone else's home. Anyone else feel this way? I don't want to buy a home that needs a ton of work, but somewhere in the middle.

What are your thoughts on this? Just curious what you all think.

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

ITA. I want to be able to move in right away and start living in the house, but still have a clean slate to improve on. That's why I don't like flipped houses. I'd have a hard time tearing out a brand new kitchen just because I didn't like the color scheme... But, if it's 10+ years old, I wouldn't feel bad at all.

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

DH and I are NOT handy, so we only were really looking for houses that were ready to move in. But that being said, we still did ALOT of work to make the house match our style (wainspaneling, painting, trim, decorating). So aesthetic changes were ok, but we didn't want to have to really worry about huge changes or problems (roof, boiler, etc).

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

as I have been looking- just online

I am looking for more layout

esp of the kitchen- b/c moving things like sinks and stoves can add up

I would rather a nice layout -with an island that needed to be updated

then an updated kitchen that is not my style


of course if I find a perfect house and everything I wanted- I would buy it- but so far- there is always something that not right

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

I felt the same way you do. I wanted a house that needed work, because I would rather get it cheaper and make it my own.

So that's what we did. We found a home that was very good structurally but needed A LOT of cosmetic work.

It took us 2 months before we moved in, but now it looks like a totally different house and it's "ours"

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

It all depends on how much money you have and how much work you want to do. DH and I almost bought a house that needed a lot of work, but in the end we found a ready to move into home and are very happy we did. Now we can spend our extra money on the decor and furniture and not on fixing the place up.

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

We originally were looking at houses that needed some work for it to be totally livable. Fortunately we found a house that was move in ready, but still needed all new floors, wallpaper to come off, and all new paint in every room.

It took us 1 month of working every day on the house to get everything done that needed to be done for us to be able to relax a little.

I am SO glad that we bought a house with asthetic things to be fixed, otherwise I would have gone crazy. As it is, we just got our clothes out of boxes on New Years day (and we moved in on Nov 22nd. (And we're organized)).

Message edited 1/9/2009 10:59:30 AM.

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

cosmetic stuffs...only b/c DH is not handy at all and i don't have the patience

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

Our first house we did all of the work too. We bought an estate sale and then made it into what we wanted. Honestly the next house we buy, we want it to be completely updated or near that. Other than painting and putting in new carpet, I really dont want to have to do any more work.

Scott

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

When we were looking I wasn't sure which way to go.

When I saw our house, I knew. It was the style I always wanted, in the town I wanted, and it was selling for 100,000 less than what it was worth. It was all original from 1956.

DH is very handy, so we bought it knowing that barring any major financial catastrophe in our family, we will never move.

Having said that, I closed in December 2007 and one year later we are almost done. I would say we have another 3 weeks of work left. I love my house and am glad we did what we did.

But, living like this for a year has been hard. Is it all worth it in the end, yes. When you buy a house that needs as much work as ours did, there are a lot of sacrifices that get made. I don't think everyone can handle it. Some people don't want to deal. It's a huge drain on your free time, your money, your sanity

If I knew a year ago what this year was going to be like, I still would have bought my house. There is simply no where else I want to live. Still, there was a lot of stress involved that I wasn't prepared for.

Good Luck with whatever you decide. Whether you renovate or move in, you'll find ways to make any house your home.

Message edited 1/8/2010 12:55:42 PM.

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

I only looked at homes that were move in ready.

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

I would have loved to buy a house that needed work, but DH is not handy at all and has no interest in learning how to do things.

We wound up spending a lot more than our original budget for something move in ready. All we did was paint. It was great and I still felt like it was "ours."

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

My husband is in construction so we're looking for a fixer-upper.

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

Needs work. I am never satifisied with anything anyone else does and want to customize my house to my liking.

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

I'll be honest, after buying a "move in ready" house it is my opinion that there is NO SUCH THING!

Yes, we lived in it but there was and still is a TON of work to do. We're still painting, still finishing the basement and now we're looking at the kitchen. I don't like the cheap crappy countertops they put in and honestly the windows are just as crappy so eventually they'll need replacing.

I think generally speaking it was nice to be able to move right into our home and not have to clean or reno before hand but realistically there's always work to do to make it yours. KWIM?

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

We wanted a good area (A schools), a fairly new development and a nice layout. DH is very handy so we knew we wouldn't mind a home that needed TLC.

We ended up finding a foreclosure that needed tons of work (got a great deal on it), but had all the things we wanted. About 7 months later and we're still not finished, but it's been really fun fixing it up the way we want it.

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

We bought a house that needed some work but was in move-in ready.

Next time (if there is a next time) I'd buy a house that was already done. Because no matter what, you are still going to put touches to it, you can still upgrade things, etc.

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

move in! we didn't have the time or the talent to do things ourselves and i didn't want to be renovating things with small children around. minor things like paint, carpet, changing light fixtures are easily doable and can make a house feel like your own.

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

When we first looked we wanted a fixer-upper bc we felt we wanted to put our own character in the house. Fortunately we found a house that was completely rennovated on the inside & move in ready. The only rooms that had to be painted were the bedrooms.

Our project began on the outside. Since the house was a flip, the contractors let the grounds go to waste & we had a lot to do. Fortunately DH & I were able to do the majority of the work with help from family. It was a great accomplishment to see the transformation of the house.

If I did it all over again, I would do it the same way & buy a similar house. It truly gave us a chance to live on the inside of the house & slowly change things around.

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

We bought a home that needed a lot of work, basically a complete rennovation. We got a good deal on it and were excited about the idea of making it completely ours. Two months into the rennovation now, I am still excited about the finished product, but have completely lost patience with it taking over our lives. If we ever buy another home, I don't think I will look at ones that require a lot of work.

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

We bought a foreclosure that needed a TON of work. My DH is a contractor so we knew we were going to gut the whole thing anyway. Our next home we will do the same thing- since DH is in the business, we prefer to renovate ourselves and make it exactly the way we like.

Re: Would you rather buy a home that is ready to move in, or needs work?

Depends what you can afford. I would love to buy something that needs some work so we could fix it the way we want, but we can't afford it , so we are looking for something that's ready to move in. My feeling is that we can always change things down the road if we want( and can afford it).