Thank you for your answer.
let me summarize again so that I can answer your questions.
we bought the house for 950000 in 2003 which was not peak as the house next door, total fixer upper, similar in size but with a lot not as nice,sold the summer of 2004 for 1200000.
The previouse owner of our house (first owner for 40 years)had done few improvements over the years so our house was basically sort of a fixer-upper as well.
all the improvements we made (more in the 400000 after rediscussing with my husband) were paid cash as the money was coming and with the leftover equity from a previouse house both in 1996 fro 250000$ and sold for 540000$ in 2003.
We added a master suite, reconfigured all the inside wall to create a better floorplan and family room, redo all the floorings and bathrooms (but one)repaint all the inside and outside,change all the windows and doors, redo all the electrical with new lighting inside, redo the patio outside and the pool, redo all the landscaping. The roof had been changed in 2002 before we bought it.
It is a brand new house other then 2 rooms that need to be repainted and new flooring, and one bathroom which we could either redo or try to make look nice.
They are building a new house in the same neighborhhod, slightly larger which is on sale for 2400000$
WE were set on keeping the house long term so we did not rush finishing those 2 rooms and bathroom as we never use them.
Since I started working we realized that we are really busy and the house is too big and requires a lot of work and money to keep in good shape so we were considering downsizing.
I am pretty sure that if we sell right now we would still be able to make a profit plus we would be able to pay cash for a much smaller house and put the rest of the money in the bank. We have about 1 million dollar in equity in the house more or less depending on what we can sell it for.
we don`t want to have all this money stuck in our house expecially if it is going to depriciate and we can make some profit out of it right now.
Forgot to mention: we live in a neighborhood with homes
ranging from 1000000 to 2600000$(ther is one for sale for 5400000 (good luck with that!) and we porbably have one of the best lots available (all usable, views, orchard, horse facility, cul the sac, sewer, no power lines)
We really like this house and would like to keep it. I just don`t want to miss the opportunity of being mortgage free in our 30s when apparently bad times are to come and my husband could face a pay cut in the future and I would be forced to work in order to pay the mortgage.
We are very conservative with the money. we just didn`t realize how much money it would take to fix up the house. We found ourselves in the situation of wanting to sell the house about 1 year ago but at that time we had a full house remodelling half done, with some rooms totally redone and other things less attractive, like a 40 years old pool and patio and so on, so we just tried to finish the project to get top dollars but in the meanwhile market as changed.
I drive a 20000 used car, my husband a 30000 car for which his company pays gas, insurance and even monthly 300 $ check reimbursament. We have no debt other than the mortgage.
As far as me being a physician I just want to let you guys know that when you just relocated from the other side of the world and you work 80 hours a week in a hospital, dealing with a new job, 1 hour commute both ways,a remodelling and personal problems with your husband you don`t really have time to keep an eye on stock market or real estate.
