buying a smaller house & expanding?

Hi -

My boyfriend and have been house hunting for what feels like 300 years but has only been a few weeks, lol. I'm wondering if we should consider buying a smaller house that we can make-do with in the meantime (ie., only has EIK/LR, but enough bedrooms, a basement) and expand on it when the time comes. I know it's not unusual & it seems to be a way to get in the neighborhood you want even if the house isn't as large as you want.

I guess my concern is relying on expanding the home and then not being able to do it for whatever reason. I don't know if there are certain restrictions with changing the footprint, or how far we can be from the fence, etc.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Re: buying a smaller house & expanding?

I bought a home in a neighborhood I liked, but hated the layout on the main floor. At the time I said "oh we can just fix it", not really knowing the amount of money and time it it was going to take.

Fast forward 10 years, I still love the neighborhood and still hate the layout. We looked at getting it renovated and dormered, but it's going to cost approx 200k and the bigger issue is where are we going to go during the work that is going to take months. I have family I can live with in the boroughs, but my kids go to school, so I would have to commute to LI everyday for drop offs and pick ups.

If I could do it again, I would buy a home that needs updating, but not a total renovation or something that has at least a nice layout on the main floor, so you only have to work on the 2nd floor (and hopefully live in the house during the work).

Also, keep in mind that any expansion/dormers are going to increase your taxes by a lot.

Re: buying a smaller house & expanding?

buying a smaller house & expanding?

Ok - thank you. I'm just trying to consider all my options since this market is so rough. I definitely don't want to go into a house with too many unknowns. I'd prefer to find something that just needs some updating, but it hasn't come along yet. Everything is either immaculate (so everyone wants it) or trash. Or, missing something major for us. I'm hoping inventory opens up a bit now that we're going into May.

Re: buying a smaller house & expanding?

I had the opposite experience. We bought a smaller house, and roughly doubled it many years later. It was so much easier than selling our house and buying a new one somewhere else.

Now I have the house I want, since I helped to design it.

We wouldn't have been able to afford the house we have now when we first bought the smaller house. We would have had to do something about the house one way or another (move or add on).

I'm very happy with how everything worked out.

Re: buying a smaller house & expanding?

Re: buying a smaller house & expanding?

I think it really depends on your circumstances and priorities.

Location is something you can't change, so if buying a smaller home is the only way you can get into a certain neighborhood or school district, and you really won't settle for anything else, then it seems like the way to go.

I'll also say that I've seen many buyers go through the process, and sometimes people anticipating needing more space than they actually do. I have newly married couples with no kids wondering where they will put their hypothetical 4th child! LOL. You just don't know where life will take you. I was concerned that my house was only 3 bedrooms because I wanted a home office/guest room, and I anticipated having two children (I was pregnant with my first at the time). As life panned out, we only have one child, and he's 9 now, and that's all we will ever have, so our house is plenty big. I think sometimes people find that their concerns -- dining room being too small, that type of thing -- don't pan out when they actually live there and find they only host a big gathering once a year or something. Or they find that a finished basement or large yard balances out lack of interior space. Some people just aren't realistic about the size of most homes on Long Island... they aren't the huge homes you see on HGTV.

That being said, it's not so easy to expand. Breaking through exterior walls are costly. Dormering is quite expensive, even just the shell. For that reason, a lot of people try to utilize existing space (e.g., finishing an attached garage or basement) versus building up or out. Some of my clients are in construction or have contractors in the family, which of course makes it easier. But it is expensive and that should be factored in.

Also, does this first home need to be your forever home? Maybe you buy a smaller home that suits your needs now, and in 5 or 10 years, if you outgrow it, you can evaluate whether it makes sense (financial and otherwise) to expand the house versus just selling and buying a bigger house at that time.

ETA - I always think it's better to buy a larger home with the layout you want even if it's not in the condition you want (versus a smaller home that's "done"). Interior upgrades are easier to do over time and usually less complicated and costly than additions.

Message edited 5/2/2018 10:07:06 AM.

Re: buying a smaller house & expanding?

Re: buying a smaller house & expanding?