Fix up our house or sell and buy new? (Apex: crimes, felons)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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We live in an OK house that I wouldn't describe as well built, but its decent. Its 13 yrs old, and 2430 sq foot, on a .40 acre lot. The best part of our home is the location...on a golf course and in Holly Springs, fantastic stable neighbors and friends. We have an amazing backyard...just about everyones jaws drop when they see it. Our jobs are stable and this is where we want to be and raise our kids. We have quite a bit more disposable income than we did when we bought it 3 yrs ago...I would like to have the place we will stay in until retirement. But to really be happy with the place, I would like to add on extra family room space, and finish the attic...as well as upgrade the finishes (cabinet refacing, floor refinishing, fireplace remodel). It would add about 700 sq ft to the house if we did everything. My guess is its $100k remodel...but not sure. Paid 300k, Tax appraisal is $321k now...doesn't count anything we've done inside. But I'm just not sure if its a bad investment (yes, our house is still an investment...thats how I look at it). Our neighbors have done a major upgrade (100k) to their exterior and are here to stay.
Best to remodel, or move to a new place...and try to replace neighbors & location (which I have not seen any better to this day...at least for us, for price).
It sounds like your best bet would be to remodel the house you have now. The location and the yard sound wonderful. It sounds like you'd have a hard time finding better elsewhere.
It sounds like you love the house, and believe me, good neighbors are hard to come by! It also seems like you have enough space (finish the attic) that you are not adding on so much to the house that you would give up much of the outside areas.
I am someone though, once we found that house we really liked, I would rather stay and make changes to it than move!
I would rather stay as the others have said also. Good neighbors are hard to replace. A perfect lot even though they still do exist are becoming harder to come by these days. From the sound of your post, it seems like you are in Sunset Ridge. I love that neighborhood. I personally think it would be hard to replace like you had said and I like Sunset Ridge (if i'm right) better than some of the newer neighborhoods in the area.
Best to remodel, or move to a new place...and try to replace neighbors & location (which I have not seen any better to this day...at least for us, for price).
Why do you seek the permission of strangers on an internet forum? It sounds to me as though you already know what you truly want - and that is to stay where you are and remodel.
I suspect that there's more to this story. What do you really want to know?
Is your question more about remodeling but not overbuilding for the neighborhood? That is a concern when it comes time to re sell.
Having the most expensive house in the neighborhood isn't a good idea but if you can do the remodel and still not be the house with the most square footage, its probably worth looking in to.
Its always a good idea to weigh the pros against the cons to a re model.
Based on the recent experience of friend who remodeled her home in Apex, I'll caution that you should know that remodeling is a huge undertaking. If you hire someone to do it, understand it may completely disrupt your ability to live in your home for more than a month. The costs also add up faster than you might anticipate. She ended up scaling back.
After the remodeling was done, she and her husband ended up selling the home b/c it still couldn't quite be what they wanted (they were limited somewhat in that it was an historic home).
If I were you I would start looking at homes in the price range you would be able to spend and see whats actually out there. You may find something much better than what you have now or not. Then you can make a informed decision.
Remember that you can do anything you want to a house for a price, but you can't replace a great location and good neighbors nearly as easily or predictably.
Vicki's right about overbuilding, but if you are in Sunset Ridge (sure sounds like it) you wouldn't be the only one doing a pretty serious renovation on one of the older homes in there. Where else would you go-12 Oaks near the dump for $700k to be on the golf course?
With the garbage being built now, at least you know what you have.
Be sure you never let a contractor get ahead of you with money on the job. Just saw an MSNBC special on bad contractors, and it was scary. Quite a few were caught with drugs and weapons on the job. Some were felons with sex crimes under their belts.
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