(Submitted by Lisa Roberts.)
If you want to make the best choice for your needs and budget in Eastern Oregon, you should consider buying a fixer-upper vs. move-in-ready home! More precisely, you should consider the pros, cons, and various other factors, or you might seriously regret your choice.
Understanding your needs and preferences
Before making a decision on buying a fixer-upper vs. move-in-ready home in Eastern Oregon, you should be completely honest about your possibilities. In other words, you should first examine your budget and the date by which you have to move out of your current property. For example, if you’re renting and your lease is running out, you might be in a rush. That would immediately limit your options and drive you more toward a move-in-ready option.
Likewise, take a long, hard look at your current lifestyle and what kind of house could support it. Do you need a large home with plenty of space for kids, various items, and even private work, study, or exercise spaces? Or can you manage with a much smaller, more humble home since your kids have all moved out? That, combined with your budget, will strongly impact the residence you want to aim for. After all, if you can handle the costs, you might just go for an ideal move-in-ready home. Conversely, a fixer-upper, even a very large one, would be much cheaper.
Of course, if you’re struggling to come to a decision on your own, you can always consult an agent based in Eastern Oregon for advice and assistance. Their experience will lend itself well to a discussion that will let you pin down the most optimal choices.
Pros of buying a fixer-upper
The advantages of buying a fixer-upper are quite obvious. First and foremost, their cost will always be lower than similar homes in Eastern Oregon. So, you could acquire an ‘impressive’ property in a nice location at stunningly low prices.
Besides, while fixing up the house, you can tailor it to your preferences. For example, you can shift around the room configurations to place bedrooms in nicer parts of the home. Or you can merge rooms into a massive living room for some nice open-floor settings. That would also result in a significantly increased value of the property. So, if you eventually decide to sell it, you’d likely reap a profit!
Cons of buying a fixer-upper
Unfortunately, fixer-uppers do come with drawbacks. To begin with, you definitely won’t have anything approaching a quick move-in. If you want to live comfortably instead of in the middle of an active construction zone, you’ll have no choice but to wait! These renovations also come with big price tags. Therefore, while you can prioritize the ones that will make the house livable, your costs might add up to much more than you’d have spent on a home outright.
Admittedly, this is mitigated by stretching out the renovations and doing them piecemeal, which makes everything more stressful. You need to constantly worry about funding, put up with construction, and stress over finding new issues that will demand even more money to fix.
Homes that ‘look’ like they might need only a bit of remodeling could have serious structural issues. Those would make your expenses shoot through the roof, at the very least. In extreme cases, they might make the entire home structurally unsafe, and you’d need to rebuild it. The only way to avoid this would be by doing a thorough home inspection beforehand and hoping that a professional can pin down all the problems without fail.
Pros of buying a move-in-ready home
None of the above fears are relevant if you go for a move-in-ready home. Of course, you still need to do a home inspection, just in case, but these homes are much safer ‘bets.’ Besides, you can go for a new-build home in Eastern Oregon. This way, you can be sure that you have nothing to fear as long as reputable contractors are involved.
In any case, the best part is that you can move in immediately without any stress. And if you do decide to spend some money on renovations, they’ll probably be cosmetic in nature and quite affordable!
Cons of buying a move-in-ready home
Despite all the benefits of move-in-ready homes in Eastern Oregon, you should also consider the cons. The price tag is the first concern. If a home is ‘perfect,’ the seller will naturally want to be paid suitably for what they offer!
You’ll also have to budget much more carefully if you want to make large-scale alterations to the property. After all, you’ve already spent a fortune on the home purchase. As such, you can easily overspend and strain your long-term finances.
Finally, with newly built homes in particular, you’ll probably need to do some furniture shopping or replacement, too. A lot of people tend to overlook this and so fail to account for it. Unfortunately, this can result in the first few months of your new life being spent in a rather bare home as you’ll purchase what you can when you can.
Financial considerations
Whether you’re buying a move-in-ready home or a fixer-upper, you must carefully budget for this investment. After all, you’ll have to finance the purchase on top of appraisal and closing costs. In addition, you also have to account for the cost of hiring a realtor, lawyer, or any other professional assistance you might need! It also goes without saying that, regardless of your purchase, you must consider homeownership’s long-term implications. Taxes, maintenance, minor purchases, and improvements all add up.
Don’t forget about the moving costs. Specifically, the more belongings you have and the further you move, the pricier the relocation. However, even with a large-sized, long-distance move, you can lower these costs a bit by booking movers well in advance, preferably during off-peak seasons. Still, you should never compromise on quality. So, always read through the customer reviews and check credentials to ensure you hire the best long distance movers in Oregon. This way, you won’t have to worry about your belongings getting damaged during the transition and spending a lot of money replacing them.
DIY vs. hiring professionals
Assess how good you are at working with your hands. If you know how to handle minor repairs and even some slightly more complex renovations on your own, that frees up a large chunk of your budget that you’d have to spend on professionals. Thus, the typical drawbacks of fixer-upper houses become at least a bit easier to tackle, making them a more viable choice when looking to settle in Eastern Oregon.
Of course, you shouldn’t do everything alone. For instance, trying to do roof repairs yourself comes with the risk of hurting yourself and ending up in a hospital. Obviously, this would have the opposite effect since you’d need to divert money to hospital bills or deal with long-term health complications. So, do what you can, and leave the rest up to reliable contractors.
However, if you have no renovation knowledge or skills, leave it to the professionals. Otherwise, you’ll end up doing more damage than good, which will require extra work. That, in turn, will increase the renovation costs.
Conclusion on buying a fixer-upper vs. move-in-ready home
With all the pros, cons, and added concerns of buying a fixer-upper vs. move-in-ready home in Eastern Oregon laid out, you can now make an informed decision. However, no matter what you choose, make sure you budget wisely well in advance because both options come with a big price tag. So, you should consult with your family and maybe even a financial advisor before you take the leap.
