possibly our new home.... would you buy it or not?

Well things turned in a fluke moment - we ended up at a open house we werent originally going to!

Anyhow we saw this house and it could be our new house! We are going back for a second look.

Cons
OMG the paint is creative ! lol....
Carpets are dated
Kitchen cupboards like out of austin powers
Bathrooms filthy..
busy -ish road

(sounding good yet??) lol

Pros -
Huge! 4 bed + study + 4 car + 3 living areas
in an area we like
Good price

So would you close your eyes and imagine it with new carpet and paint..... and buy due to layout and size?

or buy a smaller house (3 bed) for the same price in much better renovated condition?


thanks (again!)

nah go for it! I would!

The only thing that stands out for me is the busy road....I've lived on a main road and you tend to get sick of it really quickly....

Other than that - all the other things can be fixed up!!!

Ohh.....yay!

If you are up for the renos I'd go for it. Very exciting! It is amazing what a coat of paint can do - but it does tend to make everything else look more shabby than it did at first!
Good luck.

Its not a busy busy road - like a main road but a road from a main road that gets access to all the estates.
So i would say busyish.

We have never lived on a busy road before - and the main bedroom is at the front...

it is a big issue for us - but to buy in the same area in a quieter street would be more $$?

Is the road busy all the time?? We live on a busyish road but it is very quiet at night so we cope. Also we got a lot more house for our money on a busier road (its only 2 lanes)
We had a hideous kitchen (all dark brown timber and a copper range hood) and we cheaply painyed the cupboards gloss white and bought new silver handles from ebay for 99c each. we replaced the range hood (also ebay) and the kitchen now looks totally different.
What is under the carpet?? Can you rip it up and have polished boards?? Would a few well placed rugs cover it until you had the money??
Hire a cleaner to come and do the bathroom before you move in.

I would buy it but thats me you need to do what you feel best about.

it is only a 2 lane as well.
i would say only people who live there would drive there at night. otherwise no real reason - no schools on the road etc.

I said the same to DH - a bit of white gloss on the cupboard doors and some laminate inside the shelves could make a world of difference until we can afford to renovate properly in 5 + years.

The paint i can do myself - actually excited about it lol!

I dont know what is under the carpet... will see if we can see. but i would say concrete as it is a b&t home. We would have to work out if we wanted to tile some of the areas first.

the bathrooms ewww they were grose - i guess i would do a scout for new shower screens.. they always make it look nicer.

we are going to offer $20k less then advertised price.. and use them money to bring back up to scratch... i guess we have to hope it works out!

OMG - we moved into this house *because* of the Austin Powers kitchen cupboards! :rofl:
I would do it.

Yup, I'd take it! We bought an old house because it was on a huge block, and we'll be beuilding our own home behind it.

Generally people change things about a house when they move in, to make it their own anyway :)

I'd take a house that needs a bit of cosmetic work if everything else is great about it :)

Where is the 3 bedroom house?
If it is in a better location I would go with it.
If a house is discounted because it is in a bad loacation (in this case the road), when the market moves it will move more slowly so if you want to sell and move in a few years a poor location will have an impact on the resale value.
Also ask yourself how much the renos will cost and how much that will affect the resale value. If it was renovated what would it be worth? How much will the renos cost? Sometimes renovations can cost more than the value they will ad in which case you will lose money on the property.
I've lived near a busy road - it can old quickly having to wait 5 minutes for a gap in the traffic so you can get out of your driveway and having impatient drivers up your bum when you want to pull in.
I should say that the very idea of renovating makes me shudder. I used to think it would be fun then I painted a few doors and after that I had it out of my system.

If you're ok with the busy road I'd go for it. I have made some of the bombs that we bought into stunning places, all with a lick of paint, elbow grease and learning to become a bit of a handywomen with tools and a tile cutter.

Sounds like your gut instinct has already made up your mind though ;)

Gosh if looks were what I considered when buying my house, I would have run a mile screaming. My house was in need of love, lots of love. You gotta look past that and see the potential and evaluate whether you can afford to do what you need to get it to the standard you would be happy living in.

if it is structurally fine (get a building inspection!) then cosmetic things can be fixed easily. My place was horrible when I bought it - still stuck in the 70s, until I could renovate the horrible brown kitchen doors got a coat of paint, the walls got a coat of paint, then I ripped the carpet up in the lounge/dining/kitchen and put down rugs until I could afford to tile it (left ikky carpet in bedrooms). I did a LOT of the renovation in this place - ripped out the kitchen & bathroom, rendered the walls in the bedrooms - then I got professionals in to do the rest including render the walls in the lounge/dining/kitchen and the tiling. I'm in the process right now of repainting the place to freshen it up and to remove all memories of my xh (who picked the last lot of colours).

lol thanks girls - we are seeing it again tomorrow.
DH and i drove past tonight and sat for a while.
At 630pm in 10 mins only 6 cars drove past. so that is promising.

Brontide. the 3 bed house is in the same area. i am doing a comparison of a newer nicer 3 bed for the same price of this house which needs TLC :) it isnt a bad area. Actually a nice area,
As for the road. keep in mind the population of this town is about 11000 lol. so wouldnt be an issue of getting out in the traffic as such. but i understand what you mean .

i am actually excited about renovating... weird actually - every day is kinda like groundhog day - the thought of having a project is exciting for me! lol. I love painting houses. i almost took an apprenticeship a few years back ! hehe. people think i am weird but i find it extremely relaxing and therapeutic painting large spaces ,,,,, mmmm sounds like a dork now.

Anyhow DH and i are going to sit down and work out $$ tonight so we are all prepared.
Our next issue would be getting a long settlement so we arent paying too much double up (as we are in lease until dec :(

When we were looking at our current house DH and I were concerned that the road would be too busy. We drove by at different times during the day and night to see what the traffic was like. It paid off.

And did you end up buying?

If the floorplan is good, I'd go for it - if you have a good idea of what you'd want to do to the kitchen/bathroom and how much it would cost (realistically).

Well update.
We went a had a better longer look.
We decided the layout and design of the house is fab!
but would have too much work for the price they want...

and i couldnt convince DH on the road.
I see his point though. He said : wouldnt you rather a street your kids can ride their bikes in.

so we are going to leave it :(

but that is ok.. we are still on our journey!

Good luck with the house hunting PP, ya never know, there may be something even better just around the corner :)

PP - No I know but I try and make sure I pay for postage there, as they record the details on the receipt. I'm guessing you must have used stamps then?