Are you trying to decide whether you should renovate your home or buy a new property?
In this blog I am going to take you through the tough questions you need to ask yourself to help you decide whether you should renovate your current home or buy a new property to meet your needs, so that you don’t make any of the mistakes we made on our home renovation.
If we have not met before my name is Laurel Legate and I am a top producing realtor in west Toronto who outgrew my own home and specializes in helping families like my own.
Like thousands of other people in the GTA we completed a major renovation to a house we purchased in order to have the dream home we needed for our family.
The Tough Questions to Ask Yourself
When deciding whether to renovate or buy new there are a few tough questions you need to ask yourself.
Okay, so first things first. Do you love your home, street and neighborhood?
Because if you do that needs to be taken into consideration. We were adamant about buying a home in a certain neighborhood.
Are there even properties for sale in your neighborhood that meet your needs?
Or would you have to leave the neighborhood to find your dream home?
Buying a home depending on the market conditions takes a system and strategy as well.
And if you renovated your current home to add a second storey for example, is the end value worth the investment? The last thing you want to do is over renovate.
Are there other homes in the area doing similar renovations? A lot of West Toronto areas have bungalows that are being renovated into 2 storey homes.
The Top Reasons to Renovate
- Renovations build equity in your home
- Equity builds wealth
- Perhaps you want to use the equity to buy an investment property in the future
- You get to customize the home to your taste
- You can save money … but not always. That is a discussion for another video about hiring a contractor
If you Decide to Renovate Remember this ...
- Do not rush the process … no matter what. This is the most important step. And we certainly made a few rushed decisions that I wish I could go back and take time to look at more closely. Specifically the HVAC plan.
- Review your financing with a broker and set a budget
- Draft Plans – Hire an architect. I have a list of 3 or 4 I can refer if you need.
- Hire a contractor – MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A CONTRACT
- Enjoy the process …this could be your forever home
Hiring a Contractor?
Now that we have discussed what you need to consider when deciding to renovate or buy new you may also be interested in learning about HOW TO HIRE A CONTRACTOR
In the next video I will walk you through the most important steps to hire a contractor from my own personal experience.