Home ownership / rennovation questions (Columbia, Greenville: rental, how much, new home)

[Ceezer]

Let me just start this off by saying that I'm just looking at options. Nothing is immediate as I'm only in the planning stages right now. My objective, when I bought this house, was to live in it 3-4 years and unload it around the time the 3rd ID relocated to Shaw and move to Greenville. Because of that, we didn't spend that much time looking around before we bought; not as much as we could have, anyway. In fact, we probably rushed into it but I learned my lesson so I won't harp on that issue...

With the possibility of us deciding to 'settle down' here in Sumter instead of moving to Greenville, the housing situation raises a few problems. They're not 'problem' problems - I'm just not sure I'd be happy in this place for 20 more years (not my ideal floorplan, not enough land, there have been no kids for my daughter to play with, etc). So I'm trying to weigh the options here:

* Fix what needs to be fixed and get the house on the market so that we can find something we'll be happy in (or keep this one to rent out, since that seems to be the main composition of this neighborhood, seeing as how it's only 2 miles from Shaw)

or

* Put some heavy money and sweat equity into turning this into a home we love living in.

Some of the issues I'm facing:

The yard - We're on approximately 1acre. My back yard is a 30% grade, the front is closer to 45%. That makes mowing difficult; a pain in the butt, anyway. I've been trying to encourage pine tree (plus a few sugar maples here and there) growth so that 1) it will kind of close off the yard to add privacy and shade to the house, and 2) will hopefully eliminate the need to mow the front yard.
In the back yard I've wondered about having someone come in to excavate so that I could put in a retaining wall at the back of the yard to create a flat plane for my daughter to play in. How does billing for something like that work? Is there a price/ft3 like concrete, or do they have to come and estimate?

Gah! I've got to get to work but I'll finish this evening. Some other points that I'll touch on are:

*Removing the brick veneer to put vinyl siding on the house.
*Would it be weird to have a screened in deck on the *front* of the house?
*Additions: adding a single level addition vs adding a second story vs adding a 2 story addition
*And more....

[Brandon Hoffman]

I wouldn't for the purpose of value remove the brick veneer. It typically adds value so not only would have time/expense/labor removing it, you would actually decrease value.

I've seen screened porches in front but not often.

If you're talking additions and heavy expense you're probably better off just doing the little things to get some sweat equity and selling. At that point you can go get the home you really want. I've heard there are some deals to be had in Sumter but I don't know the Sumter market or how accurate that is.

I'd say based on the sum of your statements, you'd be better selling or renting and buying another home. I'm a big fan of renting if you're set up where you can handle it if you have to go a month or 3 w/o getting a payment if things go wrong. Don't forget the tax rate adjustment if you go that route when figuring profit margin. It would also require less money to fix it up as opposed to selling right now.

[Ceezer]

South Carolinians seem to love their brick (veneer) ranch style houses. In NC the trend seems to be wrap a house in vinyl siding but put brick on the front fascia. Brick appears to be an appeal to buyers. Because of that, I have to wonder how much weight that appeal carries. How much would I be depreciating my home if I had the brick stripped off and replaced with vinyl siding? In contrast, you'd think it would help set my home apart from all the other houses in the neighborhood that look just like mine (1-story brick ranches). I think it's more versatile, as well, since replacing or even painting siding is easier (and generally looks better) than painting brick if one were to decide they
were tired of that look. And with appropriate color combinations, I think vinyl can make an ordinary house look extraordinary. Classy, even. So I have to wonder, in the Sumter area, would I actually help or hurt my resale value down the line if I replaced the brick?

Another trend I see down here is bricking in the garage doors and turning that into some kind of living space (approximately 40% of the houses in my neighborhood are that way). Doesn't that reduce a home's value? I would think having a garage would be more valuable than a few hundred more square feet. My 2-car garage was the selling point.

The reason I wanted to put a deck on the front instead of the back is because on the front yard I feel that space is wasted with the slope. On the back there is currently at least a small 'flat' spot and I would hate to take that away.

The renting sounds like a good idea, but it kind of also worries me. The house next to us is a rental and that thing seems to be empty more than it is occupied. Someone will come in but they'll only stay for 2-3 months. That's a lot of turn-around, which means a lot of cleaning (and possibly repainting, etc).

[waccamatt]

Brick is most certainly an appeal to most buyers, but not all. Brick costs more than vinyl so you will be depreciating your house if you replace it with vinyl. Since brick manufacturing is a major industry in Columbia, brick is more reasonably priced here than in other areas - thus the reason so many homes are made of brick. Brick is also a better insulator than vinyl, is fire resistant and has a much longer life than does vinyl.

[Brandon Hoffman]

I can't answer the question about how much value the brick adds, but if you take it off it will set your house apart but not the way you want. Your home will automatically be viewed as cheap since you don't have brick and the rest do. If you want to do that, just take 5 grand out to the back yard and burn it in a barrel. You'll have the same cost as taking the brick out but at least you won't have hurt your homes value.

Again, based on what you said, you should probably just sell and buy a new home. Even if you take a little loss you should make it up when you buy and then even more in the long run.