If your family has grown but your house isn't, you may have questions about your living arrangements. Buying an existing home is an option. But there are other options as well.
Renovating
a home can increase the size of your home, provide better functionality and, depending on the scope, be affordable. On the other hand, building a new home from scratch could provide you with the home of your dreams and possibly reduce some costs in the long run.Here are some factors to consider when making your decision. The most expensive room to remodel is the kitchen. Kitchen renovations include all the elements needed to remodel any other space, in addition to plumbing, air conditioning, additional electricity, cabinets, appliances and additional planning. Bathrooms, while expensive, are a distant second to kitchens.
Lexie is an adjunct editor at Forbes Home and has more than 6 years of professional experience as a writer and editor in the home improvement industry. He previously worked on sites such as HomeAdvisor and Angi (formerly Angie's List). In general, creating something new gives you more control over the project: you can easily adapt it to your exact needs and objectives. However, new construction could be more expensive and take longer than renovating a moderately new building.
For example, if you need to fix a bathroom or install new floors, renovating your home will be cheaper. If you buy a new construction home the same size and caliber as your current home, the closing costs and expenses of selling your current home may cost more than doing small renovations to an existing home. If you can buy a new home faster and with less headaches than doing a full renovation, it might be worth it. Sometimes, renovation costs add up to the point where it's better to buy, especially when you factor in mortgage security rates versus mortgage rates.
If you have needs that your current home can't meet even with a renovation, such as having a main home on the first floor of a two-story house, you can spend too much money on a remodeling project once the costs are calculated. Some homeowners find that renovating or remodeling their current home provides what they're looking for, such as more space or a more modern design. One of the benefits of this route, he says, is the ability to build a customized home that fits specific personal needs. This subtitle is for debates and questions about all aspects of the home construction process, whether in a development carried out by a large builder, in custom houses or in DIY projects.
On the other hand, if you're looking to refresh and revitalize your current space, especially if it was built or updated in recent decades, renovations are likely to be the most affordable option. Renovating a home with significant structural problems can be expensive and time-consuming, and there's no guarantee that repairs will completely solve the problem, Kriegstein says. Changing location through a move may also be the best option financially, as you may not get a great return from renovations in some areas. The cost of financing renovations with a home equity loan, for example, may be lower than that of applying for a completely new mortgage, especially if you have maintained a mortgage with a low interest rate in recent years.
Lower maintenance costs, energy efficiency and the lack of need for future renovations often mean that overall prices are comparable to those of other long-term options. An important factor to consider when deciding whether to renovate or build from scratch is the impact this would have on your operations. According to Narofsky, the average cost of building a home varies greatly depending on the location, the client's wishes and specifications, the complexity of the site, and the scope included in investment.
