Stay the Course or Adjust?

My opinion, you are in a great position now and you are proposing to give it all up and your plan 18 months ago for something really not practical.

A single person in a house worth 600k needing 250-270k renovations. Seriously?

Do you need this house or is it sentimental feelings to buy the house? If it is, then that's swaying yr judgement. Only you can decide if it's worth that but as an outsider I have to say this is madness.

What about retiring earlier instead? As an alternative to this proposal. Think about your quality of life. I don't think a single man needs such a house. You'd be better with a house as an investment to provide an income or fallback in years to come and still get a nice house in a good location. I can't believe that you couldn't find a suitable house ticking your boxes for 400-450k max. It shouldn't be 850-875k.
 
If you and your siblings are due to inherit a house worth €600K is there any other inheritance due? Has it been valued, if you say substantial work is required maybe it is not worth €600K at all. Only pay market value

I can see the appeal of wanting to live in the family home in an area you are familiar with, with probably friends and neighbours in a network already.

If you purchase you will have a mortgage you can service, no savings or wealth left because you have put it into the house, and a job with strong pension contribution. If this is of value to you then go ahead.

What others are saying is that for less money you could get a similar or better new build and still have savings etc that you could use in the future if you decided to say retire a few years early etc.
 
Slippers said:
To flag, the possible house in question is the family home. The estimated 400k is possibly what I would need to bring to the table to buy out siblings.
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Ok that makes more sense. Just make sure that you add up your numbers correctly. I know it is easy to justify the 'renovation costs roughly equals my share' but if you already own 1/3 of this property, then your investment is 200k(your share) + 400k (buyout siblings) + 250k(renovations) so you will have €850k of your own money invested in this property

So I'm assuming 3 siblings with €200k each. It obviously has sentimental value and that will factor into your decision but if you sold it, you would have an additional €200k to add to your €175k cash. Within 2 years that will comfortably be above €400k of available funds while still have >€200k of equity in your current PPR. IMO, this gives you far more options, you could:
  • Consider buying a €600-650k property outright (sell PPR) with no renovation costs
  • Keep PPR as rental and borrow €200k on new PPR. Should be very comfortable to do for you and profitable
  • Or try to build. You are from the area so your chances of getting planning should improve. I'm completely ignoring the time/cost/difficulty of getting planning permission which is not in any way trivial but it is money better spent for you than trying to do a deep renovation of an existing property. Something worth at least doing a little research into.
Slippers said:
On the rent a room situation. I would seriously consider continuing it in this house, however, I don't wish to factor into finances and then need to be reliant on it.
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That is the an excellent approach, don't rely on it but plan to continue using it.

It should be said that you are in a very healthy position at 39 with healthy pension pot, strong savings record and a lot of equity in current (and potentially future) property
 
Slippers said:
That means i am saying the family home currently has a 600k market value.
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So you would be spending €400k to buy out two siblings, then sinking in €250k of your own money to renovate?

€850k is a LOT of money for a house that's only:

Slippers said:
within 1 to 2 miles of a town and within 30 minutes drive of a primary rail line
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You have your heart set on this house, but it is it really best suited to your own needs?
 
Thanks all, playing devils advocate has been very helpful.

I certainly don't wish for a significant financial action do be driven by emotion. Whether my back of the napkin figures are roughly correct, or over estimated, I will be giving this deeper thought.

Fortunately at this time, a decision does not need to be made today or tomorrow.
 
Hi,

Just posting to get some ideas, and start the right thought process for myself. The driver in posting is that I am getting a bit browned off with work. It may pass but I can only sustain the nonsense for a few more years should it not.

I am looking at my cash and I am wondering what investment options might be available now, which would reduce my reliance on the corporate world in the next 3 to 5 years? I have previously posted my financial details in this thread should it be of interest to anyone - https://www.askaboutmoney.com/threads/stay-the-course-or-adjust.212882/

I have ambitions of trading up but it is not a must do right now. The cost of housing and everything associated with it has dampened my enthusiasm. Thankfully, through effort and luck, my financial position has strengthened since this post.

A quick review of my current finances at 40 years of age are:

25K mortgage with a 0.75% tracker rate on a home worth approximately 300k;
190K in savings (cash and prizebonds);
~25K (nett) in shares;
Saving 2k a month (cash);
Maximising my pension contributions;
No debt outside of my mortgage.

In my head I am thinking 100k is a good investment sum to do something with. Holding back the remainder gives notable flexibility in handling future opportunities or setbacks.

Appreciate any input. Note, input does not need to be perfect, guaranteed, or final. Primary objective of this post is to broaden my awareness of possible intelligent moves (investments).
 
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