move or improve??

lisred

Originally asked in buying/renting/selling. Advised to ask here too.

In a real quandary!

Have a 2 bed semi. Need a 4 bed house (had 2 babies in last 13 months!) ideally. 3 beds would do i suppose.

Have a mortgage of £80,000 house currently valued at £125,000 ish. £10,000 savings.
Average 3-4 bed house price around here is £160-220,000.
Mortgage of 175 would be top of our budget. Currently have 2 year fixed rate 5.99% till oct 09.

Currently we have a large garden front, back and side. Side garden as wide as width of current house, so should we just extend. Not a bad area and eldest son settled at school.

Do we go to our existing lender to remortgage for more of the value of our house, to extend and ultimately value of house goes up? Or better to just move to what we need and get bigger mortgage? Talk of house prices falling makes me cautious to do this aas don't really want to be in negative equity. Surely extending is the only option. But how will it work with a mortgage can we borrow against the house or will we have to take out a homeowners loan?

Not confident when talking about money. Need someone to tell me what to do for the best!

Cheers
L x

dimbo61

it will cost you £3,000 to £5,000 to move with fees and moving costs
At the moment if done well and the budget kept under control ( NO thousand
pound taps yes I did see that price for a kitchen mixer tap )
then extending would be your best option
But I dont know what kind of an area you live in and if spending £20,000 or £30,000 on your house would add that sort of value to your home.
Done well an extension two storey would give you the extra bedrooms and more space downstairs ( downstairs loo ) ensuite to new bedroom etc
please bear in mind the house will be a building site for several months
can you stand the mess and do you know a good building firm to do the
work and draw up the plans. go to your existing lender and find out if they
are ok to lend you the money and you can afford the higher mortgage
GOOD LUCK