IT’S UNDERSTANDABLE. YOU’VE OUTGROWN your house. Your children are growing and they need more space. Your home business requires more room for office and storage. Whatever the reason, you’ve concluded it’s time to add square footage to your house. But think twice before you expand. Your best decision might be to sell. There are a number of factors you should consider before taking on that expansion project.
Property Value.
Assuming your proposed project is allowable under your local zoning ordinances, your first thought needs to be concerning pricing yourself out of your neighborhood. When you eventually sell, you might be in a position whereby you will never be able to recoup what you put into your house. That’s an obvious concern, but how do you avoid placing yourself in that position? Here’s what not to do: go out and hire an architect. Architects can design whatever you want, but we are not the ones to ask, “what will this project cost.” The reason is simple, we don’t buy materials, contractors do, and they know cost. So, The Seip Group suggests you find a few reputable general contractors, one of which you might eventually hire, and describe to them what you are interested in building (in as much detail as you can). Ask them to give you a ballpark price. They should easily be able to do that for you. Bear in mind that the price is most likely going to go up from there (once the contractor gets a set of plans). But you’ll have enough information before you spend your first dollar to know if you’re about to price yourself out of your neighborhood — or just as bad, exceed your budget.
Going Up, or Going Out.
There are quite a few factors that feed into answering whether you should build up or out. The first, and most obvious factor, is whether you are permitted by ordinance to go out as far as you need to. If you’re considering expanding horizontally, you’ll need to calculate-in the hidden costs such as relocating underground utilities. Going out rather than up also adds the cost of a foundation, which is not a consideration if you go up. Going up, on the other hand, adds extra costs for structural considerations. Your existing house probably was built without a second floor in mind so you’ll need to create new structural elements to make certain the ground floor can support the second. That’s not cheap and it may include tearing apart some of your existing walls. You will also have the added expense of redirecting existing electrical circuits and plumbing. That’s also not cheap to do.
A long-term consideration — and one that might be the deciding factor — is whether or not you want to navigate steps as you get older. If you are planning on your house being your homestead in your twilight years, be sure to allow yourself dimensions in hallways, and placement of doors that will allow for future enlargement, to accommodate wheelchair access.
Moving On.
So, you’ve determined that you’re moving on. What will you need to do to your existing house to get it ready to go on the market? New coats of paint and repairs to damaged exterior wood and interior trim are sensible things to do. They are obvious distractions and need to be removed from the list of objections. The overall layout of space is either favorable or a negative to potential buyers, but it’s not anything you can fix in this circumstance. Tearing up the old carpet and replacing it with laminated wood floors can be a sound consideration, but should be made in consultation with a qualified real estate agent once you know your selling price.
Two important areas of your house that will attract the most attention are the kitchen and bathrooms — especially the master bath. These are the two most expensive areas of your house and can involve hundreds of dollars per square foot to bring into acceptable style. If you’re ready to sell and you never got around to upgrading these areas think twice about taking on that expense in an effort to drive more interested buyers. Unless there’s a lot of wiggle room in the profit it’s best not to take on these renovations. We once designed a spec house and called for a spiral staircase leading from the living room to an open balcony above — mostly for space considerations. We discovered that there was an even split of likes and dislikes between potential buyers. We inadvertently eliminated half of the market with one design decision. The same thing can happen with renovating your kitchen and bath. We believe it’s better to give a price concession and let your buyer decide what they want to do with the needed renovations — something that reflects the buyer’s taste and lifestyle.