Real Estate: Sell or Renovate, Which Should You Do
By Andrew Hodge

Whether to Buy or Sell a home is one of the biggest decisions anyone makes and brings up the question "should I move?" To this I always ask "why do you want to move?"

I have had a surprising number of people respond with "I want to collect on the increase in value since I purchased". They believed that they could sell their home for top dollars and buy a similar home for much less. For anyone who has not guessed already, this will not happen. All homes of a similar style, area, size and with similar features will sell for similar prices. Once you account for real estate fees and closing costs, a move can have significant expenses. So why should anyone move? The simple answer is, because they need something that the current home can not give them. The longer answer involves cost comparisons with renovating, accounting for the inconvenience of both selling a home and renovating a home and whether or not a renovation is even possible.

Move If you can not renovate

Probably the best reason to move is because you can not renovate your current home to suit your needs. Things that can not be renovated include location, more parking or space if your zoning does not allow for more, sewers and gas lines if you live in a remote location and any other feature that you want that is not available because of availability or local laws. So if you own a home on a main street, with no parking spot, no lane or area where parking may be created, and your family is growing and you have safety concerns and parking needs. You should seriously consider moving to a home on a quiet street with parking.

Move if the cost of renovating is too high

One should also consider the cost of renovating. Not all renovations will increase the value of your home. As a general rule, the higher your expenses for renovating the less value you add to your home in relation to the amount spent. So a renovation costing $200,000 may only increase the value of your home by $100,000. This is dependant on what you are doing and how you are doing it. An extreme case of this would be down sizing. You want a smaller home with less maintenance and less expenses for what ever reason. You could knock down your current home and build a little cottage, or you could move and pocket the difference in values between the two homes.

Move If you can not deal with the mess

As we all know renovating can be messy and have numerous surprises. If you do not think that you can put up with trades people tracking through your home, services being disrupted or any of the other possible inconveniences of renovations, then you should seriously consider moving.

If your current home can not easily be changed into what you want for a reasonable price that you can afford, or you do not want to deal with renovations, then moving would be a good alternative. Unless you have multiple homes you should not concentrate on making money so much as consider what kind of home and lifestyle you want to live in. If your current home does not suit you, you may want to consider moving. The choice to move or renovate is yours. Know what you are trying to accomplish, and make sure that you have all the information you need, and you will be happy that you made the best choice for you.

Andrew Hodge is a Realtor® in York Region, Ontario. Helping people buy and sell York Region Real Estate

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