There are two plans of attack when it comes to long-term house repairs… fixing it up to live in it, and fixing it up to sell it. With the former, you focus on repairs that are important to you and your standard of living. You are planning to live in the house for the long term, so you aren’t as much focused on resale value. Ideally, your fixes will add to the value of the house. The other is making project decisions knowing you are going to be selling the house. Your focus will be on resale value, and on aesthetic appeal.
I think we are leaning to the latter. Ideally, we’d hope to get as much money out of the house when we sell it, but at this point I think our primary objective is to get it to a point where we *could* sell it without having to set the price too low, or have it sit on the market too long. As we decide where to put our money, I think we should keep that in mind.
I was googling fixing up older homes – I’m hoping to find a blog or forum where I could get a chance to dialogue with other people about these issues (like Young House Love). I wasn’t successful, but I did come across this thread on an unrelated forum that I thought had a lot of good information.
After reading several sites, I decided that I don’t think we can get around fixing our foundation. Sigh. That was the money I was trying not to spend, but I don’t know what else to do. However, I do think it’s something that could wait to be fixed right before we sell. It’s important, and I don’t want it to get worse, but to be honest I am used to the back half of my downstairs being at a slant. It doesn’t necessarily affect my daily life.
Other things that would probably be important to fix, other than general cleaning/touching up paint: (in no particular order)
– Curb appeal. There isn’t much that needs to be done to the front yard, but the backyard needs an overhaul. We have plans to do this in the spring so we can seed instead of having to get sod.
– Kitchen. They say kitchens are very important to selling a house. This affects my daily life, so I have a lot of interest in seeing it fixed up sooner than later. I am fine with doing something very basic – stock cabinets, peel & stick tile on the floor, etc. I will need to price things to figure out a realistic budget. Fortunately, we don’t have to get new appliances, so that will save us some.
– Bathroom. The other important selling feature. This might be as simple as lightly sanding the walls and paint, or as complicated as putting up drywall. We’ll have no idea until we can take down the mirrors and faux tile to see what’s underneath. If we can afford it, I really want to replace the tub & tiles, but it might not be worth it in the long run.
– What other issues affect the resale value? I should probably take a look at our inspector’s report and focus on the things he flagged. Also, I would need to keep in mind the concerns that were told to us as we were trying to get financing and insurance. Some of them we have fixed already – like the fuse box. Others, I don’t think we’ll fix unless we stay here longer than 3 years – like the roof. (Or maybe the roof would be more important than the kitchen/bathroom?)
Stuff I have to think about. Really, I just like the idea of getting some aesthetic things taken care of. Maybe then I won’t hate this house so much. :-)
Personally, I think the kitchen seems like a better idea unless the roof is so bad that it would need to be replaced right away. Our friends had a lovely house with an outdated kitchen – got very little interest. They redid the kitchen (nothing major … resurfaced cabinets and got new appliances) and got TONS of interest and sold their house ultimately in multiple offers. I think people see the nice kitchen (and other things) online and then are at least encouraged to go SEE the house — and then someone might fall in love with it. If you can’t get them to take a look in the first place, then no one can fall in love with it.
We redid our kitchen immediately after moving in. We’re hoping to sell our house in a few years and hope that the nice kitchen will help that. Doing it sooner gives us the added benefit of enjoying the nice kitchen before we sell it:)
I also think your backyard idea is a great one and a big perk to potential buyers.
Also, get an estimate of normal tiles before you do the stick-on ones … our tiling was much cheaper than I had expected and is very durable.
Good luck! Don’t get discouraged! You’ve made a lot of progress on your house!
I have many thoughts and I hope I can organize them in a coherent way.
1. The backyard redo isn’t just for aesthetics…it was to help drainage problems, right? So that definitely sounds like a worthwhile repair to do soon.
2. If you do sell in 2012, would you move to another house or would you rent for awhile? Is the house you’re in better than something you could otherwise afford in the next 5 years?
3. How do your overall longterm finance plans mesh with this house? Do you think the costs of upkeep for this house will interfere with your retirement, college savings, and general quality of life? If the house is going to impede those things, then I think the house has got to go.
4. Can the house pass an FHA inspection? If not, I think getting it to pass is important.
Char: My concern with putting a lot of money into the kitchen floor is because it’s affected by the foundation. Right now the floor is pretty horrible – peel & stick tile that wasn’t even put in very nicely. I think I would go that route, and after the house is level again perhaps we could look into something more durable/nicer. It all depends on timing. I know peel & stick doesn’t last as long, so it might be that it’s ready to be replaced. We’ll have to see.
Thanks for the vote of confidence about the kitchen. :-) I definitely agree – since it’s unlikely we’ll ever be able to solve all the problems (unless we stay here 30 years), we need to focus on getting people to even consider the house. Not that I want to trick them, but showcase its potential. I wasn’t able to see the house’s potential when we looked at it – Paul was the one who insisted we give it some consideration.
Our roof is functional and not leaking, I just remember that our mortgage wanted us to get a separate roof inspector to come and submit a written report that it was still in okay condition. It’s just old and will need replacing.
Kacie: you are correct – the money into the backyard is mainly for drainage. But the side benefit is it looking nice! :-) Also, we got an FHA loan so I assume that any future buyers would be able to as well. Of course, it probably depends on the appraiser – my bro & sil’s house was originally deemed “unlivable” because of loose tile, and their 3 year old house was in excellent condition!! I think the only “iffy” part would be the foundation, and it’s not unstable, just (very) slowly sinking. It’s just expensive to fix.
The foundation is key to everything, I hate to say. Let’s say you decide to replace your bathtub. The plumber could get in there and say that he can’t do something or other because the pipes are out of whack due to the sinking of the house. You already mentioned the slanting floor and why you wouldn’t be able to tile. Also, if it’s causing any cracking in your walls, that’s an aesthetic thing, as well as doors and windows being able to open properly.
Please know I’m saying this from personal experience and not to simply be a pain in the butt. I know the foundation is estimated to cost you a small fortune, but it’s a structural issue, which is more important than any of the cosmetic stuff.
Now when it comes to resale, I agree that the kitchen and bathroom will be important selling points. But if things aren’t structurally sound, you’re really not going to get anyone buying. I feel as if I’m being the heavy here, and I don’t mean to be. I just know how it is to have a problem house.
You know what’s funny? We lamented for YEARS about how lifting the foundation didn’t actually fix our problems. It was when we were trying to sell our house to house flippers (basically to just get out of it rather than to make a profit) that it was discovered we had leaks under the house. Tree roots were busting up our pipes. Once we had that fixed, our foundation problems ceased. It wasn’t even what we truly thought it was. And the beautiful thing is that our insurance policy covered it!
Anne Marie: Yeah the more we’ve talking about it, the more we realize that the foundation is #1. Of course, don’t forget that since we live in a split level that only half of the house is affected. All the foundation specialists that we’ve had here have agreed that the den/bedrooms section of the house is structurally sound. But we definitely should fix the foundation before messing with the kitchen.