Would You Buy This Unit ?

[Deactivated] on 11/02/2019 - 20:55
Last edited 29/03/2019 - 23:02 by 1 other user

Hello,

My wife is trying to convince me to sell our current home and buy a smaller place. According to her,
the pros are:

  • we will be mortgage free (or close to mortgage free)
  • walking distance to the kids' school.
  • safer as it is at the back of the property with only 1 other house in front of us.
  • she will have an office outside the main part of the house.
  • a workshop/ storage space for me.

cons:

  • It's a 3 bedroom unit and there's 6 of us (2x adults, 3 kids and an ewok/Shih Tzu). The 2 kids will have to share a room: either my pre-teen son with his toddler brother or my pre-teen son and daughter, who are twins and usually get along pretty well.

  • going through the stress of selling a house and renovating another one.

We are planning to move overseas within the next 3 -5 years and will either rent our home or sell it at that time.

The new place looks very similar to this property in layout , although the one we're looking at is slightly bigger and will need quite a bit of renovating.

I've amended the plan to give you a rough idea of what it will look like , here it is. Other notable differences:

  • The place we are looking at has only one good-sized family bathroom with a faux ensuite effect
  • a proper , good sized laundry with outdoor access.
  • 2 toilets ( one in family bathroom , the other in the laundry)
  • Where the laundry is on the plan I've attached is a storage area.
  • The smallest bedroom in the house is 3.5m x 3.5 m .
  • situated in a bayside suburb.

So here is my question , would you make the move? Is it worth the hassle? What would you change about the house?

Cheers,
JJB

Update The total size of the garage is approximately 10.5m (length) x 6.5m ( width) . So instead of an office and a workshop, we could have a bedroom ( perhaps even with an ensuite) which could be accessed via sliding doors from the patio.

Poll Options

  • 0
    I would move in a heartbeat! Being mortgage-free is the dream.
  • 32
    Are you crazy? No way. I foresee only trouble.
  • 0
    Maybe but only if I can make some changes to the layout.
  • 1
    Other.
Home & Garden

Comments

  • HighAndDry on 11/02/2019 - 20:59
    +3

    No, and for one reason only: Your two older children are going to need their own rooms as they get older. Sharing a room as a pre-teen may well be fine, but you're out of rooms to stash them as they get into their 13-18 age range.

    • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2019 - 21:01
      +3

      My least favourite kid could move into the garage …Does my wife really need an office?

      • HighAndDry on 11/02/2019 - 21:02
        +1

        I agree, your wife probably doesn't really need an office… but then again I'm not the one who has to tell her that.

        • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2019 - 21:06

          And the 2 year old might not be happy that he ( and all of his stuffed toys , legos and cars) gets moved to the garage :(

  • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2019 - 21:30

    I would say no as you said you plan to move (and presumably sell) in the next 3 -5 years and kids hate sharing rooms.

    • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2019 - 21:48

      But what if I could turn that office and workshop in the garage into a proper bedroom ( with possibly even an ensuite) that could be accessed via the patio? The house will go from being a 3 bedroom to a 4 bedroom with 2 masterbedrooms. It will add value to the place.

      • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2019 - 22:02
        +1

        To do that properly in way that would add value to the place would really cost a lot of money (council approvals, strata/body corp approvals take a long time and cost money to have prepared properly). People want some where secure to park their car at night so you would be devaluing the place as well.

        • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2019 - 22:28

          There is no strata/ body Corp. The house has its own title (and private driveway) but is at the back of another house.

          The garage is 10.5m x 6.5m.so the bedroom would be about 3.5m x 6.5m. The garage would then become 6.5 x 6.5m which is still a good sized 2-car garage.

          But yes, I agree that doing it properly would cost time and money.

  • Euphemistic on 11/02/2019 - 22:03
    +3

    No. Property is a long term purchase item. The stamp duty of the new purchase will not be recouped in the 3-5 years before you move.

    Also consider the current market is slow, it could take an extra 3-5 years to move much again so you might have little in the way of capital gain on a new short term property, Unless you plan to rent it out when you go OS.

    • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2019 - 22:35

      We have received an offer on our current place, hence why my wife is looking at other houses. We would be making a decent profit, which would be enough to pay off our mortgage and buy this unit.

      • Euphemistic on 12/02/2019 - 12:15
        +1

        Fair enough. As long as you are aware of the opportunities and potential pitfalls you can make up your own mind.

  • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2019 - 22:04

    Something fishy about your wife talking about downsizing. She has a pokies gambling debt.

    • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2019 - 22:20

      We've agreed that once we've saved up a certain amount of money, we'll move oversees. She's keen to offload our current house, which is too big for us, to buy something smaller, where instead of paying a mortgage, we can actually save.

  • [Deactivated] on 11/02/2019 - 23:38
    +1

    It's an interesting dilemma. @Euphemistic has made some good points about the problems with the property market at the moment and the added costs of two lots of stamp duty and other selling costs, once now and once later. There's also the cost and the renovations and the inconvenience of living in a house that's being renovated.

    I can understand your desire to save money and make a new start overseas. Being mortgage free might mean you'll be able to save more but I'd get some really good quotes on renovations and the selling/moving costs which will help you figure out how much money you'll save by not having mortgage repayments.

    The sharing bedrooms saga could be a good issue but it's going to depend on your children. I have a pre teen at the moment who doesn't want to share a bedroom with her little sister at the moment. We're in the process of decluttering the house so we can re-organise the bedroom situation by the time she's a teenager. Each child will feel differently about the situation.

    Where will your computers or gaming machines end up? You only appear to have one main living area which works for some families but not for others.

    How many family members think your existing house is too big?

    Will the home and garden be big enough for all the extra family members? Do you still have chickens or other pets apart from the one mentioned in your post?

    I know I'm asking more questions than giving answers but there's too much to take into consideration to give you a definite answer on the forum. Good luck with the dilemma. My personal opinion is "Don't move" as I'm a person who hates moving house and avoids it as much as possible. You've got a more flexible and adventurous family so they might see it as an exciting challenge and see it as a great step in the lead up to moving overseas.

    • [Deactivated] on 12/02/2019 - 08:33
      +1

      Hello pointscrazy :) No more chooks, sadly. Every single one of us agrees that our current place is too big. Some wants to adopt all the animals at our local animal shelter, others that we adopt all their friends and let them live with us. The 2 yr old wants an outdoor toilet with no walls and trees for target practice.

      I want a smaller yard, just big enough that I can justify owing a lawnmower but not so big that my beer gets warm by time I finish mowing.

      • [Deactivated] on 12/02/2019 - 21:51
        +1

        Thank you for your thoughts and clarifying some of the issues. Good luck with your decision. It looks like all of your family have thought about your situation.

        Lovely to hear your 2 year old can tell/show you what he wants.

  • [Deactivated] on 12/02/2019 - 01:21
    +3

    pre-teen son and daughter, who are twins

    Pre-teens, surprisingly turn into teens…

    I doubt any teenage girl would want to share a room with her twin brother. Likely an issue down the track, to take into consideration now (as a con) .

    Might want to put the teenage son out in the 'office' room. Make that his bedroom, if ever there arises an issue with room-sharing . Provided that the office isn't a must have, for your wife.

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