Does this move worth?

[Le Barbu]

First of all, we are a family of 4 including a 11 & 14yo. kids. We are ourselves 45yo. and 5 years from FIRE (actually FI on a barebone budget).

Our house, built in 2007, have all the features we need and more. The street and neighborhood is quiet and friendly. Main concern, we are about 5km from most everything wich make the car habit easy to fall in...

We always talked about leaving someday to get closer to the older part of  town, closer to every services and entertainments. So, I watch the inscriptions in the desired sector for a while to get an idea of the real estate market. I found something that may worth...

It's a detached 2-1/2 storeys house, built in 1850 and well maintained. Asking price +/- the same as I would ask for mine, taxes are +/- the same also. It's a little bigger than our house (2,300 sq.ft. instead of 1,900sq.ft.) but doesnt feel that big (old houses are not always sets efficiently) but still more than enough for us. There is actually a tenant on the ground level floor and this place rent for 670$/month. A quick update could crank the rent of this place to 900$/month, wich is a 10k$ net/year! DW exclude this plan for now, she may be interested when kids leave home...another way to see it with the 4% rule is like we got a 250k$ sitting still and ready to work anytime! It makes us more financialy resilient automaticaly even if we do not rent.

This place is the epicentre of EVERYTHING in Town! A 20 minutes walk in any direction (1.5km radius) brings you anywhere you need to go! The street itself is QUIET & SAFE and the most beautyfull street of old down is 1 block away! It does not make us closer to work, 10km now and about the same then. Anyway, jobs are not in a place where you want to live (no services, close to highway, more like industrial area) so it's not an option. Anyway, we intend to FIRE within 5 years.

Main concerns are: is it to early to move and does old houses cost that more to maintain then new? Kids doesnt see the value of moving to get closer to every places they require us to go because of them (school, sports, etc) but we begin to feel like Uber drivers! Our actual house is cheap to maintain for now but some appealing features will depreciate or cost few thousands in the future anyway (i.e. pool)

Enough said for now, wait for comments!

[Le Barbu]

FWIW, actual place worth 225$/living sq.ft. compared to 175$ for the other place. The lot is about 50% smaller but still close to 4,000sq.ft. This area is the most dense of our city with 40 units/acre.

[waltworks]

Go for it. If you'd want to move after FIRE anyway, might as well do it now.

I would imagine utilities will be a lot more (1850 house = not well insulated, in most cases) and maintenance probably will be also, but c'est la vie. If you want to be landlords that ground floor income will cover the extra costs and then some, I imagine.

-W

[Le Barbu]

Go for it. If you'd want to move after FIRE anyway, might as well do it now.

I would imagine utilities will be a lot more (1850 house = not well insulated, in most cases) and maintenance probably will be also, but c'est la vie. If you want to be landlords that ground floor income will cover the extra costs and then some, I imagine.

-W

Thank you for your comment!

The place have been improved in many aspects, including insulation back in 2011. The seller face the "sunk cost loss" because the real estate market cannot justify more for a home in this particular area. I assume that utilities (electricity + heating) will cost 2,200$/year instead of 1,900$ wich is no a big deal. Maintenance will certainly be more than actual house but the smaller lot is cheaper to maintain. Overall, we may face a 2,500$ annual increase (conservative) but yes, the future income offset this hands down!