Love It or List It?
Okay, you’ve been in your house for a while now, and you know things just aren’t working for you. With the new year comes momentum to put your ideas into action and this is the year to do something about the house, but what? Before you sign up for a home renovation TV show, let us walk you through three main questions to consider if you should fix up your space and address the issues, or if it’s time to move on and move out.
First things first: Location, Location, Location
Realtors are right when they share their number one property consideration, location! Location isn’t just about the neighborhood, but weighing your own lifestyle and stage of life in comparison to the neighborhood. For many homeowners, this includes busyness and traffic, local school quality, access to shopping and restaurants, nearby outdoor open space such as trails and parks, and other amenities that make life enjoyable. This might also include how friendly the neighbors are, how many other children live in the neighborhood, and if it’s a neighborhood you’ve been in for a while, how connected you are to the community.
Strong community connections are tough to build which makes this one of the greatest influences we see for homeowners wanting to renovate, rather than move. When the places and people around you are what bring you joy and sense of fulfillment, renovating is an easy choice. When the neighborhood leaves you wanting for these moments of connection, it is likely you’ll find a house better suited to you in a new location.
Second: Simplicity - the simplest solution is often the right one.
Many homes that we work in are older, and quite complex. Renovating an old Denver home isn’t without its challenges. When considering a renovation, you want to keep things simple and streamlined. An addition at grade is the simplest most straight-forward option when considering adding space. When you get into more complex additions, such as a pop-top, you have to consider that the addition above is going to necessarily have an impact on every level below. That impact may be structural, re-working mechanical systems, or just aesthetic at areas where drywall will be cut out for access to walls and ceilings, but most often, the impact involves a combination of these. This means you will end up doing work in all areas of your home, when you may have been thinking existing would stay just the way it is.
In addition to the complexities of additions, a challenge we see with all renovation work is scope creep. So often it begins with a kitchen renovation and throughout the planning owners start to say “if we’re going to do X, then we might as well include Y.” It’s all well-intentioned as you want to be sure you aren’t spending more in the future to get the same thing done. That being said, you can easily “might as well” your way from a $150k project to a $300k project.
Third: When it makes sense to follow your heart.
A renovation is a lot of work! Work throughout the process from the planning, budgeting, time for meetings, construction site visits, and the myriad design decisions along the way, not to mention packing, moving out, then moving back in and unpacking. Home construction projects can take their toll and aren’t something to take on without true consideration of the impacts. If you’re still weighing the decision, it may just come down to a matter of the heart. Do you want to invest what it will take to renovate this house? Does the idea of moving to a new space fill you with dread or excitement? Are you willing to be out of your home for a period of time during which the renovation takes place? The process may be daunting or it may be thrilling, but you’ll have to trust your intuition to know what works best for you and your family.
If you’re ready to take the plunge, we’d love to talk through how we might partner with you through this process. Get in touch to find out how we can help.