My husband and I just found out we can't have children so we've deciede to selll our 2bd/2ba home...?

Question

We would like to make some major updates to the home before we sell. Does anyone know if it would be better to expand upwards and make our home a 3bd/2ba or if we should just expand out, making all the rooms just a bit bigger? Right now the property is .19 acres and the home is 1100 sq. ft.

Answer 1

You have to be careful when it comes to making improvements on a piece of property that you plan on selling, especially if you haven't owned it for very long. I was recently talking to a contractor, who came out to give a bid to do some work on my house and he told me about how he bought a piece of property for renovation investment and he did a beautiful job, but where he made the mistake was he did it as if he was going to live there himself.

It was a victorian home and he gutted it, but saved all the decorative molding. Then, the updated all the electical, plumming and heating, put installation in the outside walls (victorians don't have any), put up drywall, and got all new appliences. Plus, he had a new roof and new multi-color paint job done on the house. In the end, when he sold the house he ended up losing a lot of money, because he spent too much money on the renovations.

Now, my wife and I have been having a lot of work being done on our house the past couple years, and we have spent a ton of money to get things done the right way. Our house is over 120 years old and we have had a new roof put on, a new high effiency Train furnace and air conditioner installed, and recently we had the whole house electric re-wired. Plus, we had the outside of the house stripped and painted with four colors, the front porch (a wrap around), a custom hand wood hand railing built, all three entry doors replaced with decorative doors, Anderson storm doors installed, and a custom screened in back porch built.

However, the big difference of my wife and I is we plan on living here for a very long time. As a matter of a fact, we told the roofer that we plan on dying here.

To make a long story short, I would be careful about what kind of improvements you make. If you have carpeting at it's worn, you might be better off having it replaced. You might also want to take a look at other things that need to be repaired. Try and take a look at your home from a prospective buyer's point of view and address those issues, because that's what's going to keep someone from buying your home. If you painted the inside of your house to loud colors you might need to paint to neutral colors.

These are just some of the things I remember from when my wife and I were looking at houses. I couldn't believe some of the houses people were trying to sell. I mean, I saw one house with an obvious leaky roof, another with a bad foundation wall, another where the owner was in the process of tearing down a wall himself (a supporting wall) to expand a room, and that was just a few of them.

Anyway, I hope this information helps you.

Answer 2

Hi there,

Firstly I am sorry sorry to hear your news. But please don't give up hope. My husband and I were told the same thing, both of us had problems. He was sterile due to surviving cancer and I had women's issues. But now here we are 9 years later and we have two beautiful girls that are ours. My husband responded to some medication and produced to viable eggs to have an attempt at ivf and success . . .

That was 7 years ago then just last year I became very ill and you guessed it. We had done the impossible and conceived naturally all by ourselves. Dr's are still scratching their heads. In fact i was nearly four months along before they even did a pregnancy test because it simply wasn't supposed to happen.

If you are selling because of this I would suggest you hold off for a while, and if you can't have children yourselves you could always adopt or foster. We also foster children.

As for the advice on your house, if you really are determined to sell then unless you have spectacular views the don't build up.

I wish you all the luck......

Answer 3

2br/2bth is the perfect size for you. Don't move unless you really don't like the house. If you want to sell, your money would be better spent making what you have look as good as you can. If you live in a 2/2 neighborhood then I wouldn't change it. Maybe improve with a deck or something like that.

Answer 4

Well for myself I would not move into a 2 story house. I don't mind a basement but I'd never buy a house with more than one "living floor". I have hip problem and stairs make my problem worse quicker. So you are eliminating people like me and also people in wheelchairs if you would turn your house into a 2 story house.

Answer 5

Why are you selling your house? There is such a thing as adoption and invitro by donors both male and female. are you selling ti so you can have the money to do that? I just don't get it.