Looking for advice from some money-savy, DIY'ers out there.
Here's the stats:
The house is asking 260K. It's a dump. When fixed up, it will be worth 325-350K, easily (tax value is 350K). The house is 3300 sq ft., 4 Beds, 2 Full Baths, 2 Half Baths. Finished Basement. Built in early 90s. It appears structurally sound. No obvious mold, water damage, or major cracks in foundation. Exterior seems good. The interior is A LOT of work. Every room needs: new flooring, remove popcorn ceiling, tear down wallpaper and paint. Kitchen needs remodeled, all bathrooms need remodeled. The whole house smells pretty bad and is kind of a wreck. The A/C wasn't running while there, so my best guess is it doesn't work. The house could be great if someone put a lot of money into it. We definitely could not live in it "as is."
Right now, we have about $80,000 total liquid money for the house search. Although, I wasn't necessarily planning on using all of it originally.
Here's some context:
This will be our first house for my wife and me. We've scouted out many areas and decided on where we want to be. Good neighborhood, good yard, great old trees, etc. This house is right where we want to be. We're in our mid 20s. We have no kids yet or in the immediate future. We do plan to get dogs soon.
We're open to doing most of the work. Father-in-Law is a contractor, my Dad has home renovation experience too. Other houses we are looking at have half of the sq footage (1500-1800) for nearly the same price (225-250K). But they are fully upgraded/renovated.
Originally, we planned to put down 20%. For this house, we'd need to set more cash aside for the work or take out a larger loan. This worries me a bit. I love the rates right now, of course, but it's still more leverage On the flip side, it's an opportunity to build a lot of equity quickly. Lastly, the house is way bigger than we need. I would be okay with as little as 1200 sq ft. The extra space does present an opportunity to do AirBnB and make some money back. And we might grow into or sell if for the equity down the road.
I feel uncertain about the amount of work and cost it would entail. Also, I don't want to wind up "real estate rich" and "cash poor."
What would you do? What factors do I need to be considering?