There comes a time when most people are faced with the quandary of moving or renovating your home.
So, you have lived here for decades, had your fair share of parties, thanksgiving ceremonies and painful memories al under this roof, but now it doesn’t feel as comfortable as it did in the past. you have to make a choice to either move out and seek greener pastures or renovate and settle for the long haul. Contrary to belief, the grass may not always be greener on the other side, recent studies have shown that a larger percentage of people would rather renovate than use up their savings for a down payment on a new home. But before taking the first step on either direction, you have to first consider the emotional and monetary attachments to each choice; evaluate the exact advantages of each option that suit your desires.
With both you get the chance to have everything you have always coveted but, in some cases, remodeling may end up being more cost effective or cost intensive depending on your tastes and needs. Moving is as costly as is selling a home, whether emotionally or pocket-wise. In 2018, housing costs were up 6.9% and have been seen to rise another 5.2% in the coming months. As this is a huge consideration for moving, it is important to comprehensively assess the market to determine the most viable option.
Overall, remodeling is regarded as safer than taking out a mortgage or a loan for a new home. Moving introduces you to another side of the real estate real characterized by hidden expenses like insurance and property taxes which ultimately add up over time. As such, it is advisable to weigh out all the pros and cons of each option before setting the ball rolling;
Why remodeling.
When you choose to remodel, you have the option to tailor the design of your home to suit the exact specifications you want. You can therefore get as extravagant or conservative as you want with your choice of makeover.
After living in one location for ages, you have made friends with the neighbors, your kids are used to their school friends, your friends know where you live. Moving will force you to go through the painful emotional detachment phase with these people and the subsequent hazy communication after moving. Remodeling offers you a safer more emotionally strapped way of improving the quality of your home without having to start over with greetings and housewarming parties.
For money matters, you can now take out an equity loan on your home to pay for the renovation. The home loan involves you using your home as a collateral for a mortgage. It also shields you from the costs of moving and selling your home. If you love it don’t leave it.
Older homeowners prefer to remodel their existing homes since there is no additional debt involved, the choice to remodel gets easier with age. Architects in most cases, will open your eyes to the real and affordable upgrades to increase the functionality of the remodel.
Remodeling your home makes it safer for you and your family; upgrading old technology, rewiring the electrical parts and checking out the plumbing and drainage systems. However, it is important to clearly define the reason for upgrading to avoid blowing up your budget for cosmetic reasons.
Renovating your home increases its equity and with that, its market value also rises. You should therefore strategically improve your home with new designs and project in order to grow its value. While upgrading, know your limits; over improving your property without regarding the surrounding properties is a self-defeatist endeavor.
With a makeover, you can choose to put your skills to work and make the upgrade a DIY project. You’re now free to incorporate smarter layout improvements and smarter reconfiguring of the existing space to fit a larger family, all with advice from expert designers and contractors.
Remodeling is however not all roses and unicorns; there are added surprise costs emerging from large scale remodeling including tearing down walls, replumbing and rewiring, even improving and introducing new appliances is not cheap and may cause the budget to surge. The whole process is mentally tough, it encompasses dealing with heavy budgets, stressful contractors, hard product selections and long delays.
Your family may also have to find temporary shelter during the construction phase. It is also not guaranteed that after successfully remodeling that the value of the property goes up, in some cases it even goes down rendering the whole effort naught.
At times this process may take longer than expected, forcing you to move out and find other housing options which may be costlier and more disruptive over time. Do you have the time and mental strength to endure it? If not then the next option is better.
Why Sell and move.
Selling your home is now more lucrative than ever, rising market prices, reduced interest rates and increased demand of homes. Selling has never been this valuable. Knowing when and why to sell is however the smart move. When you move, you physically adjust your location to a desired location.
You are able to find the precise neighborhood, school, church and shopping cent to suit your tastes; all not available when you remodel. You also successfully evade the stressful mess of dealing with contractors and being stranded for months finding temporary shelter. When you buy a house fitting that checks all your boxes, you get 100% satisfaction from it that is worth your money, you can also move in as soon as all the legal requirements are finalized.
When you have enough money in your bank account or are comfortable with taking out a loan or mortgage for a home then selling is for you. the process is also less disruptive. when you can no longer afford to keep the house, you no longer get along with your neighbors and your kids hate their school then you should definitely sell. You ow have the option to downgrade to a more comfortable and affordable home.
However, selling also comes with its fair share of troubles; it may be hard ,stressful, expensive and time consuming to find the exact home to suit your needs and the ones you find may check some of the boxes but not all and even after research you may still end up in a much worse area. There is an increased cost of moving considering moving van rentals. The new home is not guaranteed to bring back all the money you spent on its down payment and will take more time to live up to the investment. When you add up all the costs, payments and taxes then weigh them against the money got from selling the home, at times it is a bad investment.
