Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

ALandWarInAsia t1_j6kcj06 wrote

The construction cost seems low if you are talking about addition plus remodel plus adding a garage etc.

Your current house is worth $900k. You think you can put up about $600k in the remodel well that puts you as $1.5M and you think a $1.6M house is unaffordable.

It's hard to compare your own project to rennovations/flips in your area. They are likely making part of their profit by doing the work, where you need to hire contractors.

You might want to look into the financing side more too. How do you intend to get the capital for the renovation? I don't think a HELOC is an option since they will cap at 85% of your equity in the property.

1

ScaryStatistician OP t1_j6negdo wrote

>You think you can put up about $600k in the remodel well that puts you as $1.5M and you think a $1.6M house is unaffordable.

Our math was 700k (what we bought the house for) + 600k remodel = 1.3M, as that's what we'll be paying the mortgage on.
As for financing, I talked to our mortgage bank who was ready to provide a construction loan for 600k.

1

ALandWarInAsia t1_j6p2ncj wrote

Yeah I totally get your line of thinking regarding $700k vs $900k but it's ignoring your equity that you could cash out now. My answer did ignore the cost of selling your house, which is significant though.

I'm not totally familiar with construction loans. Some are due at the end of construction (i.e., you need to refinance) and some convert to a mortgage. Either way, you are going to have a higher effective mortgage rate in the end.

It's a super hard decision. But I wouldn't discount the time/headaches/cost over runs that come with renovating. It's hard to put a price on, but it can be a really high workload for you.

1