Pay more for a move in ready house or buy a cheap fixer upper?

I prefer the fixer upper because you should be able to buy it well under its market value so when its fixed up you'll have a huge profit and a much better house for the money. However its very hard to finance this kind of house unless you do a 203k loan, so it may not be practical to buy one.

How much time, money, energy, motivation and knowledge do you have? If you have 2 jobs and/or one or more kids, and you value your marriage, don't do it! You will end up living in a place you don't enjoy, and blaming each other for not having everything done.

If you have plenty of time and money, and the patience and know-how to fix stuff, then go for it. We are semi-retired, and have done this quite a few times. But we have a budget and a plan and a time frame set up before we ever even make an offer to buy, and we know how much the place will be worth when we are done. And most of the houses we have fixed up, we did not live in during the remodeling stage. Much easier to know that you can go home to a clean quiet place every night.

For most people, I would say to buy a place that's already something you would be proud and happy to live in.

After buying a house that needed work many rears ago I learned my lesson. That house took years of very hard work and in the end I hated it. All homes require repairs over time and that is plenty of work for me. After working all day and raising a family do you really want to spend every weekend working on the house? Put me down for a big no on the fixer upper.

A fixer upper can literally drain all your money and energy. Too many unforeseen repairs. Time consuming, not be able to enjoy your home.

If you are working and coming home to work some more. No thanks for me.