Renovate, Rebuild or Relocate?
The house is getting too small but you love the area. What are your choices?
Do you renovate, knock down and rebuild or do you relocate and upgrade your current house?
With a shortage of stock, rising house prices on the Northern Beaches and the popularity of shows such as The Block, home owners are continually weighing up their options. This is why, at Sandcastle Finance we are constantly running numbers for clients asking these questions.
The first thing to keep in mind is there is no one size fits all solution. The most important first step in deciding is to do the maths!
Do I Renovate?
You need to consider the cost to renovate and whether that will help you achieve your financial and lifestyle goals?
No doubt you may have considered some of the benefits of renovating vs a new build:
You can revamp the areas that you don't like and generally you don't have to move out while renovations are taking place which will save on moving costs and renting.
Adding an additional bedroom, kitchen and revamping bathrooms are key areas that can increase the value of your home.
Banks can value a property as if it were completed based on the design. You may be surprised at how much value a renovation could potentially add. With the uplift in valuation on an “as if completed” project, you can access the funds through a construction loan. The advantage of this is that you don’t have to have the cash available at the beginning.
If you are thinking about renovating and you don't have the funds, we can show you how this may be possible for you.
Do I Knock Down and Rebuild?
While renovating can seem like an easier and cheaper option, in the long run this can actually cost far more as you may find a lot of hidden costs that you didn't know about, especially with older homes.
Knock down and rebuilds often yield a higher sale price if this is your end goal
Some other advantages you’ll be picking up along the way include:
A home with all the modern trimmings. No need to compromise.
Costs are determined upfront and unless you change your mind you should know total cost at the outset
Do I Sell and Relocate?
Although a seemingly straightforward option, we still need to do the maths on this.
How much could you get for your home as it is ?
How much would you need to spend on your home to get it ready for sale?
Stamp duty costs, legal fees, moving costs, to purchase a new home need to be considered.
Then there are other considerations:
If you sell your home first will you be able to find your new upgraded home straight away? This is actually proving one of the most difficult tasks on the Northern Beaches due to lack of stock.
If you don't find a home will you need to rent?
How much will this cost?
Will you need to store furniture, and then there’s the cost of moving twice.
Or do you buy first and hope you will sell your home within the settlement time frame and risk possibly having to get bridging finance?
These scenarios all need to be thought through and they all have costs and consequences associated with them.
If you are considering any of these options we would love to have a chat with you to see if we can assist in working out what is right for you.
Simply book in a time here and we’ll give you a call to discuss