(no subject)

and...now I'm re-running numbers wondering if a basement digout is a good investment or overspending. It looks like it takes 3 years to recoup the costs, worth it? What if I spend no money, or half that for a non-digout reno and it makes $500 - $1,000 less a month, how many years before that matters?

I'm also hating myself for not buying in that area 2 years ago, damn. Hope I love myself 2 years from now, or 5, for buying in that area as much as the 2 years ago prices show hundreds of thousands of "shoulda" today.

I spent time yesterday rethinking "75,000? Really?" and the fact my home will be humble, or effed up renovated by me (which is never an actual success, except for the 2 hour toilet job that took me a week). The fact I'd be living with it as-is for so long feels embarrassing at this point. As folks pointed out in fb, rents vary but today's search of basement apts in columbia heights showed renovated places from 1500-2500.

I'm running searches and finding 2500 monthly appears to get you a 1br condo above ground rental in the area, or even an apt building.

http://realestate.popville.com/search/rent/columbia_heights/page/2/?listing_type=rent&search_type=locations&search_type_slug=columbia-heights&price_min=&price_max=&bedrooms=&baths=&property_type=&search-rent-submit=SEARCH&address=columbia_heights&nonce=142acc171a&orderby=meta.created&order=desc&featuredNotAtTop=1

This CL search on basement apts shows varied prices:
1br 1500 mo http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/apa/4265938278.html
2br 858sf basement at $2100 http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/apa/4277416671.html
1br basement recent reno $1750 http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/apa/4272062738.html
1br basement apt $1500 http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/doc/apa/4281629785.html

I can't find any shitty rentals like my dingy basement, but let's say its 8-900, that means the price difference is like 1,000-1500, or 10-15,000 a year. Am I overspending if I do a digout and renovation of the basement?

Every time I type rennovation or rennovated I use 2 Ns.

If the difference in rent from a shitty apt to a renovated luxury model is only $1,000, and that is say 10k a year to round off - then the renovation costs 3 years of rent difference. However is that crazy when the place needs a reno anyway? What if the digout makes it possible to get one of those pie-in-the-sky 3500 rates that rarely occur? You can get a house for 3500.

Yay, welcome to second guessing myself. Not cost to this, but UGH THE SPIRAL

(no subject)

A couple doors down, 3619, sold at 828 fully remodeled but it looks tacky (see pic 14); pics 19-22 of "inlaw suite.
where as per http://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/3605-11th-St-NW-20010/home/10026882 3605 sold 9/12 for 757, pic 26 of the upgraded basement rental suggests 1700/mo for rent.
Around the corner http://www.redfin.com/DC/Washington/1023-Otis-Pl-NW-20010/home/10026874 sold at 630, 1400 sf (mine's 1700sf) with a desperate need for all the updates.

So still looks like I didn't do horrible. Me, 2nd guess? Naw...no panic attacks over here!

Also, my curious line of thought is my condo is 783 sf and the basement is like 800...maybe I could put 2 br down there without being silly, and to me that may increase the rent as people can split rent for more in sum than they might pay on their own. Huh.