If you own a house and aren’t sure if you should invest emotionally in your property, you’re not alone.
Our house was built in 1995 with a double garage, sunroom and around 2500sq feet total.
We bought this house in 2009, and it was the same as when the owner had it built.
Nothing was changed, and there were lots of issues that weren’t taken care of.
The mouse problem was taken care of, but the mess they left was not. Otherwise, the house was perfect for the two of us.
Nothing inside the home was unusable, but it was older looking. Pink carpet, linoleum floors with cracks does show it’s age but we aren’t too worried about that right now.
In the 14 years she lived in the house, she did nothing apart from some crazy painter painting the walls Kermit green in the kitchen. Plus, he painted all of the electrical outlets to match.
I can show you if you want because nothing has changed as we still live with Kermit.
Birth Of Paper Millionaires
Both Mrs. CBB and I have been discussing how much people are paying for homes in our area.
We were joking around saying we’re all millionaires now. Big deal, right? There’s nowhere to go, and if we do, we’ll end up with a mortgage and long travel times to work.
It’s mind-blowing seeing how many houses in our neighbourhood are selling for and over the asking price.
First, there’s no way I’d bother buying or selling real estate at this time unless we were moving out of the country.
I’m not joking, and you likely have this happening in your city where houses are selling $100k or more over asking.
Paper Millionaires with nowhere to go.
Invest Emotionally And Stay Where We Are
Perhaps I find a home in the middle of nowhere close to my employer that is cheap, with a property that I can fix up, we’d consider it.
The problem is commute time, school bus availability, and whether I have the time to renovate.
Lastly, I want to enjoy my life at my age and not continue renovating house after house.
Since our son came along, I’ve been buying materials but slowly getting work done around our house.
We were torn between staying in this house forever or moving to another property when our son is older.
He may or may not be living with us for a while to save money for a vehicle and other items but mostly to stash cash.
Since we live in the Greater Toronto Area, there are plenty of universities and colleges to choose.
Then again, he might not attend these schools and want to move away or out of the country to study.
The problem with life is we can’t predict what our future will look like, so decisions need to be made.
When it comes to investing emotionally in our home, we needed to talk about it as a couple.
Ok, let’s get into what we discussed and what options we’ve put on the table for us.
Invest Emotionally Or Sell It As Is
There’s a buyer for every house, and for the most part, that is true; from hoarding to filth, someone will pay.
Right now, it’s a seller’s market with real estate, and every property is a turnkey property.
That means someone will buy it even if the house is overpriced or whether they pay over the asking price.
Even our real estate agent is sending out memos in the mail, emailing, and we even had a realtor leave a tag on our door.
The real estate agent wanted to know whether we were interested in selling and if they could meet with us.
I was like, what? She was like, who? We were like, no!
Now is the time realtors are earning big bucks, and they will market and go door to door if they have to.
My point is real estate is hot, and many agents have their heads buried into the ground with buyers and sellers.
We Buy Homes For Cash
I can’t recall if I told you about our other neighbour next door selling her home, but she did.
There was no for sale sign, nothing. I thought it was a bit sketchy, but we found out what she had done.
She told us over the fence that she sold the home to the electricity pole advertisement “We buy houses for Cash.”
I always laugh when I see that, but these buyers are cashing in, and there is a team of them.
Stop Discussing Real Estate Inside Or Outside Homes
Yes, we’re nosey, but we have Arlo Pro cameras outside so we can hear and see everything.
I was not impressed with the comment I won’t repeat because it’s racist that upset us both.
When our mobile phone beeps, we look to see who’s outside, so we look. That’s what the camera is used for, so keep private info away from the property.
If Mrs. CBB and I are out for a stroll, we play a game to see how many or doorbell cameras we can spot.
They are everywhere; however, we mostly see the Ring doorbell in our neighbourhood, which is popular.
The moral of that comment is to talk business somewhere else.
- Inside a vehicle
- Over the phone
- Coffee Shop
Never discuss money either because now you’ve just given the owners information they shouldn’t have.
Within months now, both of our neighbours on the right and left have sold their homes.
The lady on the right became a hoarder after her husband passed away a few years back.
She let the house go and could not keep it up even with her adult son living with her.
On numerous occasions, Mrs. CBB asked her if she’s like some help, and she didn’t want anyone in her home.
The buyers will come and rip everything out as it’s original to the house 1997 and flip it.
This is another reason we began chatting about whether to invest emotionally in our home or do the very basics.
I’m excited to see what happens, and I’ll share if I know any information as they go along.
Invest Emotionally And Move Out Of Country
My buddy and his wife, who moved on the left of us, did minimal renovations and sold it for $800k.
They purchased the home a bit over $300k in 2010, just a year after us.
When they finally sold the house, our friend told us that the money would leave them mortgage-free in their new country.
Our friend only renovated what needed to be repaired, and nothing more was put into the house.
They made a handsome profit on the home, and it secured their debt-free future in another country.
Invest Emotionally When You Get The Keys
Every day the new owner’s father is renovating the flooring, which was wood, but they are changing it, I guess.
The wife is painting the kitchen cabinets and adding new handles and nobs to them on Amazon Canada.
They are also replacing the countertop with granite which we all know is expensive.
This is where I stop and ask myself, should we renovate the entire kitchen properly?
Why put granite countertops with old cabinets that are oak doors and melamine boxes?
The house is functional and clean, so they do nothing that needs to be done right away.
Since they borrowed money from their family, I’d say they have a pretty big debt to pay back.
People Do What Makes Them Happy For A Price
Anyways, it’s their home but watching what new homeowners do allows us to overthink whether we should invest emotionally in our home.
During a conversation with them, they are both in their 30’s. He works full-time, and she has a stay-at-home business.
They also mentioned they would like kids in the future once they are settled in.
When we bought our home, we did not invest emotionally into it as we wanted to pay off our mortgage.
I know everyone is different; however, it’s nice to consider other perspectives about renovations and why they invest emotionally so quickly.
Invest Emotionally On The Small Stuff
We’re about 12 years ahead of them, and I’ve finished the back and front landscaping, installed a new wood fence, new roof, deck (but I’m redoing it) and the upper level of our house.
- Painted garage door
- Sealed the driveway
- New Outside lights and ground lights on a timer
- FIxed the parging around the entire house
- Regraded the side of the house so the rain to go intstead of puddling in one spot. I dug it all up myself, created a trench and added lots of grass seed.
- Washed the windows inside and out
- Basic remodel of the walls in our sunroom and added tiles to the floor (it was just concrete before)
- New fans in all of the rooms
- Gutted the upper bathroom which was opening a can of worms
- Put new vents all over the house since they weren’t even vented out and one had a birds nest inside
- Removed all of the insulation, cleaned loads of mouse poop, reinsulated and inspected by the city.
- New Thermostat
- Arlo Pro Cameras and a Ring doorbell
- Purchased new greenery, shrubs, mulch, weed barrier and stones for our rock garden etc
- Paving stones, sand, new rock steps and massive rocks to hold the soil up along with 3 stone steps on the side, .
It’s all the small stuff that can cause significant problems that we decided to tackle first.
Even though I’ve mentioned it seems easy enough, we purchased other items as I did the work myself.
Fix What Needs Fixing First
I wouldn’t say that we didn’t invest emotionally but rather fixed what could have turned into an expensive problem.
Oh, I painted the house, put a new door on, and replaced all the window sealants.
If you consider what we’ve done, you’ll notice more general maintenance to save us money.
We believe that taking care of the house’s shell and the property first is essential than a new kitchen.
Emotional Investing For Our House
Below are projects I have to complete to update our current home.
- Rip up the carpets in the dining room, livingroom and our master bedroom and replace with hardwood
- Gut the master bathroom and rebuild it including heated floors
- Gut the kitchen and install a new kitchen with an island, drop lights and pot lights
- Tile the front hallway as there are a few broken tiles and the grout is black instead of white.
- Livingroom, dining room and kitchen, hallway, bathroom and master I’ll take the OSD out and put in plywood.
- Getting roller blinds for the house or curtains as we can’t stand blinds and how they collect dust.
- Add insulation up to 60 in the attic which is probably a bit over the top but it will cut down on the bills
- Paint the house again
- Finish the basement likely with carpet (I’d love suggestions)
- 4 Piece bathroom, laundry room, bedroom, cold room, storage room, office
- Gym for our weights, bike, rowing machine, treadmill etc.
- New windows but we still have years as they are in great shape.
- Install a new sunroom that is all-season
- Add French Doors into the sunroom
- Install a gas line for the stove and possibly wall ovens
- Roof installed 2010 so we’re good for a while
- Add a new fan or light which is 24 ft ceiling (any suggestions comment below)
- Gas fireplace install in the basement
- All new appliances for the kitchen apart from the Dacor gas stove which we have.
I’m sure there will be more but as you can see we will invest emotionally in this house if we renovate from top to bottom.
After our conversation, we decided that we love our house, and it’s on a quiet street close to all amenities, including high school for our son.
Yes, we will buy quality products and invest our money into our forever home.
Tell Me About Your New House Purchase
So I want to hear from all of you who own a house. What were some of the first projects you took on when you moved in?
Would you invest in a house only if you plan on staying in it or invest as if you would sell?
What would you do differently that you never thought of when you first bought your house?
Please leave me your comments below. We appreciate your feedback as this will be a massive project for me and any trades I need to call in.
Yes, we will get all the proper permits.
Mr. CBB
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Mr. CBB’s Thought Corner
Saturday Google Giggles
These are keywords that readers typed into their search engine and landed on this blog.
I get quite a few of these every day and pick some of the best to feature right here.
- What aisle is the ketchup in at Food Basics – Clean-up on aisle 3. Condiments aisle? See if there is a sign up top the row or ask an associate.
- Should we save money by eating less? – That’s an option especially if you buy too much food or find you are wasting it. Talk to your doctor who may reccomend a dietician.
- My mother wants to know how much money I have – If it’s your money do what you want but if you are living rent-free and are under the age of 18, you should listen to your mom.
- Does the keto diet work? – It sure does as long as you are committed to it.
That’s all for this Saturday, CBB Friends.
www.canadianbudgetbinder@yahoo.ca Subject: Send me any photos of renovations you’ve had done that you invested emotionally in your home.
Be Well,
Mr. CBB
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The post Should You Invest Emotionally In Your Property? appeared first on Canadian Budget Binder.