Seeking input on home dilemma: Modify or Move?

[Dlesh123]

Some jurisdictions have a limit as to how much of the lot can be covered by buildings. I would check first with the zoning board and see if what you might want to do is allowed in that neighborhood especially since you have built the oversized 2 car garage.
Use the old standby, two columns, one labeled Pros, the other Cons. Go from there.

[Jamnanc]

I'd sell, rent for 12 months and buy next year. I think interest rates have to climb and it will reduce home values based on the ability to afford less house at 6%. But I may be wrong.

Kazoo, you just need to buy a place farther east with the equity in your house. I'll help around the place when you invite me out to shoot prairie dogs on your forty.

[Skip]

Consider this a vote for Option 2*. I spent my formative years in that footprint house (Aurora, then Denver). There just isn't much you can do with them other than fix them up, remodel, etc... In my family's neighborhood there are additions ("L" configuration), and popped tops. They are still the same house with the same limitations.


* You may want to wait and see what the market will do since you aren't in urgent need for a new house.

[20X11]

Option 2 is only appealing if you can move to an "acreage". Most newer homes come with HOAs that will restrict your collection of toys. You need "country" property, or "in-town" acreage

[Holger Danske]

Move. You get the excitment of something new.

[bczandm]

I'd move and that's coming from a guy who's been in the same house for over 24 years. The remodel will cost more, take longer and not really give you what you want. And then there's the whole "good luck finding the right contractor" issue. It seems that with the requirements you have it's time to move. It's not a bad time to move up and interest rates are pretty good, although they could go down. Take your time and you will find what you want. Home inventories are low right now but there will be lots of listings over the next few months. Just be prepared to move quickly as houses are still selling and selling FAST. Hours will make the difference on getting the house you want...or not.

[Great-Kazoo]

Option 2 is only appealing if you can move to an "acreage". Most newer homes come with HOAs that will restrict your collection of toys. You need "country" property, or "in-town" acreage

Ah yes the infamous HOA. Major point when looking for another place to live, and look in to. With say 5 ac without an HOA , will you be able to shoot, as some places restrict shooting to X or more acres

I'd move and that's coming from a guy who's been in the same house for over 24 years. The remodel will cost more, take longer and not really give you what you want. And then there's the whole "good luck finding the right contractor" issue. It seems that with the requirements you have it's time to move. It's not a bad time to move up and interest rates are pretty good, although they could go down. Take your time and you will find what you want. Home inventories are low right now but there will be lots of listings over the next few months. Just be prepared to move quickly as houses are still selling and selling FAST. Hours will make the difference on getting the house you want...or not.

Which is why (if possible) one buys the next home then sells home #1. Providing one has the equity to do so. Not sure how the OP's set up, for us there is no way in hell we could be out of this house 15 days after closing. That's taking in to account having most of our belongings already packed.
The shop is an easy 2 week take down , pack, bribe people to move.
Gun safe[s] guns, valuables, items one does not want to trust a third party moving, let alone packing up. Yeah i'm starting to agree with my spouse, 30 days, minimum for packing.
Luckily we're in a place financially with the house we could use the equity for another place and still afford both.

As for renting knowing you have a garage, forget it. I'd wager 2 weeks in the renters have the garage turned in to a grow op. I

[Martinjmpr]

Option 2 is only appealing if you can move to an "acreage". Most newer homes come with HOAs that will restrict your collection of toys. You need "country" property, or "in-town" acreage

Any HOA that charges fees and has a board is a no-go and we will be carefully investigating any restrictive covenants regarding storing our fleet of vehicles.

As far as living in a rural area goes - no, not right now. I'm still working and have at least 10 years before I'll retire. Wife is not currently working but that may change next year. Right now my commute is about 25 minutes each way and that's pretty decent. Some of the places we're looking at would cut that down to maybe 10 minutes or even within easy bicycling distance of work.

I admit that the idea of having some acreage and a place where I could set up a shooting range in the back yard is very appealing to me, but I'm not sure I'm willing to take on all the additional "work" that comes with living in a very rural area. The kind of place where you have to buy a tractor or a bulldozer to keep your driveway cleared in the Winter and where every time you need to go to the store it's a 30 mile round trip - just not sure I'm ready for that yet. Plus the wife is very "social" and I don't think she'd be happy living in a place where the nearest neighbors were a mile away.

I think if we ever did move to someplace like that I'd want it to be someplace a bit further South and warmer - maybe Arizona or New Mexico.

Move. You get the excitment of something new.

It's funny, the wife and I were talking about this over the weekend. She has lived in exactly 4 places in her entire life. She was born at Porter, lived in Englewood off of Grant street until she was 18, got married, she and her first husband lived in two apartments and then in 1981 they moved into the house we're in now, so she has not moved to another house since she was 18. I pointed out to her that you could draw a circle one mile in diameter and she has lived her entire life inside that circle. She's traveled, of course, but as far as places she's LIVED, she's always been in either Englewood or in Littleton right next to Englewood.

By contrast, I was a military brat, born in Germany, lived in a bunch of places and the longest I'd ever lived in any one place before we met was 7 years between the ages of 11 and 18. From 1980 when I joined the Army until 2005 when I met my now-wife, I figured I moved at least 24 times.

So for me, at least, moving is no big deal, but I wonder how well the wife will deal with it, especially considering the house we're in now is the house where she raised her children.

[Martinjmpr]

Which is why (if possible) one buys the next home then sells home #1. Providing one has the equity to do so. Not sure how the OP's set up, for us there is no way in hell we could be out of this house 15 days after closing. That's taking in to account having most of our belongings already packed.
The shop is an easy 2 week take down , pack, bribe people to move.

That is actually the plan. We have pretty decent equity in our current house (only owe $50k on a house that appraises well north of $200k) and both of us have stellar credit so we would actually find and move into the new place before we even put the current house up for sale.

The plan would be to move into the new house, spend a little time getting the old house in good selling condition, sell it, and then apply the equity to the new house. Since we're moving locally in the Denver area, we could take our time moving and that would cut moving expenses considerably (really the only thing we'd have to pay to have moved would be the gun safe - everything else we could get on our trailer with the help of family and friends.)

If everything works out perfectly (yeah, I know it never does) we should end up with a fairly low mortgage on the new house because we will have paid down so much of the loan.

As for renting knowing you have a garage, forget it. I'd wager 2 weeks in the renters have the garage turned in to a grow op.

Not super-crazy about the idea of renting. I already HAVE a job, I don't need another one as a landlord. And maybe I'm overly cautious but I've heard too many horror stories of renters from hell destroying rental properties to want to consider that.

The thing that could hurt that plan would be if sometime AFTER we buy the new house and BEFORE we sell the old house, there's some event that causes the housing market to crash. Now, I don't think it would crash so hard that we would end up selling our house at a loss (I don't even want to THINK about how bad things would have to get for that to happen) but we could potentially end up with a lot less money than we anticipated and that would mean our mortgage on the new place would be much higher. Then there's the variable of what if the "new" house needs major repairs right after we move in? That could be another financial gut-punch.

Anyway, thanks for the input!

[Martinjmpr]

All i got out of it was 4 suvs??? Sell 2-3 and get a truck for the trailors.

Wife and I each have a car for DD (Daily Driver) duties. Hers is a Honda CR-V and mine is an older Pathfinder with a 5 speed (from back when the Pathfinder was a "Compact" SUV). Wife also has a Jeep Wrangler and finally we have a Suburban to pull the trailer, so that's the 4 SUVs.

Honestly I'd like to get rid of the Wrangler since we almost never drive it but it's the wife's "toy." She had to sell her motorcycle in 2012 because she developed a nerve condition that made it painful for her to ride so the Jeep was the replacement and I think she likes having it even though we probably only put 2000 miles a year on it. I still have my motorcycles so I'm not going to ask her to sell the Jeep.

All our vehicles are in good condition and paid for, so as long as we have room to park them there's no reason to get rid of them.