Buying as an investment (Austin, Donna: crime, how much, houses)

[atlanta hope]

We're torn between two houses right now. One is in Shady Hollow and one in Granada. They're both around the same price but the SH has far more room and won't need to be added on to -- the Granada one is a little too small but is nicer (needs less work). If we dump a lot of $ into SH making it really nice, I'm wondering if we'll retain the value or make money on it. I wouldn't want to price it out of the neighborhood. If we add on to the Granada house, there are other houses in the area that considerably more expensive so it's conceivable that we could double the value if we stay there long enough -- SH we would never double our money.

I think I'm leaning towards Granada just because it seems like it's a better investment but my husband is leaning towards SH cause it has the space we need without extending the footprint of the house.

Any advice? Should we flip a coin?

[FalconheadWest]

It's all about what your goals are. Are you up to living in a house with a hole in it while you build on an extention? Remodels like that aren't very fun. Is it in good enough condition that you could live there, though it's smaller, and then buy something else in 3-4 years while you feed off the appreciation since others are priced higher in the area?

Are you looking for your 7-10 year house and you know in your heart that you probably would not do the addition no matter how much you talk about it? Then go for the larger house. Watch how much you put into it as you were correct that you don't want to over do it, but also remember, when you update a house, you're doing it for you, and not necessarily for resale value. If you update now, and sell in 7-10 years, it could already be dated again.

You need to think which house you could call "home". Don't buy a house just to buy the house. If you never feel it's home, you're going to be selling much sooner than you anticipated.

Hope that helps somewhat.

[TexasHorseLady]

As you know, both are very nice neighborhoods of slightly different kinds. I'm inordinately fond of both of them and have been for about 20 years now.
If I weren't living out in the country, I might be living in one of them now. At the moment, they're both "far enough out, close enough in" that I can't see either neighborhood losing in value in the near (or even relatively distant) future.

It's hard to answer your question without seeing the house and the comps. Do you have estimates on how much it would cost to remodel the Granada house, and are there recent comps of houses that would be similar once you'd done the remodeling to give you an idea of what it would go for if the remodeling were already done, right now? Can your agent help you with these?

Donna's right, how long are you planning to live in this home? That's a major point that needs to be considered - short term, you might just get the remodeling finished and move and never be able to enjoy it. If you're going to live there for a while, that makes it more worth it.

Will your marriage stand the strain of remodeling? Sounds silly, I know, but it can be VERY strenous on a marriage to live with remodeling.

Last, do you love one of them more than the other?

[dollycool]

it.


Will your marriage stand the strain of remodeling? Sounds silly, I know, but it can be VERY strenous on a marriage to live with remodeling.

IT IS MORE STRENUOUS ON THE KIDS!! My parents wereliterally workin on the house every weekend of my youth in cleveland, with plastic up on the walls to move out of the way as we walked in the l room and my father's blasting Glenn Miller and big band music.. i cringe recalling it to this day.. and i mean paint and 'vrrrrrr!' that's the electric noise every weekend, for yrs..

Last, do you love one of them more than the other?[/quote]

[atlanta hope]

Originally Posted by TexasHorseLady

As you know, both are very nice neighborhoods of slightly different kinds. I'm inordinately fond of both of them and have been for about 20 years now.
If I weren't living out in the country, I might be living in one of them now. At the moment, they're both "far enough out, close enough in" that I can't see either neighborhood losing in value in the near (or even relatively distant) future.

It's hard to answer your question without seeing the house and the comps. Do you have estimates on how much it would cost to remodel the Granada house, and are there recent comps of houses that would be similar once you'd done the remodeling to give you an idea of what it would go for if the remodeling were already done, right now? Can your agent help you with these?

Donna's right, how long are you planning to live in this home? That's a major point that needs to be considered - short term, you might just get the remodeling finished and move and never be able to enjoy it. If you're going to live there for a while, that makes it more worth it.

Will your marriage stand the strain of remodeling? Sounds silly, I know, but it can be VERY strenous on a marriage to live with remodeling.

Last, do you love one of them more than the other?

We ruled out SH based on the traffic. The Granada home needs less work upfront but we'll need to do some work later. We're planning on staying long term.

We currently have a 1915 craftsman bungalow that we've been remodeling for the past 10 years. We took it down to studs and put an addition on the back. We survived but it was tough! Don't want to do that level of work EVER again. LOL!

Of course we decided on the Granada house and then found something in Barton Hills that we like also and it needs a lot of work (you can read my other post about moisture issues). It would be nice to be closer in but I think we might just stick with the Granada house so we don't have to worry about mold or crime. We pulled up the COA website and saw that there have been some burglaries in BH and nothing in Granada. We're leaving Atlanta because crime is such a problem for us.

Househunting is hard work! Hopefully we'll get it nailed down soon. Thanks for your advice!

[austin-steve]

We pulled up the COA website and saw that there have been some burglaries in BH and nothing in Granada.

Granada is not in the city of Austin. It's patrolled by Travis County. With over 400 homes, I can promise you there are burgaries. Last I heard (on the neighborhood yahoogroup), someone had gas stolen from their car a couple of months ago. Haven't heard of anything else, but you need to check with Travis County Sheriff, not APD.

Steve