When buying a new home or apartment would you prefer to buy one ready to live in or would you get one that needed restorations? Doing the maths it might be a good deal to buy a place and restore it, the big question would be, where would we live meanwhile? What's your say?
When I bought the flat I'm living in right now it was a total mess. I started by renovating the bathroom - replaced fittings, bathtub, sink and painted walls. Next I replaced the floors in one of the rooms and repainted the walls. After that it was simple, I moved into that room while the rest of the house was being worked on. If you don't mind living in questionable conditions until the renovation is done buying a house in need of work is a lot cheaper. The sum you invest in repairs is considerably lower than what you'd pay extra for a house with freshly painted walls/good floors.
From experience I know renovating is less expensive but would cost more than buying a new place if you have to replace everything in the end. Best to actually take a look at the old house you want to buy, try to calculate the expenses you'd incur renovating and compare that against the price of a ready-to-live place. p.s I worked in the construction industry at one time and . . . some people would prefer pulling apart an old house rather than renovate it while others tried renovation but ended up spending a substantial amount of cash [and regretted it].
If you have time and a builder you can trust, then renovations can make a place exactly how you like it. A new place has the advantage you can move in and the property is insured against any defects for several years. The only thing is new places tend to be smaller and have less land, so if you like space renovating maybe the way to go. You can always rent somewhere nearby or build a yurt in the backyard and live out of there and use it as a summerhouse later on.
One thing that caught my attention when visiting one apartment was that the real estate woman said that they gave free budgets for repairs or reconstruction and I think this is a big plus, because when we visit a place to buy we always want to make some changes, if we know how much that costs we will have the whole value there to make our decision.
When I eventually do buy my own house, I want it completed by the time I move in. Just don't have any patience for waiting for remodels and the work my roommates and I have done to our rental place has me pretty much burnt out on wanting to have a remodel house project again. Something always seems to go wrong to delay the renovation. But it can be a good money saving option if you can deal with the rennovations, especially if you're looking for a specific location to live in.
To be honest, I have no construction/remodel experience. With that said, I would much rather buy a place that's 100% move in ready. My husband, on the other hand, would much rather find a dump to remodel. I can understand his point of personalizing the home but who wants to wait forever to have it done never mind the money to actually do it with? Its not cheap going either route but if you're experienced in remodel stuff, it'd be alot cheaper to do on your own.
I would not buy a house or flat but rather a piece of land on which I can create exactly the kind of home that I always wanted. I would use as many recycled materials as I can get and start building a unique place suited to my personality and life style. But if that wasn't possible, I would buy an old barn and renovated it into my dream house.
That is something ideal Dora, I will not fight it, but the question is, where is the money to buy the land? Where is the money to build the house? More, I have money to pay my current place, but I don't have money to pay for that and to buy a piece of land, it's just out of my budget.
