Move or re-invest?

Pat

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Oct 20, 2011
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Stay and re-invest in you current home almost always is the smarter investment. Especially with the INSANE cost to build right now. Also the quality of new construction is pretty bad until you hit a pretty high dollar price as GC's and subs are rushing to get as much business done as they can

The insane cost/labor/quality issues apply equally to remodeling, too, though potentially at a smaller scale.
 
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DBQR4CY

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Jun 7, 2013
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Ankeny(By way of Dubuque)
There is a top elevation of our house. As you can see there isn't any room on garage side to add anything. With new garage it wouldn't be a full driveway but two small 2' lanes going back to it. I would be parking here and I can be fairly robotic about it given I fit by truck in our current garage with our van, just no one gets out the passenger side because its up against the wall.
 

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cyfan92

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The insane cost/labor/quality issues apply equally to remodeling, too, though potentially at a smaller scale.

Yes, but smaller scale being huge in that you get to micro manage the whole process as you live in the house versus driving over every day. A lot easier to manage a kitchen remodel versus building a kitchen
 

brianhos

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I would add... We did that about 10 years ago, added another bedroom, and it was the right decision. I have more value in the house now and I got to use the room for 10 years.
 
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coolerifyoudid

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Feb 8, 2013
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There is a top elevation of our house. As you can see there isn't any room on garage side to add anything. With new garage it wouldn't be a full driveway but two small 2' lanes going back to it. I would be parking here and I can be fairly robotic about it given I fit by truck in our current garage with our van, just no one gets out the passenger side because its up against the wall.

Yeah, that is a weird fit for your lot. Nice sized backyard, though. I'd trade you back yards without blinking.

We are in a similar position and debated remodeling vs moving. We love our location and (most of) our neighbors, so we just recently opted to remodel (signed our contract last week actually). When we figured out how much longer we were planning on staying in our house, the cost really made sense, even if it is an aggressive remodel.

I feel your pain with the garage. Our two-car garage suuuucks. I dealt with it for years, but last year I took everything out and just parked the cars in there for perspective. Then I gradually put in things that needed to stay out there and couldn't be put anywhere else. It made a big difference. Dumb stuff was taking up space when I could find a better spot for it. I recently completed some under-deck storage for our bikes, mower and power washer. That was a life saver. It's still small, but my aggravation level with my garage dropped 90%.

When we are done with our remodel, our house will be valued much higher than those around us, and I know we'll never get back what we put into it, but we're ultimately the ones living there. I'm guilty of being house-jealous with some of our friends' larger newer houses, however we wanted our house to feel like our house.

My advice to you is to take advice, but ultimately decide what works for you. Don't be afraid to go with your opinion, even if nobody agrees with it. If moving makes more sense, go for it. But do it because it's what you want. It'll always be easier for others to suggest the higher priced shiny option when they aren't the ones footing the bill.
 
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NWICY

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Sep 2, 2012
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Carpet and pretty much most of all the flooring we replaced a couple of years ago. AC went so that was replaced. Just had 5 windows replaced, 2 more windows need to be done but they will be more expensive due to size but don't mind that cost. Roof was just replaced this Fall thanks to the storms so that was only $1000.

The more you post the more it sounds like you should remodel and stay.
 

SoapyCy

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Oct 10, 2012
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I looked up your house on Zillow and it looks great. You say you dont like your kitchen, and I dont like mine either (WAY more outdated than yours!), but I've realized my dislike goes away the less I watch TV and the less I'm at other people's houses.

Could your insulate your garage and make it into a living space with new windows and relocate the garage and driveway to the other side? Or would that look weird?

Edit - I have a wood house. Never buy a wood house.
 

DBQR4CY

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Jun 7, 2013
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Ankeny(By way of Dubuque)
Yeah, that is a weird fit for your lot. Nice sized backyard, though. I'd trade you back yards without blinking.

We are in a similar position and debated remodeling vs moving. We love our location and (most of) our neighbors, so we just recently opted to remodel (signed our contract last week actually). When we figured out how much longer we were planning on staying in our house, the cost really made sense, even if it is an aggressive remodel.

I feel your pain with the garage. Our two-car garage suuuucks. I dealt with it for years, but last year I took everything out and just parked the cars in there for perspective. Then I gradually put in things that needed to stay out there and couldn't be put anywhere else. It made a big difference. Dumb stuff was taking up space when I could find a better spot for it. I recently completed some under-deck storage for our bikes, mower and power washer. That was a life saver. It's still small, but my aggravation level with my garage dropped 90%.

When we are done with our remodel, our house will be valued much higher than those around us, and I know we'll never get back what we put into it, but we're ultimately the ones living there. I'm guilty of being house-jealous with some of our friends' larger newer houses, however we wanted our house to feel like our house.

My advice to you is to take advice, but ultimately decide what works for you. Don't be afraid to go with your opinion, even if nobody agrees with it. If moving makes more sense, go for it. But do it because it's what you want. It'll always be easier for others to suggest the higher priced shiny option when they aren't the ones footing the bill.

Oh yeah, our garage is basically 22'x18'. There's enough room so both sides of our van can be accessed and then there is enough room to fit my Sierra in there but it's tight against the wall, side mirror a couple inches away. Bikes are up on hooks, there's shelving up high, and the kayak is on a pulley system. No more room to gain, lol.

3 summers ago just before our first was born a storm knocked a massive tree branch down the middle of the shed. Good thing to come of that is the platform it was built on would never had held the riding mower we got from in-laws (it's an older but still running great zero turn). So I built a new shed that can be seen in the picture. 10'x12'. Those were fun days with a new born at home. Basically wake up, work, come home, tools out, work a few hours, pickup, eat, shower, wake up to help with new born. Lol.
 
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DBQR4CY

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Jun 7, 2013
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Ankeny(By way of Dubuque)
I looked up your house on Zillow and it looks great. You say you dont like your kitchen, and I dont like mine either (WAY more outdated than yours!), but I've realized my dislike goes away the less I watch TV and the less I'm at other people's houses.

Could your insulate your garage and make it into a living space with new windows and relocate the garage and driveway to the other side? Or would that look weird?

Edit - I have a wood house. Never buy a wood house.

Stalker! Haha, jk. I know how that goes. I'm on Zillow too much as well and when someone says where they live I can usually track down their house quickly. Yeah, those photos from former owners. There's other homes exactly like ours around us. Many of them have a smaller island and then the kitchen sink in the corner and stove along back wall. We have pulled those front bushes, added a nice large porch and stone half way up the front. Then new lights on the garage and a nice new GM garage door. None of this would be possible without having in-laws that know what they're doing when it comes to this. Without them it would have to be hired done because I don't have that much knowledge or the ability to do it all by myself. Lol. I got plenty of tools, just not the experience but I've been gaining experience.
 
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DBQR4CY

Well-Known Member
Jun 7, 2013
572
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Ankeny(By way of Dubuque)
I looked up your house on Zillow and it looks great. You say you dont like your kitchen, and I dont like mine either (WAY more outdated than yours!), but I've realized my dislike goes away the less I watch TV and the less I'm at other people's houses.

Could your insulate your garage and make it into a living space with new windows and relocate the garage and driveway to the other side? Or would that look weird?

Edit - I have a wood house. Never buy a wood house.

I've thought about using the current garage to do that but might just look too odd. Yeah, a nice 24x24 garage on the other side would still leave me room to pull around back if I wanted to. But with a bedroom also right above the garage it wouldn't be the greatest to hangout there and keeping someone else awake.
 

Cdiedrick

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Jun 26, 2014
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My wife an I have been in Ankeny for nearly a decade now. We have been in our current home for over 5 years now. We live in the SW corner of Ankeny and coming to the point of do we move to a house with a 3 car (or larger 2 car) and a few more hundred sq ft or do we create what we want in our current house? We like our location and that we have some space (nearly half acre which is primarily in the back and more private) and we have some great neighbors. Problems are that we have a small two car garage (400sq ft) and no way of adding a 3rd car attached, we don't have a true master bathroom as our bedroom is on the first floor and the bath is shared with that floor. We also don't have a big open space when people are over or as our very young children get older. We bought our house just under $200,000 and know that with what we have done plus market increases we could sell and expect around $250,00.

We really want to stay in Ankeny for reasons like daycare (in-home) and the schools (they can walk 3 mins to Crooker). Problems with Ankeny is that when you look at the next level homes in the $300,000-$350,000 you either get generic new homes or its a 30 year old house that has the size, interior spaces, a decent yard but hasn't been remodeled or updated since it was built. Then you're stuck having to stick a bunch of money into it having to update it.

If we stayed we could drop $60,000-$80,000 and never have to move for a few decades if we wanted. Our does have space that I could have a detached single car garage built (I drive a truck and we have a camper that I pull with it) but it would be opposite side of the garage (idiot builder ruined the ability to really do some awesome things by the way they positioned the house). We could easily add a nice addition off the back and create a great room that's roughly 20'x20'. Then we could also update our kitchen and probably have the house re-insulated. I'm also not afraid of doing some of the work as I built our shed (10'x12') mostly by myself and we added a front porch and stone halfway up the front elevation.

Building is pretty much out of the question as a half acre lot goes for nearly $100,000 (which is just plain stupid). Hard to find current lot size in any homes either new or existing that don't require $10,000's in updates. I know investment wise moving would be the best option and if we stayed we would be by far the most expensive house in the neighborhood but that doesn't bother me since we would be there for 20 years or longer. Also, property taxes in Polk Co suck! They can mess up your monthly payments fast!
Quit over thinking. If you like where you live, invest in the house if you don’t care to move. If you are second guessing it, get out. It’s simple really.