At Solitude Castle. But for that, we get bad conditions from the bank :p Joking aside. Surely it’s nicer to be alone on your own property. Of course. But I don’t imagine living in an apartment building to be that bad. I have never lived otherwise in my life.
No. We can’t really. But well. There isn’t a huge difference either, that’s true.
We actually tried. That’s why the renovation is calculated with €300k in the table. (Not that we have the money saved up, but viewed over a few years, what the renovated house would cost us)
Not currently. And these are my main concerns.
Don’t understand. We have to handle the renovated single-family house ourselves. For the bigger apartment building, we need rental income. Our financial burden would stay the same.
The building services (sanitary/electrical) have to be completely redone. Exterior plaster wouldn’t be necessary. The insulation will have to be done new anyway. Interior plaster needs to be almost entirely redone as well. What’s true is, with the dormers and attic conversion, it’s not urgent yet.
It’s not about getting nervous. I already knocked out all the infill panels, replacing beams would be the smaller problem too. I’m just thinking whether new construction would be economically more sensible in the long term. Because investing in old buildings is investing. Then there’s simply no way back. I am a representative of “think first, then act.” That’s why I’m concerned.
Sure. The house would suit us. It was bought to renovate, not to demolish.
But you only have to look at current problems. The basement is fine now. Or are you already worried in case your new basement ever gets wet? Those are purely hypothetical concerns. Something can always happen with a house, whether old or new. That’s just the risk you bear as an owner.
For an apartment building, you’d have to take out significantly more credit. That money has to come from somewhere first. It can all work out wonderfully, or it ends in a nightmare. If you can’t at least manage to cover the apartment building loan alone for several months if necessary, it’s already too much. And with tenants who sometimes pay but never fully, this can drag on for years. You have to have that financial stamina and be mentally able to handle it. If you tear down the old building, build new, and then the general contractor goes bankrupt or really botches it, it’s too late and the money is gone. Now at least you know what you have and what you can work with. There are several threads where home builders really have had trouble with their new builds.
You seem like someone who likes to be secure and know everything in advance. I totally understand that. But that doesn’t work with renovating or building. You’re just too dependent on many factors you can’t influence. We’ve had our house for 3.5 years and we’ve gotten used to it. Many things aren’t as dramatic as you first imagine. It’s a huge leap from being a tenant to an owner. Suddenly you’re responsible yourself, have to make decisions, have to pay everything yourself. Full personal risk. With a rental apartment, you can just move out if things get too crazy. But you have to get used to that. For us it was a process. At the beginning we worried about every little thing, now we have a completely different attitude. We’ve acquired a lot of craftsmanship skills. We can assess situations now and often problems aren’t as dramatic as you first think, plus we can fix almost everything ourselves, which gives a lot of confidence and also more financial independence from very expensive (and unfortunately often not really capable) craftsmen.