Move or extend ?

sysadmin

Hi all.

Looking for a bit of advice . .

We currently live in a 3 bed semi in the West Midlands
We're looking to either move or add an extra bedroom to our house.

Ive had the house valued and there is roughly £70k in equity in the property and we have roughly £25k in savings.

Our options are to either extend into the loft or move to a 4 bed house in the immediate area.

If we were to move we would want to move to a house with a side garage as our current house doesn't have one (or room to build one)

Our house has been valued at £190k but there are not many 4 bed houses in the area that go for less than £250k and none on the market at present.. Is it the wrong time of year ?

Our hose does need some work eg new roof, fascias guttering, rear garage, porch etc which we would get done were we to stay. Roughly i think this would come to around £60k which would put us way above the ceiling price for the road .. However our next move after that would be in 20+ years time once the kids have moved out...

Just struggling to decide what to do ?

Dan-Dan

sysadmin wrote: »

Our hose does need some work eg new roof, fascias guttering, rear garage, porch etc which we would get done were we to stay. Roughly i think this would come to around £60k which would put us way above the ceiling price for the road .. However our next move after that would be in 20+ years time once the kids have moved out...

Surely if that is work that NEEDS doing, it wont take you above the ceiling price in your area, it will just make sure yours is saleable at a good price (for the area) ?

ReadingTim

First thing to do is calculate whether you can afford to move, and if so, what your money will buy you. You say your current house has been valued at £190k, but that it needs work. So is that £190k as is, or £190k assuming the work's been done? How does your current place compare to other 3 bed places in the local area that are currently on the market, as the sort of work you mention suggests either a low asking price (ie to take into account the cost of the work that needs to be done), or expect some serious low offers for the same reason.

Once you've got an idea of the sale value of the current place, less the outstanding mortgage to make the size of your new deposit, can you speak to a broker to see how much a lender might be willing to lend - only then can you add those figures together and see if it'll buy you anything bigger/nicer - if you can't afford to buy the 4 bedroom place you mention, the debate is a bit hypothetical, and you might only have the loft conversion option open to you!

sysadmin

Thanks for the replies so far

The house is in a good state of repair and we put a decent sized extension on about 7 years ago. The work I listed is work we would do if we decided to stay. The £190k valuation is 'as is' and for the style of house it towards the top end of the scale. A 4 bed (loft extension) a few doors down which didn't have a rear ground floor extension and needed new kitchen/bathroom etc sold last year for £190k

in our street there are many types of houses, including 500k bungalows!

Where we would look to move, 4 beds don't come up that often and I've seen them as low as £235k (idea) but up to £300k.

We 'could' afford a house up to £300k with the mortgage we could get and the equity/cash we have - however I am the only one on a good wage (partner doesn't earn enough to pay tax) so I worry that if I get made redundant or the interest rates go up, we'd struggle to pay the mortgage

Ideally - whatever we do I want to have £10k in the bank as 'just in case' money. This would be after all moving fees, and any work that either needs doing to our house or a new house

onlyroz

We decided to do a loft conversion to turn our 3-bed into a 4-bed. Our reasoning would be that moving costs could easily reach £15k (solicitors fees, estate agent fees, stamp duty, removal fees etc etc), which is around a third to a half of the amount required to convert the loft.


Our loft conversion cost around £45k, including the fitting of an en-suite bathroom, carpets, fitted wardrobes, decorating etc. We're glad we did it, and we now have a home that is suitable for at least another 10-15 years (when we can boot the kids out and downsize). We paid for it by releasing some of the equity in the house.

sysadmin

onlyroz wrote: »

We decided to do a loft conversion to turn our 3-bed into a 4-bed. Our reasoning would be that moving costs could easily reach £15k (solicitors fees, estate agent fees, stamp duty, removal fees etc etc), which is around a third to a half of the amount required to convert the loft.


Our loft conversion cost around £45k, including the fitting of an en-suite bathroom, carpets, fitted wardrobes, decorating etc. We're glad we did it, and we now have a home that is suitable for at least another 10-15 years (when we can boot the kids out and downsize). We paid for it by releasing some of the equity in the house.

Thanks for the reply
The only thing that is swaying me towards moving is the possibility of a side garage. Where we are now that's impossible but I suppose it's not a necessity just a nice to have

onlyroz

What do you need a garage for? Do you have enough space to park your vehicles and store your crap? We took down our garage and replaced it with a shed, and now our garden is much bigger.

sysadmin

onlyroz wrote: »

What do you need a garage for? Do you have enough space to park your vehicles and store your crap? We took down our garage and replaced it with a shed, and now our garden is much bigger.

Certainly not to store a car but me and my son are big cyclists and between 5 of us we have 8 bikes.
So it would mainly be for those. Plus houses with garages usually have utility's behind so it means we could move the washing machine out of the kitchen. Which in our current house you can hear it take off when your trying to watch TV

onlyroz

If your house is not in an ideal layout then that is certainly a consideration Have you tried writing separate lists of pros and cons? And then deciding which are deal breakers?

Hoploz

If you can afford it, move.

You've already extended this house. If you convert the loft as well, it still isn't big enough because you need a garage as well, so you'll still hanker after that.

I'm being presumptuous but I'd say if there isn't room for a garage you're running the risk of your house being over-developed for its plot size which can make things difficult to sell in the future.