At some time in the future after living in your house for decades you are likely to encounter the question of should I remodel or build new construction.
Should you sell your house in its current condition or hire a remodeling contractor to update the home improvements or consider a major complete home renovation or stay where you are preparing to build a house.
These questions are all too common when a homeowner faces the perplexing and complicated dilemma of deciding to remodel or build new construction home in Houston.
This typically involves selling your existing house and buying a new home or remaining in the existing house and renovating the house to fit their current and future needs.
In some cases, this decision can be readily made due to the prior established long term family goals.
But in many additional situations the homeowners must sort through and deliberate over the litany of factors that make this dilemma a difficult issue to simplify.
This entire personal exploration begins with the question, what are your families’ motives and goals for your housing needs.
This dilemma determining elements can usually be classified into tangible and intangible factors. The intangible factors are the tough emotional based elements that require lingering consideration.
The second classification can be identified as tangible factors. Tangible factors are problems that can be measured and quantified. These items as they relate to our dilemma a resolution are commonly numerical or mathematic based elements.
In other words, what are the cost associated with each option. Let’s discuss the many factors that lead to making a comfortable decision to house remodel or build new construction.
Learn about the steps to effectively decide to remodel or build new in Houston
Intangible Concerns
Lifestyle – Your home reflects your lifestyle. Lifestyle is one of the relevant factors that causes owners to question if they should remodel or build new construction home.
You entertain in your home; you raise your family and you spend your quality time personally refueling in your house.
Each member of the family enjoys their own lifestyle in your house. It is the blending of these individual lifestyles that can present new challenges as the family members change and/or mature.
Lifestyle issues are not difficult to remedy. There are many cost effective home improvement strategies that can resolve an owners current and future housing needs.
If the house requires updating or a need for more space, these challenges can be met through a remodel, if this is a relevant concern.
If the home requires a change in use due to the owners empty nesting, this can be remedied through repurposing space by redesigning the floor plan.
In some cases when a change is required due to a need to change school districts or relocation due to a job, it requires a different approach in preparing the house for sale.
In most situations when it comes to preparing a house for sale a number of other factors should be taken into consideration.
A professional real estate agent is a great resource for making recommendations for updating your property for listing.
Other common intangible concerns are the emotional and sentimental attachments to your current home and the dislike for the household moving experience.
Most families that liked their home and have spent a length of time residing in these dwellings, get emotionally attached to their life memories of the house.
These emotions can play a significant role in making a decision about selling.
Let’s look at a few of the more important factors that affect every homeowner’s decision-making process.
They are accessing your need to stay in your immediate vicinity, having your current residence evaluated for structural deficiencies and understanding the relationship of the physical house value vs the land value.
Location & Community– The location and neighborhood of your house is often a significant factor in your dilemma deliberation.
This is even a greater challenge if children’s schools are part of the evaluation. Moving to a new part of your city for the schools can be the driving factor with younger families.
The flip side of this is when a family is considering changing schools as a consequence of buying a new house.
These are difficult prevailing factors and should be carefully measured in your cost benefit assessment to remodel or build new.
Changing location has become a major determining factor for the aging baby boomer generation.
AARP reports that 82% of aging boomers prefer to age in place. Although they realize that their current home will need modifications for their personal aging and also addressing the increasing maintenance problems as the house ages with them.
These matters require a remodeling contractor that will act as a trusted adviser in discussing the homes required home improvement and associated budget that comes with them.
Tangible Concerns
Updating or Structural Requirements – The average age of a single family house in metro Houston is 30 years old. A home this age will require many major home improvement products replaced if not previously addressed.
Products like roof shingles, mechanical systems and kitchen appliances represent a few of the more expensive house components that need to be evaluated as future investments.
Other major concerns in Houston would be if the house has experienced any structural settlement.
The soil conditions in Houston are highly plastic and commonly lead to foundation failure.
Foundation failure generally leads to the homes walls and ceiling cracking or shifting.
These are key factors in assessing the viability of investing additional funds in house improvement that is experiencing this type of distress.
It is in your best interest to hire a house inspection engineer or a Houston house remodeler to conduct an evaluation of your house.
This is prudent given that you are already seriously considering selling your property.
This allows you to get in front of any deal breaking problems that might occur as a result of the buyer’s inspection report.
If a significant deficiency is found, it may ultimately affect your decision to remodel or build new.
Lot Value vs Home Value – In the metro area of Houston many of the older homes are experiencing an economic renaissance.
This is a result of a growing demand the past decade for homes in the finer neighborhoods in metro Houston.
Since typically there is little to no available building site inventory for new house construction, price pressures cause the land value to outpace the value of the existing house improvements.
These price demand pressures result in homes 55 – 70 year of age being torn down for the value of their land.
The economics of this renaissance place’s larger lots in high demand neighborhoods at a price premium.
This new economic reality creates another challenging matter in the remodel or build new dilemma.
Homes in the age range of 35-55 typically require a great deal of updating. So, the question becomes, should the owner make the necessary investment commitment to home renovations or live in the house and sell for land value in the future.
Careful financial research and vetting are required to make this assessment. That often requires a financial feasibility to be conducted by a seasoned pro with market price information and construction cost facts.
Financial Feasibility – The financial feasibility consists of a comprehensive analysis of the relevant financial factors that require evaluation in making a clear intelligent decision to conduct a home renovation or sell your existing house.
These financial factors include the compiling and assessment of comparable house values, land market values and realistic construction cost estimates.
These financial factors are compiled to determine the future assessment of your homes market value before and after construction improvements are completed.
Using the last five year history of the local appraisal district’s market valuation increases can be used to project a reasonable estimate of the future value of the improved homes future market value.
This can then be compared to the sales assessment analysis to reach the best financial return.
The summation of this data is designed to provide the owner with a realistic financial assessment that aids in determining if the projected renovations make financial sense.
The results of this analysis can then be compared to the results of the projected benefits of a sales analysis.
This comparison will provide you the needed financial insights required to measure the tangible concerns associated with a sell or renovate dilemma.
As discussed, there are many moving parts to the home remodeling or buy scenario.
This is a matter that a qualified remodeling contractor can readably develop for you during your evaluation period.
It is both a powerful decision-making tool and pre development mechanism for preparing for a complete lifestyle assessment.
Conclusion
Determining to remodel or build new construction home in Houston is a complicated process of gathering the facts and carefully evaluate the scenarios until you make a decision.
Developing a comprehensive list of relevant tangible and intangible factors for evaluating your scenarios is key to making an effective decision.
Following our recommended approach to studying your options through the collective process we have offered will lead to the best of results for your future housing needs.
