To move or not to move

[nykkieberry]

Are we better of staying and investing 20k in an extension on our two bedroom house (worth 140k) or chucking 20k into the pot for a new house? Ceiling price of street is about 150k...we cannot decide and it is crunch time as we need a third bedroom!

[Loosehead]

Well it depends but if you are simply trying to acquire another bedroom I would say stay put. It'll be �10k down the tube in moving costs minumim. Estate agents, solicitors, stamp duty etc etc.. So on that basis spend the �20 on the extension and avoid all the agro.

[nykkieberry]

I was given these fees for moving by an estate agent - am I vastly underestimating?

Charges for sale - approx �500 plus vat

Charges for purchase - approx �500 plus vat

Local search fees - approx �100

Land registration fees - approx �200

Stamp duty - % of the purchase price of the house you are buying

0% �0 - �60,000 1% �60,001 - �250,000 3% �250,001 - �500,000 4% �500,001 +

Land charge search fees - approx �10

Mining search (if applicable) - approx �17

Mortgage Administration Fee - approx �100 plus vat may be payable.

[Loosehead]

Well lets see 1% stampduty on 160000 = 1600

solicitors fees on puchase and sale 500 x 2 + vat 1175

Estate agents fees at least 1.5% of 140k + vat = 2468

Removals at least �500 + vat = 588 

= 5831 of quatifiable expenses, There may actaully be Vat on the stamp duty + the smaller things you mention.

So yes it's not quite 10k but don't forget all the agro of moving, potential purchases/sales falling through, the chain etc etc. I'm a little out of touch with estate agent fees but I think you'll do well to get one under 1.5%

Good luck in whatever you decide, last time I moved it cost over �6k and I was buying a house for 113000.

[andy hughes]

I would only ever extend for one bedroom if I really liked my home and was content to stay there for the forseeable future. If not, you'd save a lot of time and hassle by moving, which I think balances against the costs. It is an individual decision - hope that may help a little.

[Miss Zippy]

Personally, I wouldn't go ahead with the extension if it meant I was going to lose money. From reading past posts, I gather you are relatively young and have a young family? If so, chances are you will be wanting to move to somewhere with a bigger garden/receptions rooms/kitchen anyway in the next few years so you may as well bite the bullet now and move. Obviously there are costs to moving but at least then you will have a property that is probably quite a bit bigger than you have now and where you can see yourself settling permanently without the need to move as and when your family grows.  If you were looking to buy a property for, say, �200k, you can expect total fees (including moving costs) of around �7k, less than the money you would 'lose' by adding an extension.

[Hammer]

I've always been told that it's cheaper to extend than to move into a bigger property...

[vicars]

Toss a coin and if you get heads three times in a row move, otherwise stay. The other point is get very good advice on extentions. Dont let a builder take control - tell them what you want and get an architect involved - you may want to re-model the whole of the front and back but with your budget this may be tight - take alook at other local extentions and see what looks good - a bad extention can be a waste of money.