At one point or another, every homeowner eventually decides they want to either add something to their home, or renovate it one way or another. For a permanently-established residence, this can be one thing. But if your family might very well move out in five to ten years anyway, then the question becomes a different one altogether: should you renovate or simply get a new home right off the bat? There are obviously a variety of important factors that are going to influence a very large and weighty decision like this, and it’s not one that’s to be made lightly. Here, we’ll go over a few of the most important things to consider when you’re deciding to renovate the home you’ve got or simply find a new one for you and your family members.
Know Your Financial Situation
Plenty of different factors should be thought about when you’re considering when you want to invest in renovations or simply buy a new place for your family. Chief among them is all of your financial situation. You’ll want to really look at the big picture before you get to making any real decisions, so analyze your family’s financial situation and compare it to the finances you’ve got tied up in your home to determine which is your best option.There are options such as a help to buy scheme that can assist you in purchasing a new home.
Assess The Renovation Size
Also, consider the degree to which you’ll have to renovate if you remain in your current home. If the repairs you’ll need to do are expansive and expensive, then you might want to consider another home. On the other hand, if you’ve got more than enough money and are something of a construction junkie or handyman anyway, then you might have a great months-long project on your hands.
Consider Aftermarket Value
Another serious candidate for consideration is any aftermarket value your renovations or additions might add to the home itself. If the things that need fixing anyway would wind up adding some serious value to your home, then why not? This is applicable whether you intend on staying there for years to come, or might very well sell within the next decade or so. Adding and renovating things on your home can be expensive, but if the added value will outweigh the initial costs, then you might very well consider it a solid investment.
Look Into The Future
All of this brings us right back around to what we talked about earlier, of course. Knowing about your financial situation in as much detail as possible will help you assess whether or not the investment of renovating is a good one for you, and it’s also very important that you consider the local housing market. How is it doing now? More importantly, how will it do in the future? These things are very important when you’re considering anything from replacing your storm gutters to installing custom fountains in the front yard.
Either way, you’ll need to know exactly how your home’s value will be impacted before you make the decision to renovate. Arming yourself with as much data as possible is the key to making a solid decision, and when your family’s home is such a big factor, solid is the only kind of decision you’ll want to be making.
Have you crossed this road before? What did you do?
Should You Invest In Renovations Or Purchase A New Home? — 19 Comments
This is exactly why I love learning new skills… to be able to save a fortune and add value to my house when I do renovations! 🙂 A custom water fountain would be nice too
I would always have to buy new. The reason being that I am possibly the most unhandy person on the face of the earth.
I struggle with even the most simple home improvement tasks 🙁
I agree. This is what we are considering right now with our house. How long are we going to live in it and would we lose money with the future of the market.
I am fixing up a house right now, and have had to buy very little because the previous owner left so many things. It has been cheap but more complicated. He left some pipes for example, and when we connected the water we used them, had to burn some to make them bend, and most were dirty inside, so we lost time cleaning them also. Buying new pipes would have saved us an afternoon of work. I like that we reused things but like Glen says you have to be handy and willing to do the work, and said work may last a shorter time than buying new.
True. You definitely have to weigh the pros and cons. I do find I put value and a price on time. There is only so much of it. For us, we seem to do a balance of both. We do some renovation stuff ourselves, and hire for others.
I think it really depends on so many factors. If you do not really have time to personally supervise the renovation of your house and the difference between the amount you’ll spend buying a new home and renovating your old one is not that high, then you’re better off buying a new one. You get to keep the other one and get a new one as an additional investment instead of investing your money on just one property.
This is what my folks are doing right now. They bought a new house and are renovating their old one. I am not sure if they are going to sell but I know they like investing in real estate. Their new kitchen is going to look awesome.
Oh dear, I think about this all the time. It really depends on the circumstances. Our house is not my dream house and any money we spent wouldn’t change that. For now, we are sticking it out until its paid off. Then I think we sill trade it in for something smaller but nicer on a nicer lot in town.
Great attitude. I like how you look at your house so practically. Some people don’t. They treat their houses like commodities that they have to show off when really that shouldn’t be the case. We might put an addition on ours but we are not sure. We do know we don’t want to move and love our area.
I think if I liked my location and my house had “good bones,” I’d tend to opt for renovation. A reno lets you make things just the way you want them with respect to finishes, materials, etc. That’s not going to happen if you relocate–you’ll probably want to change some things in the new house too.
Our house is our homem and our home is our castle (well, I have become more British than the Brits it seems). But joking aside, we love our house and we are not simply seeing ourselves as its owners but as its castodians. As such we do renovate (never DIY – I am a great believer in division of labour). Pictures of the latest round (just finished to come soon on TMP.
I am glad to hear you like your house so much. It needs to feel like home. We love our house and don’t want to ever move which is why we might put an addition on. We would hire someone too since that would be a very big job that we are not trained for.
I don’t own a house, but I’d so much rather move into my ‘dream’ place than do one up. That said, it’s unlikely we’d find the perfect place on a budget!
If renovating, I think it’s important to bear in mind the resale ramifications – will it translate into value further down the track or are they things that might be important to you but most people wouldn’t care about?
A coworker is renovating at the moment and has borrowed money to do so – I wonder if that’s wise, but on the other hand, if you were to upgrade to a new house, odds are you’d be increasing your mortgage anyway.
Its true. If you move for something better your mortgage is still more in the end. I think if you renovate to add value then you don’t lose anything in a stable market. You do have to consider neighbourhood, resale etc. If those things line up, then renovate.
I agree! You need to consider your budget! Taking up a loan this time will be tough! Always have a savings fund and emergency fund for your dream house or renovation!
At one point or another, every homeowner eventually decides they want to either add something to their home, or renovate it one way or another. For a permanently-established residence, this can be one thing. But if your family might very well move out in five to ten years anyway, then the question becomes a different one altogether: should you renovate or simply get a new home right off the bat? There are obviously a variety of important factors that are going to influence a very large and weighty decision like this, and it’s not one that’s to be made lightly. Here, we’ll go over a few of the most important things to consider when you’re deciding to renovate the home you’ve got or simply find a new one for you and your family members.
This is exactly why I love learning new skills… to be able to save a fortune and add value to my house when I do renovations! 🙂 A custom water fountain would be nice too
I agree. I use this approach for a lot of things, not just renovations. The more knowledge and skills we can gain, the more we can do.
I would always have to buy new. The reason being that I am possibly the most unhandy person on the face of the earth.
I struggle with even the most simple home improvement tasks 🙁
You could do it Glen. You just need to have some patience with yourself.
Good tips. I think a lot of it comes down to how long you will be in your home afterwards and the impact on your selling price.
I agree. This is what we are considering right now with our house. How long are we going to live in it and would we lose money with the future of the market.
I am fixing up a house right now, and have had to buy very little because the previous owner left so many things. It has been cheap but more complicated. He left some pipes for example, and when we connected the water we used them, had to burn some to make them bend, and most were dirty inside, so we lost time cleaning them also. Buying new pipes would have saved us an afternoon of work. I like that we reused things but like Glen says you have to be handy and willing to do the work, and said work may last a shorter time than buying new.
True. You definitely have to weigh the pros and cons. I do find I put value and a price on time. There is only so much of it. For us, we seem to do a balance of both. We do some renovation stuff ourselves, and hire for others.
I think it really depends on so many factors. If you do not really have time to personally supervise the renovation of your house and the difference between the amount you’ll spend buying a new home and renovating your old one is not that high, then you’re better off buying a new one. You get to keep the other one and get a new one as an additional investment instead of investing your money on just one property.
This is what my folks are doing right now. They bought a new house and are renovating their old one. I am not sure if they are going to sell but I know they like investing in real estate. Their new kitchen is going to look awesome.
Oh dear, I think about this all the time. It really depends on the circumstances. Our house is not my dream house and any money we spent wouldn’t change that. For now, we are sticking it out until its paid off. Then I think we sill trade it in for something smaller but nicer on a nicer lot in town.
Great attitude. I like how you look at your house so practically. Some people don’t. They treat their houses like commodities that they have to show off when really that shouldn’t be the case. We might put an addition on ours but we are not sure. We do know we don’t want to move and love our area.
I think if I liked my location and my house had “good bones,” I’d tend to opt for renovation. A reno lets you make things just the way you want them with respect to finishes, materials, etc. That’s not going to happen if you relocate–you’ll probably want to change some things in the new house too.
True. I know for us we love our neighbourhood and house and would consider a renovation to add more space. We really don’t want to move.
Our house is our homem and our home is our castle (well, I have become more British than the Brits it seems). But joking aside, we love our house and we are not simply seeing ourselves as its owners but as its castodians. As such we do renovate (never DIY – I am a great believer in division of labour). Pictures of the latest round (just finished to come soon on TMP.
I am glad to hear you like your house so much. It needs to feel like home. We love our house and don’t want to ever move which is why we might put an addition on. We would hire someone too since that would be a very big job that we are not trained for.
I don’t own a house, but I’d so much rather move into my ‘dream’ place than do one up. That said, it’s unlikely we’d find the perfect place on a budget!
If renovating, I think it’s important to bear in mind the resale ramifications – will it translate into value further down the track or are they things that might be important to you but most people wouldn’t care about?
A coworker is renovating at the moment and has borrowed money to do so – I wonder if that’s wise, but on the other hand, if you were to upgrade to a new house, odds are you’d be increasing your mortgage anyway.
Its true. If you move for something better your mortgage is still more in the end. I think if you renovate to add value then you don’t lose anything in a stable market. You do have to consider neighbourhood, resale etc. If those things line up, then renovate.
I agree! You need to consider your budget! Taking up a loan this time will be tough! Always have a savings fund and emergency fund for your dream house or renovation!
Rose