WWYD - renovate or knock down/rebuild (or sell as-is)

[_19disnA]

I would sell as is. Real estate prices in general are cooling off from the rapid increases seen during much of covid. With prices being flat or declining, I wouldn't put a lot of money into any remodel. Perspective buyers may simply come in and redo it again in a particular style they suits them. Remodeling an older home almost always involves additional costs not considered in the original estimate.

 

[kymom99]

My friend is a really good real estate agent. She told us to sell as is as the buyer might not like the scheme we choose. She says use your money to renovate your new purchase.

That’s my feeling. You want it to look clean but know the new owners will likely change a lot of things

 

[Darcy03231]

Sell as is.

I'm also in the camp of thinking you've way underestimated your budget. DH was a commercial contractor before he retired and we redid our kitchen, two bathrooms, and had a hardwood floor refinished and stairs fixed and refinished. Even with doing a lot of the work ourselves, and not buying anything extravagant for tile, cabinets, vanities, etc. we spent close to $35k (and that didn't include appliances) and that was almost 9 years ago.

5 years ago we gutted the kitchen in our lake house and redid it. Again, nothing extravagant and DH did some of the work himself. We spent close to $20k, including appliances (and it's a small, not eat in kitchen).

 

[LuvOrlando]

If you do not have the money to upgrade the home and have no desire to live in it once it is fixed up it sounds like a terrible idea to give up a condo for investment purposes in the hope you can recover the investment and get ahead to the next step. You might end up stuck and very unhappy.

It would be reasonable to get an appraisal and do some normal not too pricey fixes and curb appeal. We have had dumpsters in and filled them with regular homey bric-a-brac and have been shocked how much a home comes alive when you just get rid of the everyday things. If you offer $100 a day to maybe 3 people in Nextdoor or on FB etc you'll get people willing to haul stuff out to the dumpster for you for a quick buck, this has been such a breath of fresh air. I am not paying top dollar for a place I won't stay in so a handyman has worked great so far. This handyman who has been doing the inexpensive but labor intensive tasks like swapping out light fixtures, fixing walls, fixing random this and that & painting. It is very tough to get a beat on value when you look at a house and all you can see is work to be done and if you have time doing these things little by little is much less stressful and prevents bad decisions.

 

[unrequited23]

I would sell it as is but budget some money for a spruce up before selling--maybe power wash the house/driveway, get new mulch, have carpets professionally cleaned, seal any driveway cracks, trim trees/bushes, wash walls, deep clean house, organize closets with baskets or shelves, etc. Nothing major, but the little things can add up to a couple of $1000 if you are hiring someone vs doing the work yourself.