I was reading the paper today and came across a story on the high price of real estate in Toronto. That isn't news; the city is expensive, and I sure wouldn't want to be trying to find something in my price range there.
But at the same time, I also wonder how many people get in over their heads just because they confuse a need with a want. There is mention of a house that sold for $460,000, down from its initial asking price. The story reads, That's because it needs over $100,000 in renovations.
It needs almost a quarter of the selling price in renovations? Now, I'm no house expert, but I should think that if a house needs $100,000 in renovations, it must be structurally unsound, and possibly to the point where tearing it down and starting again might be more cost-effective.
Instead, I'm guessing that the buyers want to do $100,000 in renovations. I've watched the HGTV shows, and while I realize there's little reality in "reality" television, I still end up yelling at the screen when the young couple walks through the house and determines that a place with carpeting instead of hardwood, brown cupboards instead of white ones, or a wall in the wrong place is the equivalent of moving into a bayou shack that has holes in the floor and no glass in the windows.
C'mon, people. I like having a nice place too, but I'll be damned if I'm going to open my veins and bleed myself dry to have the "right" cupboards, and the "right" appliances, and the "right" room for the 102-inch television the day I move in. Buy the house, fix the stuff that needs to be fixed, build up some equity, and then look after things as you go. Sure, I sound like an old fart who remembers "the good old days." But I'm also the old fart who fixed the aesthetics a little at a time. So now I have a nice place and no debt, because I knew what was a need, and what was a want.
