Buying a house (or Everyone thinks I am crazy:)

[Betc04]

My husband and I are trying to have another baby and we realized that there is no way we can live in a two bedroom apartment with a toddler and an infant. So we have been looking around at houses and trying to find something not only affordable but downright cheap. My husband is a little cheap sometimes. Except when it comes to electronice...Anyway, we found a place for less than 50,000 and it is HUUUUUGE. 4 bedrooms, gigantic kitchen, and a full city lot. I think th square footage is 2800. It used to be two apartments but someone bought it, started fixing it up...sort of, and then defaulted their loan and abandoned the house. Sounds great? Well, the basement reeks of mold, the roof will need to be replaced, most of the rooms are half done and the flooring throughout is either ripped up or should have been. Oh and it will need to be sided soon. In spite of all of this, I still want it. Its a beautiful house. At least it could be with a little TLC. My dad thinks I am nuts for even thinking about taking on this kind of progect. My mom thinks I am silly for wanting to buy sch a big house when there are only three of us. My husband is kind of on the same wave-length as me but I'm not sure he really wants to buy something that is going to need work done before we could even move in. I guess I am just a sucker for lost puppies, unwanted kittens, and abandoned houses. When I was a little girl we used to drive to my grampa's house in the country. 4 out of every 5 houses we drove by were abandoned. I used to picture them in their day, with a family who laughed and loved there, with dogs running around, with bushes and flowerbeds trimmed and cared for. I've always wanted a house that needed love. I guess I am kind of weird that way. The only real problem I see is an inspector turning up some bad mold damage in the basement...I don't love mold:) 

[GAMom7337]

Sep. 3, 2007 at 7:31 AM Well I think its great you want to buy a home....but before I would dive into a fixer upper I would get an estimate on all the work that will need to be done, have the home inspected first to make sure there arent any more problems besides the ones you see, see what repairs you could do yourself, and with the market the way it is definitely dont get into an ARM mortgage, you want a fixed rate ....and if the seller is asking 50K offer a little less since it needs so much work ...you could even make an offer that can include asking the seller to fix some of things but if their not willing to I would definitely have them pay my closing costs then...sounds like the house needs a lot of TLC but I'm like you...like to find a diamond in the rough and make it shine....my advice is just do your homework before you take on such a project...good luck

[goofyrbsn]

Sep. 3, 2007 at 8:48 AM Nothing wrong with buying an old house and fixing it up,but I wouldn't touch one with mold in a million years! JMO

[bluiidmommy]

Sep. 3, 2007 at 1:03 PM That's what my husband and I plan to do one day--buy an old house and fix it up so it's the house of our dreams.  Good luck!

[mamma.bird]

Jan. 12, 2008 at 5:09 PM Go for it... just get it checked for the type of mold and have it taken care of FIRST.  My husband and I just bought a house for 33,000 and with a little work we got it appraised at 66,000!!  AND we still have some things we want to get done in the next few years. 

[mytwogirls57]

Sep. 17, 2008 at 2:35 PM

You're not crazy for buying an old home and fixing it up. That's what I did. It's not as bad shape as the one you want to buy but the bathroom, sunporch, kitchen needed updating and the garage needed new shingles. Remodeling can be lots of fun but tiring too. The flooring in my kitchen still needs to be replaced and the baseboards in kitchen and bathroom have to be put on. My boyfriends is going to do that for me. It takes time. I'd say if you have the money and can afford to fix it up I say go for it.

[calvinsmommy18]

Feb. 5, 2009 at 12:44 AM

you have to think of the big picture. a fixer up can be good in some cases, my husband and my house was a fixer up, we got a great deal and put some money into it and its a pretty good house. but, its not as energy efficient as it could be, its a little big for us and it costs alot more to heat that we would have thought. Our house took about 3 months to get liveable, but it sounds like it had less repairs than yours would have. We had to fix some walls, paint and get carpet and limoleum installed. I guess you need to think of the whole costs, how much would it cost you a month......in the winter....to heat, for electric, mortgage, upkeep, property taxes and insurance. plus what costs to repair it, and if it comes out reasonable you could go for it.  Also i know if you are trying to a FHA mortgage they have strict standards about what a house can look like before you can evern purchase it, and judging by the fact that it is a forclosure the banks are not usually willing to get it up to standards..... any house without flooring they wont approve i know that...