Why It’s Worth Buying A Home That You Can Fix Up
Collaborative post
If you’re reading this, I’ll wager you’re thinking about buying a home for your family. This could be the first property you’ve ever owned, or it might be a bigger place because you were very bored during lockdown and your family will now be expanding in the coming months! Either way, searching for a home can be a bit of a burden. You look long and hard for the perfect property, but none seem to present themselves. Eventually, you find something you like, but it costs a ridiculous amount of money. Usually, there has to be a compromise of some sorts!
In the end, you buy a house that doesn’t fit your perfect description. It’s not terrible, but it could use a lot of work. Honestly, this may seem like a problem, but it’s actually amazing. You might wish to use the experts, such as houseUP who have many years of refurbishment experience or embark on a solo project. I would say it’s genuinely worth buying a home that you can fix up, instead of getting one that’s perfect. This might sound preposterous to some of you, so let me explain my reasoning.
There’s no such thing as a perfect home
If you’re looking for the perfect home, you’ll be looking for a lifetime. There’s never going to be a house that ticks all of your boxes. As I said before, you will end up compromising. So, it makes sense to compromise from the beginning. Set your standards a bit lower and you will be amazed at how many properties suddenly pop up in your search. This gives you more options to choose from and can speed up the home-hunting process. You’ll never find the perfect home, so you may as well choose something that you can mould into the perfect property.
It tends to be less expensive
Have you ever spoken to somebody that built a home from scratch? If you have, you’ll realise that building a home isn’t as expensive as you think. I knew someone who built their home for under £50,000 – granted this was 20 years ago, but you still wouldn’t have found a house that cheap back then! I’m not saying you should build a house from scratch as it does require a lot of work and planning. My point is that most of the things you do to build a house aren’t that expensive.
As a result, buying a home that you can fix-up will usually be cheaper than buying a nicer one. The nicer property will cost more, and you probably still pay some money to make minor changes. However, opting for a much cheaper house that needs a lot of work done can be a smarter financial decision. The asking price is usually much lower – and you can haggle easier because the owner will probably be keen to sell. Then, you can renovate the home however you like. This could include adding an extension, converting the attic, doing up the kitchen, etc. Sure, these things cost money, but the overall price of your home will be cheaper than if you bought one with similar specifications from the start.
I must note this isn’t always guaranteed, it depends on how much work you do and who you employ to do the work. If you’re doing it yourself, it will obviously cost less than if you hired a company to deal with every element of the renovation.
More room for customisation
It’s worth noting that you can renovate and fix up a brand new house. Even a new build can be altered and tweaked to meet your dream specifications. Still, this links back to the previous point about money. It costs loads of money to buy a new build, and then you pay more on renovations – why bother?!
This brings me to the next point, older and more rundown homes have more room for improvement. You can customise so much more about the home without spending a fortune. If you move into an expensive home, you tend to just settle for what you’re given. It’s not perfect, but you don’t want to spend more money. With a cheaper house, you’re almost forced to make improvements or you will be unhappy. Regardless, this allows your creative freedom to run wild as you can customise so many elements of your house to make it as close to perfect as possible.
It’s an exciting project
I mean, this might not be a good enough reason for some of you, but it’s good enough for me. There’s something so thrilling and exciting about doing up a house. It’s like seeing those before and after photos online of people’s DIY projects. You love looking at your home and seeing how much work needs to be done, and then going out and doing it. The sense of achievement you get at the end is worth all of the effort you put into the house.
You simply don’t get this excitement when you avoid these types of houses. Again, some of you couldn’t care less as you want a home, not an exciting journey. If you wanted excitement you’d ride a rollercoaster blindfolded, I get it! Still, if you’re looking for a big project to consume your life, this could be it.
You can make a bigger profit
It’s rare to see a family stay in the same home for eternity. No matter how lovely your home is, there comes a time where it will be sold. This might be by yourself, or it could be by your kids after you pass the house down to them.
Buying a home that you can fix up is perfect when you’re thinking about selling it in the future. You can get a much larger profit as you might get a small 2-bedroom home and turn it into a big 4-bedroom one. This will instantly boost the value of your home, particularly if there are few like it in your area! So, if you want to keep the future in mind, buying a fixer-upper is a smart choice.
The moral of the story is that you don’t need to look for your dream home. There are plenty of cheaper houses out there that could be turned into your dream home with a bit of work.