We move into the final part of our series on potential housing solutions. We’ve already mined the positives and negatives of buying new and moving up/down into a resale so it’s time to address doing additions. Sometimes we just need to blow out a kitchen, or add a sun room to the existing family room to transform a tired main level. Sometimes we are staring straight at what we in the business call “functional obsolescence”. Things like 3 or 4 bedroom homes with only 1 full bath, or older homes with negligible closet and storage space. Whatever the reason now your home just does not work for you or your family. So how to proceed?
First identify the problems that you need to overcome, and/or the improvements you want to make and the reasons why. Second list the reasons why staying where you are makes more sense than selling and taking the funds you would put into an addition into a different home that might more closely suit your needs. Maybe you have a fantastic lot or lots of family history there or the location perfectly matches your lifestyle. Next reach out to a top broker like me who has a background like I do in building (my first job) , remodeling (I used to be a part owner of such a company) and finance as well as a thorough knowledge of the market. Why is that important? I’ve conservatively been in over 20,000 home in my career and I can help you with identifying expansion options, contractor referrals for large scale additions, current design trends and perhaps most importantly how the proposed additions will impact the market value of your property. You’ll be selling it at some point! Sometimes I meet with clients and the proposed additions add similar value to the cost or often even exceed it. Other times it only returns a fraction of the cost. In the latter case it’s still perfectly OK to proceed with the project if it’s going to provide you with a lot of utility and enjoyment. Just make those decisions in an informed fashion.
All that being said I’ve seen some stunning transformations of homes that beggar the imagination. Check out my friends at Paradigm Building Group (https://paradigmbuildinggroup.com/) for some examples. Or you might decide that after all the analysis it might be better to go ahead and move to a resale or new construction. Either way reach out to me anytime as a resource. Here’s a good article about some of the things to consider in this process. It’s a bit of an advertisement for Home Advisor and the cost estimates at the end are too low for this region but it’s a good template never the less. https://patch.com/us/across-america/7-things-ask-yourself-adding-your-house
I look forward to talking with you no matter which route your housing path takes you on!
It’s a good life.
Chris
