Should You Renovate Your Home or Just Move?

Deciding whether it’s time to sell or renovate your home can be a daunting task. Do you stay and make a few upgrades or do you sell and buy a home with newer finishes? It all depends on your current and future needs. Before you swing a hammer or knock down any walls, review how you currently use each room in your home, research remodeling options and assess the value of any renovations.

Tour Your Home

Before you think about changing anything, do a thorough assessment of how you use your home and how you want to use it while living there for at least seven or eight months, so that you see the home in all kinds of weather. Take note of how each room responds to light, noise and changing temperatures. For example, you may decide to move your family room to another part of the house because it gets too bright on sunny days. Or, you may realize you can fix the problem by purchasing some good window shades.

Walk through each room and re-evaluate how you use the space. Sometimes even simple changes — rearranging furniture or adding a fresh coat of paint — can really transform a room.  But if you want to alter the layout or room sizes, think outside the box. You can still make creative, but cost effective changes such as installing a wall to convert a den into an extra bedroom. (Before you put up any walls, be sure to check the residential code requirements in your municipality.)

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Visualize the Space

Not sure what your kitchen or bathrooms could look like remodeled? Visit open houses in your neighborhood to see how homes similar to yours have been upgraded. Seeing what other homeowners have already done will also give you an idea of the different styles and finishes that could suit your home.

Another way to help you visualize a renovation is to bring a blueprint of your house to a home improvement store such as Home Depot, or even to Costco. In most cases, their cabinet professionals can provide you with a free digital rendering of what your kitchen can look like with renovations. What they can’t give you is a cost estimate.  A contractor or remodeler can provide a cost estimate or assess whether a structural change can be made to your layout. But knowing the possibilities for upgrades will arm you with a good baseline of knowledge before you start meeting with remodelers.

The Value of Renovation: Is It Worth It?

Once you have a cost estimate for a remodeling job, assess how much value it can add to your home. A basic kitchen remodel averages a 79 percent return on investment, and a bathroom remodel averages 70 percent, according to an analysis by Remodeling Magazine. But, if you spend $50,000 on renovations, and your home costs $500,000, you now owe $550,000. If you decide to sell your home, be prepared that you may not recover all of the investment.

About Joe Hunt, Redfin Agent
Joe Hunt is a broker and local team lead for Redfin in the Seattle metro area. Joe was a former business strategist for a Fortune 100 company when he decided to build his own home and launch his real estate career more than 20 years ago. Joe has since built and renovated numerous homes and helped hundreds of clients navigate the home-buying and selling process.