Before you jump head first into a major renovation on your home or cottage you should be asking yourself these questions, if you don't you are asking for trouble.
Can You Commit To A Major Renovation
Major renovations take longer then you think. The longer the renovation takes the more a lot of people become disinterested in it. Life can get in the way. Having major renovations is a big commit of you (the homeowners time) even if you have a contractor.
Can You Find A Good Contractor To Do The Job
In these busy times finding a good quality contractor to do the renovation for you is harder, the really good ones are usually booked and pretty busy. But if you star the process early enough and you look around for the right one you should be able to find the right contractor. Contractors will make time and space for you, as long as you appear to be serious about the renovation and you will be committed to having it done in a timely and efficient manner.
Can You Make Decisions In A Timely Manner
A good contractor will give you options on your renovations as the project proceeds. You the homeowner will have to make timely decisions or the project will come to a stand still. Some decisions will cost money others will save you money. Your ability to make an efficient decisions will help keep the project on schedule.
Can You Afford It And Can You Handle Paying For It
Renovations are expensive, the cost of labour and material has risen every year especially in the last couple of years. When you and your contractor figure out a budget you should add 10 to 15 percent on top for a contingency fund, this will allow for anything that was forgotten in the budgeting, changes to what you want and for fixing problems that are always found when doing major renovations. If you go into your renovation thinking that your going to be able to bring your renovation in under budget then your going to be in trouble.
The other problem some people have is that even if they have a budget they can't handle paying, renovations that last a long time require you to write a lot of cheques. You will be paying for things on the time. This can wear on a lot of people to the point were they come to a point that they just stop paying and the renovation comes to a grinding halt.
Can You Handle People In Your Home
Major renovations are invasive. You will have people (mostly men) in your home, their will be different people all the time as different sub-contractors come and go. In any renovation a good contractor will end up using up to 20 different subs. That's 20 different companies with 20 different sets of workers. Every sub will need access to a different part of your house. One thing you should consider is that you should move out during the renovation, this will help you if having people you don't know around you all the time.
Do You Know Why You Are Doing The Renovation
Sometimes people get it into their heads that their home needs to be renovated. This sometimes comes from what they have seen on TV or what their friends have had done. People get caught up in the "keeping up with the Jones", there neighbour got a new laundry room so they should too. Most homes that are older then 20 years usually need to be renovated, but its the amount of renovations that are needed is the big question. Everyone has a limited amount of resources that they can spend on renovations, you should make sure that you are spending them on the right ones.
Before you start any kind of renovation, or before you even start interviewing contractors you need to come up with a list of things you want to do to your home or cottage. From that you need to come up with a rough budget. With those two things settled then you can start the process of finding a contractor and planning your renovations. If you can't answer yes to all the questions above then you really should rethink having your home renovated.
Rob Abbott
Village Builders Inc.
Showing posts with label renovating homes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label renovating homes. Show all posts
Saturday, September 15, 2018
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Should I renovate my current home or should I sell it?
Answering the renovation question
The following is a question that I get a lot and with this question it produces more questions than answers, it is a very broad subject and always takes me multiple parts to answer, here goes.
Q:
I am in a situation where I am not sure whether to renovate an existing house or to sell it and move on to another home or possibly build a new home on another piece of property.
A:
Before you decide on what to do with your current home you should ask yourself a couple of things first;
1. Do I like where I currently live, neighbours schools, distance to work? Or is there another neighbourhood or area that I have dreamed about living in?
2. Do I like the house and lot that I currently live in?
3. Can your current home give you what you want in a home?
4. Is it worth it financially to put money into my current home, will it bring me a return on my investment when I go to sell it?
5. Is the home large enough for me or would I have to enlarge the home from its current shape and size?
The more of these questions you answer "no" too or are completely undecided on should help you decide if you really want to get into the renovating of your current home. If those questions didn’t sway you to a decision then read on.
When considering to extensively renovate a home like you are suggesting there are a couple of areas of the home that are more expensive to remediate but they do not give you a lot of return (i.e.; comfort to buyers in resale). These are areas that people do not see but are essential to the working of the home. They are as follows;
• The foundation. Foundation work and waterproofing of the foundation are expensive and disruptive to the landscaping around the home. If you are planning to add an addition to the home having foundation problems will make it a more complicated matter to attach too.
• The insulation. To re-insulate an older home properly you basically have to gut the entire home and start from scratch taking all the walls back to the studs.
• The heating system. Depending on the current heating system it can cost you a lot of money to upgrade. The larger costs are associated when you are converting a home with baseboard heat into a home with a forced air furnace or if you want to install Geothermal heating because you live in the country and you don’t have access to natural gas.
• Re-wiring the electrical. Basically damaging every wall in the house to update old and dangerous electrical lines.
• Re-plumbing. This usually consists of taking most of the walls and ceilings back to studs.
All of these things that I have listed above are vital to how your home functions and performs. The problem is that for re-sale it’s nice to tell people that all of these expensive things have been done but a perspective homebuyer doesn’t put as much value on them as they do a brand new bathroom or new floors. This means that the return on your investment can be a lot less.
Usually when you start repairing some or all of the things listed above (unless the possible return on your investment is large) I would recommend selling the home and moving on to something else that has far fewer problems.
Now even if your home does not require a lot of the major repairs that I have listed above you still must ask yourself how much do you really want to spend on your current home as you attempt to re-configure the inside to fit what you want it to be from what it currently is.
Renovations are more expensive per sqft then building a new home, the simple reason is that it is more labour intensive to renovate a home then building a brand new one. That doesn’t mean that a new home would be cheaper to build then extensively renovating your home, but it does pose the question of if you are going to get a proper return on your renovation investment.
The other question that you should ask yourself (if you do like the idea of renovating a home instead of building a new one) is that if you don’t think it’s worth it to renovate your current home then you could always sell it and buy another home that does require you to renovate it but that home will have a greater chance of giving you a positive return on your investment.
With careful thought you should be able to make a decision on what you should do. If you are still thinking of renovating the current home that you live in I would recommend calling a contractor like me in and getting their opinion. They should be able to tell you a rough value of the work needed and they should be able to tell you about what state some of the more expensive parts of your home are if they do indeed require repair or replacement.
Rob Abbott
Village Builders
The following is a question that I get a lot and with this question it produces more questions than answers, it is a very broad subject and always takes me multiple parts to answer, here goes.
Q:
I am in a situation where I am not sure whether to renovate an existing house or to sell it and move on to another home or possibly build a new home on another piece of property.
A:
Before you decide on what to do with your current home you should ask yourself a couple of things first;
1. Do I like where I currently live, neighbours schools, distance to work? Or is there another neighbourhood or area that I have dreamed about living in?
2. Do I like the house and lot that I currently live in?
3. Can your current home give you what you want in a home?
4. Is it worth it financially to put money into my current home, will it bring me a return on my investment when I go to sell it?
5. Is the home large enough for me or would I have to enlarge the home from its current shape and size?
The more of these questions you answer "no" too or are completely undecided on should help you decide if you really want to get into the renovating of your current home. If those questions didn’t sway you to a decision then read on.
When considering to extensively renovate a home like you are suggesting there are a couple of areas of the home that are more expensive to remediate but they do not give you a lot of return (i.e.; comfort to buyers in resale). These are areas that people do not see but are essential to the working of the home. They are as follows;
• The foundation. Foundation work and waterproofing of the foundation are expensive and disruptive to the landscaping around the home. If you are planning to add an addition to the home having foundation problems will make it a more complicated matter to attach too.
• The insulation. To re-insulate an older home properly you basically have to gut the entire home and start from scratch taking all the walls back to the studs.
• The heating system. Depending on the current heating system it can cost you a lot of money to upgrade. The larger costs are associated when you are converting a home with baseboard heat into a home with a forced air furnace or if you want to install Geothermal heating because you live in the country and you don’t have access to natural gas.
• Re-wiring the electrical. Basically damaging every wall in the house to update old and dangerous electrical lines.
• Re-plumbing. This usually consists of taking most of the walls and ceilings back to studs.
All of these things that I have listed above are vital to how your home functions and performs. The problem is that for re-sale it’s nice to tell people that all of these expensive things have been done but a perspective homebuyer doesn’t put as much value on them as they do a brand new bathroom or new floors. This means that the return on your investment can be a lot less.
Usually when you start repairing some or all of the things listed above (unless the possible return on your investment is large) I would recommend selling the home and moving on to something else that has far fewer problems.
Now even if your home does not require a lot of the major repairs that I have listed above you still must ask yourself how much do you really want to spend on your current home as you attempt to re-configure the inside to fit what you want it to be from what it currently is.
Renovations are more expensive per sqft then building a new home, the simple reason is that it is more labour intensive to renovate a home then building a brand new one. That doesn’t mean that a new home would be cheaper to build then extensively renovating your home, but it does pose the question of if you are going to get a proper return on your renovation investment.
The other question that you should ask yourself (if you do like the idea of renovating a home instead of building a new one) is that if you don’t think it’s worth it to renovate your current home then you could always sell it and buy another home that does require you to renovate it but that home will have a greater chance of giving you a positive return on your investment.
With careful thought you should be able to make a decision on what you should do. If you are still thinking of renovating the current home that you live in I would recommend calling a contractor like me in and getting their opinion. They should be able to tell you a rough value of the work needed and they should be able to tell you about what state some of the more expensive parts of your home are if they do indeed require repair or replacement.
Rob Abbott
Village Builders
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