Is it Better to Buy a New Home or Renovate Your Old One?

Renovate or Buy New?

The choice between renovating your current home and buying your dream home is a careful balancing act.

On the one hand, you have to have the capital available to allow you to move, and there has to be the right home available. In this sense, you’re relying largely on the housing market. On the other hand, if you have the money to move, you then have to ask yourself if it would be better spent renovating the place you already call home.

Decide on What You Want Before You Search

What you need to do before you even think about selling is sit back and think about what you want to get out of your prospective new home. Sit down with a piece of paper and write down what you would like in terms of space and location. Give some thought to how long of a commute you’re willing to make and how close you want to be to friends and relatives. Once you have a clear picture of what it is you want, you’ll be far better equipped to go out into the market and look for it.

Now you can browse properties within your approximate budget and price range and start to focus on the fine details. You may have to make a few tradeoffs, so it would be worth ranking the things you want out of your new property in order of importance.

How to Find the Perfect Selling Time

The trick with the perfect time to sell is realizing that if you wait indefinitely, then it may never come. Rather than waiting passively for your home to double in value, you’re better off proactively scouring the market for properties you want to move into. Signing up to listing alerts from all the main sites is a great way to stay up to date with new properties as they hit the market.

On the other hand you could invest your time and effort into renovating your current home, so that it becomes your dream home…

Knowing When to Renovate

The choice of whether to renovate will be a personal one, but there are a few key indicators that it’s the way to go that you should be aware of. If you find that there are no properties in your chosen area and price range for sale, then renovation will always be your best option. You may also consider renovation if you don’t want to uproot your family by moving too far away from family and friends.

How to Start Renovation

As with deciding on buying afresh, the perfect way to start is by drawing up a shortlist. Ask yourself what you would change if you could, so that your renovation plans have a clear sense of direction. Don’t be afraid to break the status quo and do things a little differently, because this is your chance to recreate your home in your own image.

From there you can draw up a budget and start putting a timeline in place. What’s worth considering is that you want your renovations to add value to your home even if you have no current plans to sell and move on. Make sure you add value with every installation and change so that when the time does come to sell, you’ll be all the better for it.

Common Renovation Options

The kitchen is very much the heart of the home, and as such it can be a great place to start when it comes to doing up all of your home. Picking out some new units and a worktop needn’t be the limit of your work. Sometimes a new layout is what’s needed which is why many choose to knock through to the dining room to create a large open plan family room.

The backyard is another common renovation option that allows you to increase the functionality of your home whilst also adding plenty of value. Rather than a weedy patch of grass that turns to mud in the winter you might want to consider having some decking professionally installed. Not only does it look great all year round, it’s also perfect for inviting your friends round in the summer to enjoy a BBQ on. Perfect if you’re looking to make the most out one of your home’s largest under-utilized assets.

The final common option you may want to consider is a loft conversion. It’s a great way of adding an extra floor to your home and is perfect for a whole range of uses. It could be used as your home office where you can get away from the hustle and bustle downstairs. Or alternatively you could turn it into a large homely guest room for when your relatives come to stay over the holidays.

You might also like to read:
Remodeling - Does it Make Financial Sense, And Does it Need To?
Can Remodeling Harm Your Relationship?
Replacing a Door - One of the best Remodels based on ROI

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