The truths around home renovation costs

Before selling a home many families look to increase the value of their home by renovating different areas of the property or all areas that need a facelift. The notion of looking to renovate always gets home owners excited. But sometimes that same excitement that fills the air can act like a blindfold that covers the truths around home renovations.

The idea of doing things yourself or finding a team that will bring your renovation plans to life under budget or on budget are enough to get anyone excited. But once the hype and dust has cleared and you bring yourself back down to earth; you must look at different factors to determine if it’s worth it.

Questions like ‘Will this add value to my home?’ ‘How much will this cost?’ ‘How long will this take?’ These are all valid questions when thinking about going through the process of wanting to renovate your home.

WILL THIS ADD VALUE?

When renovating to add value to your home, you should be realistic with what you are adding. If you live in the suburbs, you won’t be adding a very fancy and expensive bathtub to your bathroom. Just like you wouldn’t spend under $10,000 to rebuild your bathroom in a million-dollar home. It just doesn’t make sense, you must renovate where necessary and make the renovation make sense for the price you are paying. The demographics of the neighbourhood your home is in should be an anchor used to determine just how much you want to increase the value by and plan accordingly.

HOW MUCH WILL THIS COST?

This is a very common question when it comes to renovations. Watching TV home reno shows, we see dozens situations where they tell the home owner it won’t cost much and then magically either come just under budget or at budget.

What viewers don’t realize is that these TV estimates and final costs don’t usually include the costs that the home owners in real life would get billed for. Things like designer’s fee, plus additional fees contractors would add at the job site while things come up on an as need basis. As well as, the material they purchase, they could be getting them at cost.

The contractors, designers and stagers that work on the TV home renovation show may be doing it for free and for the exposure of being on TV. There is a lot that isn’t accounted for when these renovations are down on TV.

The Real Cost of a $55,000 TV Reno

SOURCE : http://www.moneysense.ca/spend/real-estate/warning-may-not-be-exactly-as-shown/

This photo shows what a TV show that says a renovation costs $55,000 really costs.

Now, your renovation may not cost this much, but this is a perfect example of why not to believe TV magic.

HOW LONG WILL THIS TAKE?

The question everyone wants to know the answer to as no one likes living in a home with constant renovations going on in it.

Being woken up in the morning with the sounds of drills and hammers. On TV, the shows, a renovation only takes a couple of weeks, which could be the case, but it depends on the project being done. You can’t expect a kitchen to be done in 2 weeks, and started immediately, most places that make cabinets take weeks to make them to begin with. With the unrealistic reality from TV shows aside, renovations will differ in length depending on the needed materials and how large of a project it is.

Home renovations can be a hassle on you and your family especially when you are trying to sell your home. But aside from time, convenience and noise; the biggest issue to deal with is the cost.

Most home sellers are doing it because they are ready to move to something bigger and better. When trying to find the money to purchase a new home, having the time or money to renovate your home existing home can at times be very difficult and stressful. This can come as a problem for you, sidetracking your need to renovate your current home for maximum up sell.

THE SOLUTION

When you first buy a property, you are told that it is a good investment as it will only appreciate in value. But sometimes, things like the economy, demographics and location can deter the increase in value by what it should actually be. A small low to medium budget renovation is a great way to get that value back and capitalize on a property you already have.

The need to spend tens of hundreds of thousand dollars is not necessary to get you selling your home over asking. 

Notably, finding the finances to go through with a home renovation while hunting for a new property is statistically the biggest hurdle most home owners face when trying to fix and upsell their current property.

My Fix and Upsell program helps to remove the financial hurdle of getting this done and enables you to renovate and sell your home without any hassles by having the real estate agent  (myself) selling your home to pay for all the renovation costs up front.

You can learn more about the Fix and Upsell program by clicking here.