What to do, renovate where we are now, or buy closer to school

[the_captain]

Quick question to tap the collective wisdom of the forum.

We own a fixer-upper in a fabulous part of Melbourne. We will be moving into it soon in it's un-rennovated state and we will be mortgage free, for a while.

It's a great location, 7 KM's from the CBD, 450m from the train station, with off street parking and close to trendy cafes, restaurants and bars.

We bought it 7 years ago and have held it as a rental until recently.

We will be able to perform a substantial renovation for cash and turn it into a very nice house.

We then had a baby, which was something we did not plan on doing, but thankfully changed our minds on.

We wish to send our DS to private school. This means that Mum will have to drive a total of 2 hours per day for drop-offs and pick-ups, until he hit's secondary school, where he can take the train. By train school is around 25 minutes away.

So my question to you lot is. How long is your kids commute to school? Do you think say 1 hour per day total for the child is too long?

If I sell this place, I will have around $800K of cash in the bank. I could then afford to purchase closer to school, but, nothing up on RE.com is as good or as nice as the house we will renovate.

I guess it's a good problem to have, but over to you lot to hear your thoughts.

 

[Corey Batt]

There isn't any equally as nice private schools which are closer to your property?

2 hours is a little far, but the property sounds to have good potential. I'd be inclined to be comparing schools over houses. 2 Hours is not only your partners time, but the childs time - homework etc is best done directly after school, so they are not doing this past dinner/night time.

 

[the_captain]

There are no equally nice private schools near my property, hence the dilemma.

To be clear on the commute times.

The child will have 30 minutes each way, to and from school, for a total of 1 hour.

Mum will need to make this trip 4 times a day, for a total of 2 hours.

 

[weg]

Here it's the other way around, hardly any public high schools with 7 k of the CBD and lots of private schools.

So are you saying there are few schools or that they're all of a poor quality?

Personally I would not do a trip like that unless I absolutely had to. School traffic is absolutely $hite close to the city and it's kids being driven to school that's creates much of it.

We had/have ours walk to the private school about 200 meters away from home.

 

[wylie]

There are no equally nice private schools near my property, hence the dilemma.

To be clear on the commute times.

The child will have 30 minutes each way, to and from school, for a total of 1 hour.

This is perfectly fine and not at all unusual for most high school students.

Mum will need to make this trip 4 times a day, for a total of 2 hours.

If I was your wife, this would have me signing the divorce papers .

The other thing is that if you've never lived in this house and you've had it as an IP for seven years, then you move in and do a major renovation and stay for another seven years... then when you sell you will be paying capital gains tax on half of the gain you have made. Had you lived in it first, things would be very different regards the tax you would be up for.

I guess your wife could "buy" it from you, or somehow change ownership so that you start over, but you may have to pay stamp duty (though I thought that you could transfer between husband and wife in Victoria).

Don't take any notice of my ramblings, but these are thoughts that ran through my head when I read your post.

It may be worth looking into this further though to see if you can do something now that it is run down to change the title and (maybe?) avoid paying capital gains tax on the big improvement you will make.

 

[MaggieMcT]

Hi Captain,

I can answer this one from personal experience! We're living about 20 mins from our daughter's private primary school. We can't afford to build/buy where the school is (very expensive area) and expect to be doing the commute for most if not all of her primary school years. At the moment (she is only in pre-k) she only goes 2 days a week and I drop and collect both days. I also work outside the home so on those days I work in between the drop and collect and have to drive for that also.

Frankly, its a pain. The drive isn't too bad for our little one - she chats away with me or looks at a book and is happy enough. For me its a pain because it takes at least 40 mins out of a very busy day - makes it harder to squeeze exercise into the day for example. We have a second child who is about to turn 2, and he is in daycare in a different location about 2km from our house but not on a direct route to the school (I know, sounds crazy, but impossible to find good child care as I'm sure you know!) which makes the total drive home probably closer to 35 mins - 10 mins to day care, 25 mins on to the school.

So one downside is that it takes time out of the day that could be spent on something more pleasant/productive. Other downside is that you are less likely to live close to your child's school friends - more likely to be a problem at primary school level than at private secondary where kids will live all over the place.

When we balanced it all out it made a lot of sense for us to stay where we are and do the commute. The school is absolutely fantastic and she loves it. The commute will get easier when both kids are in school. We're happy with where we are, but it sounds like you are in a great financial position so you have a lot of choices. If I were you I think I might keep looking around the school area.

 

[westminster]

How old is your child now?

That commute time for secondary sounds normal. My Melbourne friends kids in year 7 and 8 commute 40mins for one and 1hr for the other.

Both went to a local school for primary (one state one catholic) until they graduated at end of year 6.

The private highs they go to are single sex so they have different commute times. There are some local kids at each school so sometimes they car pool but mostly they go by train.

The double commute for school taxi parent is about right. It is an hour round trip for many parents. We've been doing it for 11 years so far and have another 13 more years to go as our eldest is in year 9 and youngest in Kinder. Luckily they are all at the same school

 

[Lily House]

My advice (doing the commute myself each day at the moment) is to do a test-run, drive to the school at drop-off and pick-up times, pretend you are actually taking your child there - and time how long it really takes. For my commute - much of the time is getting in and out of school at peak hour. You might find the trip is actually longer than 1/2 hour

And, hope this is not getting off topic, but if this is your "forever" home, I would recommend strongly thinking about sending your child locally for their kinder and primary schooling. Not even counting the financial aspect, the main benefit is that your child will make friends with LOCAL children. It's great to be able to walk down the street to visit a friend, or jump in the car for a 5 minute drive. There is nothing like play-dates and sleepovers, to cement friendships. If the friends are close geographically, all good. If you (or their friend's parents) have to drive big distances each play, it won't happen as much. Kids with good friends make happy kids who learn well. Something for you to consider.

 

[dex]

I don't see the problem with the commute time if your wife will be at home doing nothing unless she works from home. The travel time will be a good time to bond and you need to think about what's best for your son's education. We will be in a similar situation when we return to Australia and my wife is happy to make a small sacrifice for the sake of our children's education.

 

[wylie]

I don't see the problem with the commute time if your wife will be at home doing nothing unless she works from home. The travel time will be a good time to bond and you need to think about what's best for your son's education. We will be in a similar situation when we return to Australia and my wife is happy to make a small sacrifice for the sake of our children's education.

I'm speechless .

 

[Angel]

Poor Dex.
What are you cooking tonight for her dinner?

 

[wylie]

I think we can safely assume Dex's wife doesn't read this forum

 

[the_captain]

Well what can I say Dex.....jaysus.

I expect my wife will be at home, sitting alone in a dark room, staring at the walls, waiting to go and procure said offspring from the far away school.....but only after she's cooked my tea.....and done the washing

Thanks all for your advice. Wylie, you are bang on with the CG stuff, so thanks for pointing this out, we never considered this as we originally never intended to sell the place. I've reached out to my solicitor for some legal advice regarding this, as I know you can do this in vic without stamp duty implications or transfer costs.

I also agree with attending local primary school. Thankfully there is a great local primary.

I have also built a google map that has pins for all f the private schools in Melbourne and our potential new place, this helped alot, I've managed to find and enrol the little bloke into another private high school that is a 25 minute train + tram commute away from home, which is not too bad, it's also on my way to work......but he probably won't want to be caught dead with his old dad when the time comes.

 

[Ideo]

And, hope this is not getting off topic, but if this is your "forever" home, I would recommend strongly thinking about sending your child locally for their kinder and primary schooling. Not even counting the financial aspect, the main benefit is that your child will make friends with LOCAL children. It's great to be able to walk down the street to visit a friend, or jump in the car for a 5 minute drive. There is nothing like play-dates and sleepovers, to cement friendships. If the friends are close geographically, all good. If you (or their friend's parents) have to drive big distances each play, it won't happen as much. Kids with good friends make happy kids who learn well. Something for you to consider.

This is really good advice.

As for Dex. Wow. Just wow. Really?

 

[eXc]

Just to defend Dex...he did say IF the wife is at home doing nothing...

Assuming you have just had the child, you still have a number of years to work with. Would it be of more benefit to take the years to renovate, sell at a higher price, then you could afford a bigger house near the school?

The other consideration is, what happens if the school in 5 years is not as good as it is now, so you pick a different one?

We are planning for children in 2 years, so these ideas go through our heads as well

 

[jrc]

There are no equally nice private schools near my property, hence the dilemma.

To be clear on the commute times.

The child will have 30 minutes each way, to and from school, for a total of 1 hour.

Mum will need to make this trip 4 times a day, for a total of 2 hours.

add at least half an hour to the mother's travel time - 15 minutes to do the last 200 metres and add another 5-10 minutes on rainy days when more parents drive their kids to school and pick them up

 

[The Y-man]

..... f the private schools in Melbourne

A freudian slip? Come on face it, you really do like state schools ...

The Y-man

 

[weg]

add at least half an hour to the mother's travel time - 15 minutes to do the last 200 metres and add another 5-10 minutes on rainy days when more parents drive their kids to school and pick them up

I've found most parents who can like to park the car and walk their child to their class when they're very young. You can't help but stop and talk to the odd parent when you do this.

Keep in mind too that finding a park can take time as opposed to driving through a drop off zone.

Add an extra 30 minutes there or an hour or more if doing it before AND after school.

If you do this just up to grade 3 and add a second child to the mix this can go on for a few years.

Then there are the occasions you need to return to the school for an event or some other reason, or where you hang around because it's not worth going home only to have to turn around again and come back.

Just things to think about.

I agree with Lily House too. Because many of the students do tend to live close to a school outings and friendships are more likely to occur with more spontaneity between those children - walking home from school together, visiting each other as they please without it being organised by parents, more likely to get invites if you're 'in the picture'.

Have seen this happen with 2 children.