John and I looked at three promising condos yesterday.

We’ve been in the position of wondering if we should find a larger condo with everything as we want it, or fix up the one we have. So yesterday we spent the afternoon with our realtor who took us to see the three.

The first was a lovely unit on a quiet up-scale court (culdesac). It had a lovely tranquil pond view but it faced south which is bad here in Florida. You’d never get to enjoy the lanai (screened porch). Also the color scheme was all green and I don’t like green. The kitchen had low-end appliances.

The second condo was in the same neighborhood with a slightly more cluttered view of a pond but it had a stainless kitchen and the color scheme was better. There were tons of built-ins in the closets. In fact the closets were almost too out-fitted. The price was more than $30,000 less than the first.

The third unit had the nicest view of all, but it was an old unit and needed up-dating. The price was a steal, but the bedroom had cheap flooring, the kitchen was totally dated. The living room was small. It was a lot cheaper, but you could easily spend $30,000-$40,000 bringing it up-to-date.

We went home thinking the second unit was the best deal, but when we got home we did some computing, we changed our minds. We can fix up our current place over the next five years and make it perfect for about $40,000. Even if we spend that much, we’ll still save a lot. If we buy we’d have realtor fees and closing costs. (Those expenses for the new and our current condo would come to over $16,000!!!) If we just fix up our place, we wouldn’t need to tap into our investments. Also, if we upgraded, we’d need to pay higher taxes, homeowners association dues, and insurance. Those higher costs would continue indefinitely.

So I think we’ve decided to stay put. We’ll have tile installed throughout our place this year. It’ll be a sizable expense, but a lot less than moving. And maybe this year we’ll buy some new furniture in the guest room so it becomes a multi-purpose/music room. Next year, maybe the lanai extension and living room window. The bathroom is still a question mark because we don’t have a plan.