Not surprisingly, this is a question we get asked all the time by prospective renovation clients at our first meeting. And naturally it is a very difficult question to answer as we are not real estate experts, accountants or fortune tellers!!
What we normally say to people is that if their time horizon till selling following the renovation is 5 years or more, then it is unlikely they will not more than recoup their investment in the renovation when it comes time to sell down the line. And there is the added bonus of enjoying their new, fully renovated family home until they sell!
At many appointments we hear the following story…
1. I love where I live
2. I like my neighbours
3. The kids are happy at school/we live near a great school
4. We have been looking for a house to move to for months, even years, but can’t find anything that grabs us
5. It is SO expensive to move
The above are repeated meeting after meeting and people actually seem comforted when we can say that they are not alone when it comes to these sentiments.
Regarding the cost of moving….
If you are selling a $500,000 property and looking to buy around the $800,000 mark for a newly renovated home to move to, the combined cost of stamp duty on the new house plus real estate agents fees on the current property will be somewhere north of $75,000. This amount of money will go at least a third of the way to your new renovation, if not a higher percentage! This factor alone often tips people over the edge to renovate rather than sell and buy elsewhere.
Combine those costs with a flat real estate market, money never being cheaper to borrow and no tax paid on capital gains on the family home and it is not hard to see why the renovation market is very strong at the moment.
If the above story sounds like you….
Then maybe it is time to look at renovating your current home and turning it into a place that you can enjoy for the foreseeable future, with the renovation in time given you a higher future sale price as well.
If we go through the exercise of showing you what your renovation will cost and how it will work, and you decide to move instead, then we totally understand that you need to have all the facts in front of you in order to make an informed decision.
To see recent examples of some renovation projects please visit our web site.