Experienced home owners. should I spend the money?

[retire48in2018]

What/How much can you reasonably cash flow?

Unless it's a leaking roof, etc - I would cash flow the expenses.

I might cut other areas in the budget to make it work out sooner rather than later.

 

[tryan]

The kitchen rehab will be the most disruptive to every day life. We actually moved out for 3 months to rehab ours (a wall, ceiling and chimney were removed). If you need to minimize the day-to-day impact (for DW/kids), that's where to start.

As other's say if the roof is not leaking, hold off.

 

[saluki9]

Yeah, the roof isn't an immediate item, then again I don't want to wait until it actually does start to leak.

The kitchen cabinets and front door are the things my wife mentions EVERY DAY. I was amazed at the lack of price difference in replacing cabinets vs refacing them. I figured refacing would be a lot cheaper than it is.

I can pay for these things out of cash flow, it will just be a little painful.

 

[HFWR]

Many times the facing and doors are hardwood, whereas the boxes are particle board or MDF...

 

[retire48in2018]

Given cash flow - I'd do it

 

[Milton]

Yeah, you bought a fixer. The seller might have liability if they failed to disclose something they knew about. The inspector might have liability as well.

Per caveat emptor, the seller will only be liable if you can prove that they deliberately failed to disclose latent defects. A flimsy glass front door and sidelights, an old roof, and "disgusting old kitchen cabinets" are at best patent defects, which you or your inspector should have noticed. Unless your state has some unusual legislation on point, I don't see much chance of successfully suing the vendor.

I don't know about the furnace or the plumbing situation, but assuming that they were operating when you took possession, the subsequent problems are probably not the vendor's responsibility. After all, it's an older house, and the agreement of purchase and sale almost certainly didn't warrant the continued post-sale functioning of the heating, plumping, or other systems.

I'd be pissed at both of them, but in my experience, there's not much recourse other than just making the fixes on your own dime.

True. Suing the home inspector is more plausible than suing the vendor, but they usually have all sorts of exculpatory language in their written contracts. It's unusual to win against a home inspector, unless you can prove fraud or truly gross negligence.

If you feel that there were misrepresentations, it's fairly cheap to have a lawyer write a letter....

Fairly cheap, and fairly ineffective. Most people who receive a demand letter will take it to their own lawyer, who will tell them to ignore it.

 

[RunningBum]

OK, this does come from experience: I lived in my house in Houston for 22 years, put off making alot of cosmetic repairs using all sorts of excuses as didn't want to bother with construction guys in the house, didn't want to cut into work time getting bids and the usual b.s. excuses.
Well, 2001 the house flooded in one room, so had to repair that room totally (new sheetrock, new tile, new countertops, new doors, totally new landscaping, trimmed trees, new carpeting in the parts not hardwood, the whole shebang); so, while the construction guy was there, I had him put in new louvered doors, fix windows, put in new ceiling fans, new lights, etc. etc. etc. $7,000 plus the cost of matrials worth of repairs, which, surely made the figure up to $12,000 or so. I never kept track, so it could be much, much more?
Then I decided to sell in 2003. "I" could have ENJOYED those repairs for the time I was there if I hadn't been so stupid and (dare I say) lazy about it--instead of the brief 2 years I did enjoy it all.
I really regret my decision not to make all the cosmetic repairs I had always wanted earlier.
If I had to do it all over again, I would have done the repairs after settling in, making some more money, and redone it all around the 11th year or so at latest I was there. There was no excuse for not doing it then, and I really, really regret it now.
You live and you learn the hard way at times....sigh. I vote do it now unhesitatingly.

Agree completely. I'm seeing this too, as I'm fixing things up getting ready to sell after living with them for 5 years. I put off some things that I could've enjoyed having all along. And this isn't the first time I've done this. Anything you can afford to do, do now or as soon as you can.

 

[megacorp-firee]

Agree with the two above. I have bought and sold 6 houses. It will cost you (approximately) the same to fix it up later when you are ready to sell. Fix it up now and enjoy the improvements.