Since your headline says "Renovate or sell?", I would like to ask whether the topic is currently relevant or lies in the more distant future. I haven't quite understood the time horizon yet.
The topic is currently relevant insofar as the property belongs to a relatively recently widowed almost 70-year-old lady (and is lived in by her alone), whose children (around 50 ;), two children and a son-in-law) help with the 'management' and especially organization, since the lady has not had to take care of anything so far...
I don’t know your relationship with the co-heir, but I certainly wouldn’t want to live so close to “relatives.” Are you sure that you both (!) will get along not just well but very well with the co-heir permanently? Are there any emotional or other obligations connected to the “co-heir relationship”?
The co-heir is one of the lady’s two children...
New houses can also be sound-transmitting. If you notice “the extreme sound transmission of the whole house,” that might be a point to pay special attention to in a new building as well.
Definitely, it’s just a question of whether that could be fixed (in the sense of 'reduced', getting rid of it completely is probably hardly possible) in the old building without a full renovation, or whether it would be so complex that a new building would be more sensible.
Does the old building have charming details that new houses no longer have or are no longer affordable? Such charming details can sometimes outweigh everything else. (I would have kept our old 50s house and preferred it over our new build if it had been in the right area.)
Hmm... very good thought, I will bring that into the discussion :) – I am just the son-in-law who is still the most technically savvy (you know, among the blind the one-eyed...), and handles contacts with authorities etc.
Basically, under the same conditions, I don’t really care whether you build new or ‘finish renovating’ the ‘old’ property, especially since quite a bit has already been done in the old building, some things (see driveway, fence...) *must* be done quite soon, and it will probably be quite some time before we move in…
Would you like to post some photos of the house here or is that not possible for reasons of discretion?
More the latter…
Does the [damaged drainage] also affect the property that is the subject of this thread?
Yes, because as mentioned, I also ‘look after’ mother-in-law for ‘stuff like that’…