Should I buy my childhood home?

We are currently renting a few towns over from where we grew up. My mom has been planning to sell her house for a few months now, but just decided yesterday to tell me that she’d be willing to sell me my childhood home at a discounted price. Her realtor is saying she can get $500k, but based on comps I think maybe $475-500. It’s really hard to say, but the best comp in her neighborhood sold last summer for 500, but has 2 full baths (she has 1.5) and the kitchen/living space has been opened up. It’s a split level home, or a tri-level as some would call it. She’s wants to sell it to us for $450k, but would go less if the comps are showing she wouldn’t get as much as her realtor is saying.

Pros: * We would be able to build equity and hopefully buy a house we love in a few years. This would purely be a financial decision, as I have no emotional attachment to the home. * Fully fenced yard, perfect for our dog and child. * Neighbors are great and street is quiet. * Closer to a lot of things than where we currently live. * Does not need any urgent renovations. The only thing we’d need to add right away is to update the bannisters as they’re currently a safety hazard for our toddler and don’t allow for the use of baby gates on the stairs. Otherwise we’d want to add central air (not urgent but would probably do before moving in) and repaint things.

Cons: * We don’t like the style of home and don’t want to live in our hometown. * I personally feel a little weird moving back into the house and sleeping in the room my parents slept in? Until my parents separated, it wasn’t the most positive place to be, thus the lack of sentimental value. * I’m hoping we could sell it at a profit in 2-3 years and move to a home we absolutely love but it’s hard to bank on that given the volatility of the economy right now. EDIT: After a few years, we also thought that maybe we could rent it out and then move into a home we love. It’s located less than a mile from all of the schools in the neighborhood, making it a desirable place for a family. * With any improvements made, I’m not even sure we’d get our money back when selling. If we bought for 425 but would only be able to sell for maybe 500 (after turning the half bath into a full bath, and opening up the living area like the comp down the street), would we really come out ahead? EDIT: I’m not sure that we would actually open up the floor plan or add on to the half bath. I know that we would definitely want to add in central air and change the banisters.

Really struggling to figure out what to do here and we need to make a decision in the next week or two. We are going to have our friend who owns an HVAC company come look at it this week to get a quote, as well as get an inspection done. What do you think, Reddit?

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source https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/1m4nv9t/should_i_buy_my_childhood_home/