I live in California. I own a condo that I want to update. Is it worth it?

Question

I have a 2 story home with 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths.

It has a two car garage and has a small yard.

My husband and I plan to get pregnant soon.

We will have our mortgage paid off next year.

We intend on staying where we are probably permanently since California homes are expensive and there’s no way we can buy another home and afford to have children too.

I intended on spending about $40,000 to update everything and put in new kitchen cabinets and granite countertops.

Problem is in our neighborhood these updates aren’t the norm. My mother keeps saying one day we may move and rent out our home and then we will never make our money back.

I don’t know what to do!

Any advice?

I don't plan to move, but if the neighborhood gets crappy, or we have more than 2 children we may move.

Answer 1

OK, you say that you are not moving out. Your mother says you are. Who is running your life, you or your mother?

Answer 2

I am a little confused. You say you have a condo but then you refer to it as a 2 story home? So I will imagine that you ment a 2 story townhome, right?

Anywho, First of all I want to CONGRATULATE you in having your mortgage almost paid off specially here in California. This is rare to find in Cali. In the South like Georgia, Alabhama may be not but here in Cali...wow!

Anywho again, lets get back on track.

One question you should be asking yourself is "do you really need all those upgrades you mentioned?" Its understandable that you want them but do you really need those?. You may be better off with less expensive renovations and you could use the rest of the money as savings for any unexpected expenses when the baby comes.

Also, you say that you have your mortgage almost paid off, that means that you have A LOT of equity built in your home, so according to your desire to stay put until you have a baby I would suggest you do the following.

Have your first baby, keep your finances on track, see how much you need to spend on your baby and other expenses, and how much you have left over that you could use for a mortgage payment. Now, sell your current home after all this and use MOST of the profits you will get from that sell as a downpayment for a bigger home if you decide to move. With a large downpayment, your monthly payments will be low enough for you not to have much problems paying it off.

Another option COULD be to rent your current property (after all that I mentioned about the baby and paying off the home) and refinance it so you can use the money from the refi as a down payment for a new home BUT always making sure the rent in your area will cover the mortgage payments for your rental properties.

As you can see, there are many different ways that you can go. It really depends on what you are trying to achive in life.

Hope this information helped you. Good luck

Answer 3

You will have your house paid for next year?... then chances are you can afford to put some money in your home just with the equity you accumulated since you bought it. It sounds to me that your home is more then just an investment for you, if you are looking to make improvements for your personal enjoyment and you can afford to do so, go for it. If you decide to sell an appraiser can make the adjustments in value for the extra updates you have, if you decide to rent it out some day you can price it accordingly.
Never mind what your mother says about it, if you go by that logic one day you may die and lose it all.
Without a lot more figures, like when you bought and for how much and what you paid in interest, I can't give any other advice, but I hope this has helped.

Answer 4

If you want to stay in San Diego, you'll have to stay in your condo. If you want a house, consider moving to Corona, Norco, or some other inland city. You can still afford to buy a large 2500+ sq ft. house for about $400K out there with out leaving the state.

I work in Newport Beach where the average cost of a house is 2.4 MILLION!!! Most of my co-workers and I live about an hour away. If you want a large affordable house, traffic time is the price you pay.

Answer 5

I would say debate your pros and cons. If you know that you will be living there for quite some time and your place needs an update, i would say go for it! It won't hurt plus if you decide later on down the road to sell it, it could go for more since it will be updated. I also think since that if you plan on staying for a while, why not make it look the way you want it to.

Answer 6

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Answer 7

That will be difficult. You want to live there for ever.....fix it up. You want to move and rent it out....don't! Do you need someone to make up your mind for you? Even if it is fixed up...it will rent for more...get rented faster...and stay rented longer!