Comments on: Email Answer: Know When To Hold ‘Em

By: Kim

Kim — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 12:47:25 +0000

Love your site-great ideas. We bought a 1958 brick bungalow/rancher (not quite as wide as a rancher, with a front porch) that had a small addition on it. It has a huge master bedroom with double closets, and a bathroom with double sinks. We had a 1 year old and three year old at the time. Perfect size, until about 4 or 5 years in, when we started wondering if we should think about a little more space, either moving or with an addition. This was when the market was at an all time high, and though we would have gained a ridiculous amount of equity by selling, anything else we would have bought was astronomical, and basically unaffordable. Ditto with renovating-IF you could even get someone to look at your project, because there was more work than people to do it, and our town even had a limit on permits! So we stayed. We did nothing. Should have done some small improvements, but we weren’t sure if we would end up selling. We decided maybe we would renovate, and hired an architect to draw up a fabulous plan. Then the market TANKED. Now it became cheaper to buy a better house-hmmm, what to do? Loved the funky-ness of our older neighborhood, in old town near the beach. And there was the little problem of selling the house in a down market. The banks would give no money for renovation-they couldn’t tell how much the house would be worth and didn’t want to take a chance because they had been burned around the country. And this was with great credit! So we did nothing again. Now the money is freed up, the good houses at low prices are gone, the rest of the market is way down, but contrators need work, are willing to give us huge deals, and the interest rate in at an all time low. We are still torn, but have been here 10 years with a now teen and preteen and we need space in a really bad way. Any advice? Thank you!! :)

By: Jackie Smith

Jackie Smith — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:41:16 +0000

This is an older post, but I HAD to comment! Our “new” house was my husband’s childhood home. We say we paid (below value) for the solid brick exterior, the neighborhood and the yard only. Although we didn’t plan to, everything is being redone at once. We’ve had a little one in the meantime, and we’re only a few months from being finished and moving back in, but this is our FOREVER home (we hope;-) We’ve decided to incur expenses, spend time and STRESS OUT on this project up front and have gotten by with only a small c card balance so far. It defiantely helps that my husband is handy, but time is always a factor for us! Will defiantely send some pics your way as we COMPLETE some things!

By: YoungHouseLove

YoungHouseLove — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 03:05:07 +0000

We would definitely suggest making small affordable changes that won’t burn more of a hole in your pocket (giving furniture and walls a quick paint makeover, adding breezy affordable curtains and blinds from places like Ikea and Target, rescuing thrift store furnishings on the cheap to make your house look fully furnished and welcoming, etc). You can even hire people on Craigslist or recruit friends and family members to help you add even more cosmetic appeal (like tiling a backsplash in the kitchen thanks to some online tutorials and some affordable tile from Home Depot for example). Check out our How To page for lots of tips and tricks to get your house looking super sellable to help bridge that gap between the price you paid and the price that you hope to get when you list your home in the future. And of course waiting out the recession until housing prices go back up will help a lot too. Good luck!

xo,
s

By: Angie B.

Angie B. — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 02:18:57 +0000

I live in Florida and bought my condo after hurricane Ivan when the prices were inflated. As a first time home-buyer, I had no idea what I was getting into as far as upgrading. I completely under-estimated the time and money involved in what I thought would be simple cosmetic changes. Long story short, I basically over-paid for a fixer-upper! Now I don’t know what to do. Any suggestions on how to get the most bang for my buck?
On the positive side, I’ll definitely know what I’m doing next time I buy…(if and when I dig myself out of this money pit!)

By: Katrina C.

Katrina C. — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 21:12:34 +0000

That’s what we did, we bought the UGLIEST house in a great neighborhood. We are still in the process of fixing our 1,300 sq foot house. Phew..It just seems every time I get excited about decorating.. I become preggars! It’s a cute Cape Cod style house. we are putting up Cedar vinyl siding, but we have no clue of what colour to use for the shutters..Phew..I will post pictures when the siding is finished!

By: Jan

Jan — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:49:02 +0000

Wendy wrote:

“Anyway, if I were to give advice to anyone, I’d say to always prepare for a future move. You never know what will happen in your life to be able to predict whether you’ll be in one place forever.”

AMEN to that!

I have had to move several times in the last 20 years, both from places I owned and places I rented due to circumstances beyond my control. Disability for one: going from an income that afforded the mortgage in the first place down to, say, $1,000 a month really changes your plans. Then when that happens in a down market (this was 15 years ago) and having to take a $55K LOSS in the bargain. Well, you get the picture.

Some years later, I was able to live above poverty level, when my father’s estate was settled. However, while there was enough money to buy a modest townhouse, the Trust would not permit me to, so I rented one. That was going to be OK, but then the Trustee was scammed of our inheritance and murdered. Talk about Drama! So it is back to living at poverty level.

I was renting several rooms over a store in a commercial center, pending the results of the trial of my brother, an OK place that permitted some privacy, although waaaayy too small, with Hope and a Service Dog. Problem was, my landlord didn’t keep up his mortgage payments, so the entire property was foreclosed upon and sold to the Township to be razed for ‘public housing’ which I will not be able to afford once it is built.

So, MY advice to whether one should make improvements to one’s domicile is to go ahead and do what requires minimal financial investment (painting, papering, cosmetics, anything with very low-cost materials) plus your own sweat equity. The DOING is an enjoyable hobby wherein one learns new skills and gets to live with the positive results while living there. That is a WIN-WIN-WIN if I ever saw one. How many people spend a couple thousand dollars, say, on a ski trips (not to denigrate vacations) or gambling (that I WILL denigrate) with little to show for the expense other than a suntan, broken leg and/or loss of capital.

Painting kitchen cabinets is a no-brainer (I do it every place I have ben permitted to) but replacing them, I’d think on that a while. Especially in this economy.

I am now renting a room in a new geographical location where it is far, far less costly to live, all my stuff is in storage 800 miles away, while I try to save enough money to begin anew. I lived 37 years in the old area, loving it, never thinking I’d leave. But Life is what happens to you while you’ve busy making other plans (John Lennon).

In 6 weeks I will turn 65. Never too late for a New Beginning.

By: YoungHouseLove

YoungHouseLove — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:20:58 +0000

Great tip! Thanks so much for sharing!

xo,
s

By: Sally

Sally — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 21:04:17 +0000

I like your answer about the cabinets. We’ve been debating replacing ours. The 50-year old cabinets are in fine shape. We painted them and changed the hardware when we moved in. We need to replace the counters (the laminate is scratched, stained, and gouged). So we’ve been thinking – should we do the cabinets? We’ve bought at a somewhat high price for the neighborhood and know that we won’t get a large financial return on improvements. We also want to reuse where possible. We’ve thought about widening the doorway between the kitchen and living room – but that wouldn’t affect the cabinets! Score a point for not replacing!

Also, I wanted to share a trick for drawers without slides. This is what my mom used to do and what I’m now doing: Wax the bottom of your drawers. I bought a block of wax from a craft store that sells candle-making supplies. I emptied the drawers, flipped them upside down and rubbed the wax block over the part that rubs. Now they run quite smoothly. The wax needs to be redone every year or two. So, when you’re cleaning out your drawers anyway, flip em over for a fresh coat.

By: Kate

Kate — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:08:21 +0000

We just bought our first house in a modest neighborhood whose value isn’t likely to skyrocket or fall too far from where it is now. We don’t know if this is our “forever house” or if we’ll be here just a few years. So while we have grand plans for our dear house, our budget (and baby #2 due in January) keeps us firmly grounded in reality by slowing the pace of our projects to mere crawl.

Having said that, we have 5 major projects that we plan to accomplish over the next 5-10 years in the following order: adding a deck and landscaping front/back yard, new roof, kitchen update, master bath reno, replacing the exterior shingles. Undone, these projects are most likely to put off prospective buyers (and bug us, too!).

These are/can be expensive and time consuming projects. We may or may not get our money back on them should we decide to sell. What we will get is complete satisfaction in living with the results. To minimize our cash output, we’ll DIY like crazy and be modest in our design/materials choices.

By: YoungHouseLove

YoungHouseLove — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 17:55:44 +0000

Hey Laura,

We used Glidden’s “Wishes” on all the walls except for the fireplace wall which is a tone deeper (Water Chestnut also by Glidden). Wishes is no longer available at many Home Depots but they still have the formula in the computer to whip it up for you if you ask. Happy painting…

xo,
s