wild hair housing idea

[Khan]

My house is paid for and is old and falling apart.

Small house, small lot.

Speculation: tear down house and replace.

Any experience/ideas/sites?

[Martha]

Is the small lot buildable if you tear down the old house? Sometimes they are not.

You might be better off selling the house and lot and building elsewhere.

A friend had a valuable lake lot with a so so lake home. He had the house torn down and built a new one. It made sense because the lot was worth a bundle.

Also, the people who bought our old lake home tore it down and built a new house. Given the price of the property and the tear down costs, I think they have far more into the property than it is worth.

All in all, I think it depends on the value of the lot.

[AzDreamer]

I would do some calculations first. What's a decent place where you are now cost, what's your place worth today, what's the cost to rebuild, what's the value if rebuilt. The extra work to rebuild and live someplace else in the meantime is also going to cost something.

[bbbamI]

Didn't you mention not long ago that you were thinking of getting a condo because you were tired of the maintenance on your house and yard?

Maybe it's time to sell your place and move on.

[Want2retire]

Originally Posted by AzDreamer

I would do some calculations first. What's a decent place where you are now cost, what's your place worth today, what's the cost to rebuild, what's the value if rebuilt. The extra work to rebuild and live someplace else in the meantime is also going to cost something.

Also, it's going to take longer than you imagine. Have you EVER heard anyone say that their house got built faster than they had thought? Nope. Never happens. It will take much, MUCH longer to build than you think. So, you will need to live someplace else for a longer time than you think, too.

[Khan]

As I said, wild hair stage.

Other ideas:
Convert detached garage to apartment
Replace house with rental units for nearby medical college
Fulltime RV
Sell/give land to neighbor
Move to senior housing downtown

Many possibilities

Don't have to do anything right right now

[lazygood4nothinbum]

here's another wild hair: if you have an older area nearby being redeveloped which has good quality homes that are being torn down maybe you could move one to your lot. for a small home maybe $60k? for foundation and to move & connect the house. often developers will simply give the houses away especially if they are at all historic. a neighbor of mine wanted to expand his house and did just this. brought in a crane and he flew the house over his, planting it in the backyard and connected to main house with courtyard. turned out real nice.

[bbbamI]

You mentioned the senior housing downtown. Would you have to buy or could you rent? If you could rent a new place, maybe you could rent your house or keep it vacant for a while to see if you like your new home and surroundings.

Speaking of wild hairs...I haven't had one of those in a while.

[laurencewill]

If there is no real structural problem, you could do what my uncle did. Tore out the walls to the studs, rewired and replumbed, new floors, walls, kitchen counters and cabinets, change floorplan as much as possible around load bearing walls, enlarge window sizes, etc. It looked like a brand new house after he was done, and he was able to stay in it by turning the master bedroom into a (very small) studio while the work was being done, then swap out of it to do the work in there.

[packrat44]

Manufactured houses have come up greatly in quality. After the demolition of the old house and the placement of concrete for the pads for the new manufactured house, the set-up time is relatively short.

[Want2retire]

Personally I like the idea of an addition. It would add to the value of your home by increasing the square footage, and it would give you a nicer, newer room to hang out in. I am assuming that (like me) you tend to spend most of your time in one room anyway.

You could just add a family/recreation room and bathroom, while living in the rest of the house, then paint the older rooms, and be done with it. If it took forever to finish, it wouldn't crater your budget because you would not be renting. Be sure to get permits so that you can benefit from the added square footage if/when you sell. By the time you finish the addition, the housing market may be better so if you don't like it, you could sell.

This idea is founded on the assumption that such an upgrade would not be inconsistent with your neighborhood and that you like your neighborhood.

[Eyerishgold]

My brothers and I inherited a small ranch house in OK shape about 2 years ago and thought about doing the same thing. There have been a few teardowns in that neighborhood and we were going to follow suit.

The only problem was, we couldn't agree on anything. So, we ended up putting the house on the market recently.

If it was my house and only my house, I would have torn it down and built a bigger/better house in it's place. If you're going to be living there for a while, why wouldn't you? Why live in a small house in bad shape when you can build yourself a new home and enjoy it.

[Moemg]

Originally Posted by Khan

As I said, wild hair stage.

Other ideas:
Convert detached garage to apartment
Replace house with rental units for nearby medical college
Fulltime RV
Sell/give land to neighbor
Move to senior housing downtown

Many possibilities

Don't have to do anything right right now

I'd vote for moving to senior housing since you'll be the youngest there think of all the money you'll save on food when the widows start showing up with casseroles.