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When I went to the viewing of the first apartment I bought, other people were literally turning around in the door because the insides were so ugly. 70's green

When I went to the viewing of the first apartment I bought, other people were literally turning around in the door because the insides were so ugly. 70's green vinyl floor in the livingroom. Worn wooden underfloor in the bedroom. Worn yellow wallpaper. Original 40's kitchen. But the bathroom was recently renovated and freshly tiled. Previous owner wasn't a smoker. The buildings were in great shape, and the economy of the housing co-op was great and it was run professionally. And it was an estate sale, so I put in a bid below asking price, and got the apartment, because I was the only one interested in it, and the people selling it didn't need the money, they just wanted to get rid of the apartment! Sure, it took time to fix it up, and that's a kind of investment a lot of people don't want to do, but the other thing that drives people's behaviour in this is that to them, there's two kinds of money. The mortgage is some kind of abstract number that isn't really money, but magically transforms into a monthly mortgage payment in real money. But buying paint and wallpaper and paying someone to fix up your place, that costs real money all the way, and a lot of it, so people cheap out. And then they spend 2x, 3x that amount as a premium when buying a house where the interior doesn't need to be re-done. But it's in unreal mortgage number money, so people spend it without thinking.

mseebach 8y ago
I think there's an inflection point somewhere between painting or wallpapering, and then doing floors and replacing the kitchen. The former can be done on your own in a weekend with help from friends and family, or relatively cheap, certainly fixed price, by professionals. For the latter, you need people with a certain level of expertise (who may or may not be friends and family), you need to navigate suppliers, a staggering range of materials and for the kitchen, possibly a designer (or design it yourself, also not necessarily a simple task). And then there's finance: what can you afford, and how do you deal with cost overruns? The planning phase alone could easily take longer than completing the paint job of the entire place - and that's on top of actually moving, never mind having to live in the mess from building for weeks, best case (it's not exactly rare for people not to be able to afford having two homes, especially in a buying/mortgage situation - bridge loans can be pretty dear).
- henrikschroder 8y ago
  True, the time and agony component of a more thorough renovation is pretty high, but people are still willing to pay a crazy premium for a home that is moving-in-ready. Crunching the numbers, factoring in labour and materials and handymen and extra time off needed, I definitely came out on top. And financing it was a breeze, my bank had no issue increasing the mortgage to cover the renovation, because they knew the apartment would go up even more in value. This was 2003 though, it might be much tougher today.

mseebach 8y ago

I think there's an inflection point somewhere between painting or wallpapering, and then doing floors and replacing the kitchen. The former can be done on your own in a weekend with help from friends and family, or relatively cheap, certainly fixed price, by professionals. For the latter, you need people with a certain level of expertise (who may or may not be friends and family), you need to navigate suppliers, a staggering range of materials and for the kitchen, possibly a designer (or design it yourself, also not necessarily a simple task). And then there's finance: what can you afford, and how do you deal with cost overruns? The planning phase alone could easily take longer than completing the paint job of the entire place - and that's on top of actually moving, never mind having to live in the mess from building for weeks, best case (it's not exactly rare for people not to be able to afford having two homes, especially in a buying/mortgage situation - bridge loans can be pretty dear).

henrikschroder 8y ago
True, the time and agony component of a more thorough renovation is pretty high, but people are still willing to pay a crazy premium for a home that is moving-in-ready. Crunching the numbers, factoring in labour and materials and handymen and extra time off needed, I definitely came out on top. And financing it was a breeze, my bank had no issue increasing the mortgage to cover the renovation, because they knew the apartment would go up even more in value. This was 2003 though, it might be much tougher today.