The Pros and Cons of Renovating Your Existing Home VS Buying a New Home

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Have you ever stood at the crossroads of change, wondering whether to breathe new life into your old home or embark on a quest for a brand new abode? That's exactly the fork in the road we tackle today. Beth and Christine share the ins and outs of renovating versus relocating, spilling the beans on how customization through renovation can be a dream—or a nightmare of choices. And if the thought of a move is tempting, we've got insights on the fresh starts and the nitty-gritty of navigating real estate markets that might just sway your decision.

Let's face it, transforming your current pad can be an emotional saga, but we're here to navigate those rough waters with you. From handling financial curveballs to the craft of managing contractors, we're dishing out real talk on the trials of home makeovers. And for those leaning towards packing up and planting roots in new soil, we lay out the perks and the pitfalls. A new neighborhood promises adventure, but the hurdles of house-hunting and bidding wars are real. Whatever your choice, we've got your back, guiding you through these life-altering decisions.

Finally, we zero in on the crucial bits that'll help you tip the scales. We've got the skinny on budgeting for a renovation without flushing your savings down the drain, and the lowdown on making a move without dragging along years of clutter. Plus, we link arms with our EXP network experts to equip you with the best resources, whether you're cozying up in our locale or tuning in from lands afar. It's all here in this episode—your compass for steering through the choppy seas of home improvement or the thrilling expedition of finding your next homestead.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:34

Hello everyone, welcome back to the Abundant Investor. I'm Christine Fisk, your host, along with my co-host, beth Rooney, and today we have a podcast for you that I think is going to hit home for a lot of folks. The big question today is do you want to renovate or do you want to buy a new house? We encounter a lot of folks, whether we're hosting open houses, whether we're talking to potential buyers who are questioning do I wanna stay in my house and add some type of addition or make some type of renovation adjustment that will make my home more livable and fit my family's changing needs, or is it time to go buy that next property to move to? And this is something that a lot of people grapple with and we thought that we would shed some light on it, because we've seen and experienced a lot with this particular decision. It's a really big decision.

Speaker 2: 1:31

Yes, yeah, it absolutely is, and there's a, there's a lot that goes into it. It's if you listen to our podcast last week, we talked about decision-making and how you make decisions, and that's going to be that theme is going to pull through here a little bit today as well, because there's, there's, you know, some big decisions to make on this question. Right, should I stay or should I go?

Speaker 1: 1:56

Absolutely Cue the song, I think, for you know what it comes down to for most people is really some preferences, Preferences on do you want to live through a renovation or do you want to move? Do you want to make all of the decisions that go into a renovation or would you like something done for you? Would you like someone to just take that off your plate? And then also, there's a time in question. You know these are the big ones. There's, of course, a lot of other ones, but time in question do you, do you want to be looking out, spending your time looking for a new house what's the market like? How long might that take? House what's the market like? How long might that take?

Speaker 1: 2:38

Or do you want to potentially move out of your house while you do a renovation and take the time to box things up, pack up, move out, find another place to live and then come back and unpack and start fresh? Meanwhile, you're working with all kinds of professionals who are working on your house during that time, all kinds of professionals who are working on your house during that time. So it is a. It's a time commitment. Um, either way you look at it, and I think you have to look at what are your needs and wants and what are your strengths, and play to your strengths. You got it.

Speaker 2: 3:05

You got it so I think let's grid it out for people. I think this is a good way to do it. We're going to start with um talking about renovations and we're going to give you the pluses and minuses and then we'll move on to moving, like buying a house that's done, and we're going to give you the pluses and minuses of that as well. So if you're listening in a place that you can take notes, that might be a good idea. If this is something that you're grappling with, and after you listen to it, we'd love to hear your comments. Did we miss any big pluses or minuses? Um, especially if you've done this or it's it's something that you're thinking about.

Speaker 2: 3:42

So let's start with the renovations in the. The upside, like what are the pluses of doing a renovation and um having um built a house from the ground up and then bought a home that was built originally in the 1920s and doubling it in size? I've been through this. So my pluses, my opinion of the pluses, may be different than yours, than anybody listening here, but you know the obvious first one is you get what you want. You know you really can within probably 90% of it unless you're really building from the ground up, and then you can get really a hundred percent of what you want? Um, but you can get generally what you want? Um. Sometimes there's walls that can't come down, or beam that needs to be, you know, in a certain spot, or columns that can't be moved, but for the most part you can pick all your finishes.

Speaker 1: 4:35

You can um, really, you know, design it to be to meet what you think is beautiful or you can take the time to really enjoy the process and spend a lot of time flipping through sites like Houzz or getting inspiration from Pinterest or other places Architectural Digest, whatever floats your boat and really getting a sense of like what would suit me. And it's kind of like there's anything you want and for some people they love that freedom of choice. There's anything you want and for some people they love that freedom of choice and for other people it's overwhelming because it's just too much. It's like you know you either go to a restaurant and you want the whole buffet, you want to go to the buffet or you want the waiter to say this is tonight's special. It's absolutely knock your socks off and you don't want to have to think about what you're going to order.

Speaker 2: 5:33

Yeah, exactly yeah. So I mean I think the the other kind of piece of that is that again, I put this as a plus, but it can be fun. It can be really fun. Like Christine just mentioned an app called House. It's H-O-U-Z-Z. If you're thinking about doing any kind of work or deciding, you know, trying to figure out what you like in a home or what your style is, it is a great place to go. You can create an account for free. You can create folders, so you can create a folder for kitchens and just put, pop in pictures in one folder of all the kitchens you like, and then after a while you're going to see a trend. You're going to say, oh, I really want, you know, granite countertops or white cabinets or gold finishes or chrome finishes. It will start to really bubble up what your taste is, and so for some people they couldn't think of anything worse. But this could be a positive. You know it's kind of fun to you know, create that vision, as Christine was just saying, and then watch it come to life.

Speaker 1: 6:51

Exactly, and I think that's a huge plus for a. In almost every circumstance, you are building equity in that property, so you're creating value because you're willing to do the work and go through the renovation, and some people are not. So there's value to that, and you're adding value to a house when you decide to change it up, especially when you modernize it. Beth, your house is a stunning example of this. You took a house that was in dire need of renovation. Beth, your house is a stunning example of this. You took a house that was in dire need of renovation. The previous owner lived there a long time, it hadn't been updated, and you brought it up to standards that are very desirable today.

Speaker 1: 7:27

So I think that, if you're interested in this we talk a lot about building wealth through real estate. Interested in this. This is a. We talk a lot about building wealth through real estate. This is a way to build wealth through real estate, and so we probably both, it's fair to say, have a bias towards doing it this way, and we know that there are a lot of people that also just want it done for them, and that's that's great right, because they are building equity in some other area of their life. Maybe they're putting that time that they would have put into a renovation, into a new business, and so that's where they're building their equity, or they just want to put it into their job or their kids, right. So it's all about choice and it's all about what's valuable to you at any given time, and no one is better than the other. It's a very personal preference.

Speaker 2: 8:19

That's right. And I think the final plus is that you get to sort of choose where you live. You kind of already know your neighbors. You may have strong relationships with your neighbors. You don't have to uproot. If you have kids, you know out of a neighborhood that they may love and have friends in and you kind of already know, like what the commute time to work is and you know where the grocery stores are and like what. You know what your next door neighbor is like and all that kind of stuff. So that's a positive.

Speaker 2: 8:50

When you stay where you are and renovate, stay where you are and renovate your, your, your, this and it's, I think, a big reason why sometimes people choose to do this is because they just love where they're at Right and you know, and, and just going back to my own experience, we our original sort of home that we we had our kids brought our kids home to and all that kind of thing was just too small and we couldn't add on there wasn't a way already had an addition and we couldn't add more bedrooms. So when we were looking we really wanted to stay close by the neighborhood and we were able to do that now twice, but it took, but that was a big decision-making factor. So I think that that's definitely a plus for renovating is that you get to keep the same neighbors and the same walk to school and the same. You know all of that.

Speaker 2: 9:41

Maybe that's negative, but in most cases I think it's a big reason why people go through the renovation.

Speaker 1: 9:49

Absolutely. I think if you're settled and you're grounded and you have a community around you that you love and it's comfortable, that's a lot of reason to stay. Another thing to consider to go back to building well through real estate is considering that location from a perspective of the value of it. Right, certain parts of town, certain types of streets, certain neighborhoods you know you could live next to you could live in town next to a bunch of commercial buildings it may not hold the same value as living on a highly desirable quiet street where a lot of families tend to live because it's a family-oriented town. Let's just say so. Thinking about location, location, location. We always say that with real estate it matters so much. So that would be something else to think about. Is your location one that is going to be desirable in the future or not? I think, though, at the end of the day, most people are saying, like what's best for me and my family right now?

Speaker 1: 10:43

And that's going to be like, above and beyond everything else.

Speaker 2: 10:46

Yeah, absolutely Okay. So those are the pros. Now let the first con is that it's logistically a lot. So in most cases, depending on the project, you can't live through it. Sometimes you can, and even that is a con. You know they can make a. You know a temporary kitchen in a den and you can, you know, have crock pot meatballs for eight months, but most times it's going to be best to move out.

Speaker 2: 11:21

So there's the packing up of your stuff, because the house gets dusty and dirty and they need to get to everything. So you got to take all of your belongings out, store them somewhere or move them to another home. Out, store them somewhere or move them to another home. So you could either move to a home that's furnished and put all of your belongings in storage, or you could move to an unfurnished rental and move all your belongings there. But when the construction's done you have to move again.

Speaker 2: 11:52

So it's like you know there's this and to some people now, obviously I've done this a few times, I don't mind that I can't say that. My husband agrees with that, and this might be enough of a deterrent for some of you to say, no way, there's nothing I hate more than packing boxes and moving my stuff around, so, but there and then there's the cost of that right my stuff around, so, but there and then there's the cost of that right. So you know, finding a furnished apartment is not that easy but it's not impossible. You can use furnished finders, you can go through. Relocation companies tend to have furnished apartments that they use for their corporate relocations and if they're not being used, sometimes they'll rent those out.

Speaker 2: 12:35

But you know, it's a factor Also thinking about if you have children in school. If they're not being used, sometimes they'll rent those out, but it's a factor Also thinking about if you have children in school and they're in a public school and their address needs to stay within that town. That's also a really big factor If your kids like when we did our first move, our kids happened to be in Catholic school, and so for that one year we had a little window where we could live with my parents in a budding town while we started the project and commute drive into the town that we live in now, and so that wasn't as big of a factor. But if the kids were in public school, the option to move to the budding town and live with my parents probably wouldn't have been able to happen, because you have to be a resident of the town.

Speaker 1: 13:18

That Right, definitely, you know you've got to be willing to be okay with the unexpected. So we talk about this sometimes and I think that this is a really it's a great skill to hone and you might be at capacity. You might just say I'm not up for a game of what are we going to find behind wall number two when the contractor goes to open it up to put a whatever they're going to put in there, right? So as much as you want to estimate what the expenses are going to be and how long the process is going to take, usually we say to people expect the unexpected, give yourself buffer in terms of both budget and timeline, because it is common and you might have heard this from friends if you haven't gone through it yourself already that these projects can take longer and be more costly than you originally anticipated. You simply don't know what you don't know, and so are you comfortable with that? Are you okay or you know to live with that, or are you going to feel like you're riding an emotional roller coaster, um, at every twist and turn along the way? And also, I think you know we didn't really talk about the size of the renovation like, what's your capacity if you're doing what you did, beth, where someone's doubling the size of their home. That's a really big project.

Speaker 1: 14:37

It's a little different from when I bought my first house in this town. We renovated the kitchen and that was it. That was more tolerable, and even when we had delays, they weren't the kind of delays that I've heard some horror stories about, and we did live through that. We had the dining room was set up as our kitchen and we endured the dust. We had little kids. They were old enough, though that they were independent, you know, could walk on their own and we weren't in diapers, and it was.

Speaker 1: 15:03

It was a lot, but it was, I think. But I think it was supposed to be six weeks and it was eight weeks, so it was doable. And I think it really depends how well do you know your contractor and your team that you're hiring as well, and do you have reputable referrals coming in. So referrals are great. There's so much value in finding someone that you know has done a great job for a friend or a relative or a neighbor. They are able to speak to that so that you have some sense of what that looks like going into it.

Speaker 2: 15:38

Absolutely, absolutely. I think another con that doesn't get enough attention is decision fatigue. Again, and this is how we go. We're going back to our podcast from our last episode.

Speaker 2: 15:53

There are a lot of decisions to make and you have to make them, even if you hire somebody to help you. So I'm thinking of things like what do you want your interior doors to look like? What do you want the doorknobs on those doors to look like? Those are two separate decisions. They don't come together. You have to pick the. You know the hardware that goes on the door and the door. You, you know you're doing a bathroom. There's tile, there's hardware, there's light fixtures, there's the vanity, there's the countertops, all of those things. The wall, either the wall coverings, whether it's, you know, paint or wallpaper. I mean, if you just think about it in the bathroom, I just listed what eight different decisions to make in one room alone, and so, again, this could fuel you or it could drain you, and you know the decision fatigue is tough and, as I said just now, you can hire an interior designer that's going to. That can help narrow this down or at least help you get to a point where you have a theme for your house. Maybe you're using like coastal colors, or you know neutral colors, or you like you know some bold colors. Whatever it is, your taste may be, so they can help you with that, but at the end of the day, they're going to want you to pick like do you want this tile or that tile, do you want this countertop or that? And so it's.

Speaker 2: 17:14

There's two things really with this it's the abundance of decisions that need to be made and they need to be made on the timetable of the builder. For you to go back to what you were just saying is to meet your project deadline. So, if you know, I remember my builder sitting at my kitchen table saying Beth, when I tell you I need to know which windows you want, I need it by that date. Because if we don't order it, if we don't know the windows by on those dates, everything gets pushed back and then I can't, and then I can't deliver the house to you complete on a certain date. So you know he would give me a window of time, no pun intended.

Speaker 2: 17:58

Say okay. He kept saying don't even think about looking at a kitchen. I need you to pick windows, windows and buy this. And it really helped to like, okay, this is my decision this week, but I I couldn't dilly dally, I couldn't go back and forth. I needed to make a decision by that date. If I, if getting the project done on time was important to us and of course it always is, because it's time is money, that's right.

Speaker 1: 18:21

This is a complex project. If you're doing a large renovation, think about it If you've ever been around or worked with project managers. This is a Gantt chart with so many different things happening at the same time and they are very dependent on each other and contractors are very in demand, at least where we live in New England right now. So if you miss a window, you're looking at potentially really long delays. So you do have to be ready to move quickly and be comfortable with that type of movement.

Speaker 2: 18:52

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 18:53

Okay, should we move over to buying the pro and con?

Speaker 2: 18:56

Let's just do. One last con here I just want to say is that the budget on this can be fluid. I mean you talked about that with timing a little bit, but I just think it's really important to know that it's not like you can say this is my budget and I will never go over because of those things that you talked about. I just want to just make that as a point. But, yes, let's move on to moving and let's start with the positives, right, All right?

Speaker 1: 19:20

The upside, I would say, like starting with buying buying a new house. The upside of that is you get to up and leave where you're at and you can go find something that feels amazing to you without having to endure what you're living through right now. So, obviously, if you're facing a renovation, you're feeling cramped in your space and you're or you're feeling like it just doesn't function in a way that supports your family. Right now, by buying something new especially if it's turnkey, which it may not always be you have the opportunity to move into something that someone's done most of this work for you and you might say well, I love everything about this. This countertop just doesn't gel for me, which happened for me one time. Great, you can move in and you have one thing to focus on, as opposed to a larger renovation. So you really get a chance to start with a clean slate and start with something new.

Speaker 2: 20:14

Yep, exactly. I think the other plus side here is that it's a firm price. Okay, so once you negotiate that price and that price is accepted from the seller negotiate that price and that price is accepted from the seller, you know what your price is. You get a mortgage, you get to tell you exactly what your monthly payment is and that's locked in for 30 years unless you refinance, right? So it's known. So you're getting yourself into something that's much more known. It's um, you know the, the, as I said, the, the. It's a firm price and that price is going to stay the same. Your monthly cost is going to stay the same. Um, you know again for the next, until you sell again Exactly.

Speaker 1: 21:00

And I would say too you know, if you're not real tied to your neighborhood, if you feel open and maybe there are other parts of town or the area that you're willing to move to, if you're really open, like because of circumstances, or you're just maybe ready for a change, a new house can be a fresh start and provide opportunities to meet new people, to explore new places.

Speaker 1: 21:24

I mean, I feel like this is kind of a given, but I just want to emphasize for people, sometimes moving from an energetic perspective can just open us up and we can see new possibilities.

Speaker 1: 21:36

Having moved last year, I can say that all of a sudden you know, the view that I have on where I live is a lot different, like literally and figuratively, and I've met new neighbors. I've had an opportunity to explore parts of town that, because I live so close to them, I wasn't able to. I just didn't make the time. But now that it's like I live right next to a reservation, like I'm walking it almost every day, whereas before I would have to drive 15 minutes to it. So it just opens up the possibilities and I like it. I like switching up the energy. It felt like our family was growing and we were ready for some new and different space, not necessarily a lot more space, but just to kind of shift everybody, and I think a good shake up once in a while is a positive thing for people and for the way that you look at life.

Speaker 2: 22:30

Yep, Absolutely, and I I'd say, um. Another positive is that you're packing and moving one time, right, you know, you're packing your stuff up. You're hopefully getting rid of a lot of the stuff that you don't want. That's again very good, energetically as well. And you're, you know, you're probably selling on, you know, closing one day and buying the next house, that same house maybe even the same day, and your stuff maybe stays on a truck overnight or a couple nights, you know, and you maybe go to a hotel for a few days, but for the most part, a lot of people, if you're, if you're buying or you're coming from an apartment to your first home, you're pretty much doing it. It's like you know, one kind of rip the Band-Aid off once and you're unpacking your boxes, you know, as opposed to, again, the negative of renovation is like where did I pack that? You know, my favorite sweater? Oh, it's in storage. Okay, well, I guess I'll see that in six months.

Speaker 2: 23:27

You know this this is, you know, just a one time kind of one event. And again it's, the cost is more concrete. You know exactly what it's going to cost you.

Speaker 1: 23:39

Exactly, and sometimes your needs change so much that a renovation you start to realize isn't even an option. Or you're dealing with, you know, renovating so much that a renovation you start to realize isn't even an option. Or you're dealing with, you know, renovating so much of your house that it just may not make financial sense because it's more suited for a smaller family at that point or for whatever the needs are.

Speaker 2: 23:58

Right, that's right that's right, okay, so let's move on to the cons of moving. You know, right now, in today's market, it may take you quite some time to find that home that you're looking for, because, at least where we are in greater Boston, inventory has been historically low for a number of years and it continues to be historically low, so inventory is a big issue and it continues to be historically low, so inventory is a big issue. So that is going to cost you the time to wait to have that right house come on. Possibly and because you're probably not the only one looking for that home, that's done you're going to have demand competition in which pushes prices up. So where we live in our town, most homes are selling over asking price and sometimes well over asking price. So there's the. You know there's that. There's just waiting for the right thing to come on.

Speaker 1: 25:00

Exactly. And I would say, in that type of market, you have to ask yourself what's my perseverance level? Am I willing to continue to go out there and make offers, knowing that I'm likely going to have to do it multiple times and keep looking at places? And you know, maybe not? I think you have to just like in a renovation, you have to be ready that you might go over budget and over timeline. You might be out there looking for a while.

Speaker 2: 25:22

Yep exactly.

Speaker 2: 25:27

And you may not, and it is very likely that you will not find exactly what you're looking for. So, like back to your example. I think that's a really good one. You still may have to make some tweaks. You know what I mean. Like it may be the right size home, it has that, you know, bump out in the back of the home with the family room and the, you know, the extra bedroom and the primary suite. It has all those things, but it may not have the like finishes you like. Well, that's good. That's an easier fix than having to actually do the big addition, renovation, kind of a huge project, and then you can do that on your, your time. But that's, you know. That's definitely a con to. You know, to some people is like I'm going to go through all of this and I still may not get exactly what I want.

Speaker 1: 26:08

Right, right, exactly, yep.

Speaker 2: 26:14

Yeah. So I mean I think that you know a couple of things that I would suggest to help with this. We've done the pros and cons right of all of this. I think if you're not already looking at what's on the market and you're you know you're trying to make this decision you should be really actively looking what's on the market. A good real estate agent can set you up on a search with parameters so you get a daily or even an immediate email anytime something comes on in the area that on the market. A good real estate agent can set you up on a search with parameters so that you get a daily or even an immediate email anytime something comes on in the area that you're looking at and in generally in that price range. So that's a great way to start to get educated about, like, what's coming on the market, at what velocity and is it stuff that I would even consider. So I think that's one step one.

Speaker 2: 26:58

Step two is get on that house app and start thinking about like, what is my dream home, look like Right, and is the home I'm in possible to do this? I'll give you an example. If you're in a home and you really want high ceilings, you're tall, let's just say you're tall, or your spouse is very tall and you want high ceilings, well, if you're in a house that was built, you know, at a time where they were built, you know maybe then, like the forties and fifties, a lot of the architecture then did not have high ceilings, so you may not be able to create, you know, high ceilings on your original first floor ever. I mean you could do an addition that has, like a theater ceilings, great, but you know. So you have to start. You know, getting onto house and thinking about, like, what is it that's important to me and can I do what is important to me that I really love with the property that I'm in now?

Speaker 1: 27:52

Right, and it's okay, if you and I think that you know whatever route you choose the going through that exercise of looking at houses they're going to give you visual cues to help you decide what you really want, what's important, whether you renovate or whether you move, because a lot of times we know we want to change, but we don't know what that change is and we have a hard time articulating it, or we think it it's one thing and then we come to realize, oh, it's actually something else.

Speaker 1: 28:20

So get I would add to that get on the app, start looking at what feels great to you and then and you can also look at listings to get ideas for what you want as well right, like getting on having an agent set you up is going to give you ideas of what's possible and it might open your perspective because you might say, oh, actually I'm going to open my search to another town or another price range because I'm not quite seeing what I want in this with these parameters.

Speaker 1: 28:49

So open that up and then start to actually make a list. So when you make that list, it's going to make it clear to you okay, I actually really do need four bedrooms, right? I thought maybe I wanted three, but now that I think about it, I really want four and I really want a master bath that has a you know, a big shower in it and I want, like, a dual head shower and you give yourself permission to think about what would feel actually really good, because this is the biggest purchase a lot of people make and it's affecting the way that you feel every day because you're in that space. So really it's important to take the time to think through that yeah, and I think that's, I think it's a really good point.

Speaker 2: 29:30

I think I'd say step three is start to crunch some numbers, okay. So start to think about okay, if we, if we were to renovate, what would our budget be? What would your living expense be while you're renovating? You know, you start looking around of what is available. Where are the places that I could live? Do I have a family member I could stay with? Do I have a second home that I could go to? And how tied am I to the and? And you know how tied I am I to the schools, all that kind of start thing.

Speaker 2: 30:01

And so start thinking about that part of the budget and then start thinking about the homes that you're looking at and what they're going to cost and what are today. You know, like you know, maybe talk to a loan officer or mortgage person and start to see what could you get, you know, qualified for. Talk to your real estate agent and get the value of your home now. So, because that's going to be really important, I think that's a great conversation to have to say, okay, if I were to move, what could I get for this house and if I were to renovate it and you know I spend two or $300,000,. What's the after repair value? Yes, what is this?

Speaker 1: 30:40

What is this yeah?

Speaker 2: 30:41

Yep, and so looking at you know, starting to really think about it from a numbers standpoint, may help also crystallize, um, this decision on what's what's you know, um, and so you know, maybe talking to a builder or talk to people that have done it and get you know, and so you know, maybe talking to a builder or talk to people that have done it and get you know, start getting some some high level kind of what, what the cost is for both of these options.

Speaker 1: 31:05

Exactly, beth, and I really liked the point about getting that the ARV, the value after the renovation so that you can have a sense of does this house still like fall in line with the neighborhood? Because one thing you don't want to do is over renovate so that you've got the most expensive house by a lot on your block, because that will not serve you in terms of unless you absolutely want that for your family and you don't care about getting all that value back. That's one move that sometimes people make where they are not getting all the value back, because their house is just like exorbitant for what the neighborhood is and people aren't going to pay that to be in that neighborhood. So that's just something else to think about.

Speaker 1: 31:47

The other thing I love as an action step that you and I I know we also both enjoy doing, is if you're on this track where you're ready to move or you're ready to renovate, you're going to be doing some purging. So get yourself some type of receptacle, whether that's heavy duty garbage bags or whether it's a dumpster, and start to look around and ask yourself what do I no longer need or what no longer serves me that I can get rid of, because in either capacity moving or renovating you're going to have to move that furniture, stuff, clothing out of the house anyways. So start to move it out now and I think you're going to start to feel lighter. It's going to make it. It's going to help you get more clear on which of these routes you want to go.

Speaker 1: 32:36

If you're still up in the air and you just. It's just such a cathartic process to move stuff from your house and you're getting a head start because either road you go down here, there is quite some effort involved in either packing up to move or packing up to renovate involved in either packing up to move or packing up to renovate. So why not just start the process and get a little bit ahead and enjoy it while you're at?

Speaker 2: 33:03

it, you got it, and I would add just a little piece of advice Whether you're moving into a freshly renovated home or a new home, you're likely not going to want a lot of your old stuff, like if the couch was getting torn up from the kids and the dogs and everything. Don't put it in storage and then try to put it in your new house. I can guarantee you're not going to want it in your new house. Um, if you know so, so don't put stuff in storage If you can avoid it like that.

Speaker 2: 33:35

You know that's making a decision twice. You're deciding to. You're just kicking the can down the road, just make the decision Do you want the item or can you donate it, give it to somebody or just simply throw it away? But if you put it in storage and then you make that decision, you've just, you know, increased the cost of that decision by like a hundred percent. So, um, just word to the wise you're likely not going to want most of the stuff that's in your like old house to come into a freshly renovated home or a new home.

Speaker 1: 34:09

Right, right.

Speaker 1: 34:10

Take the opportunity to make a fresh start wherever you can, wherever your budget allows and you know the capacity to to furnish your shop as well, so I hope that was helpful. I feel like we have combined quite a bit of experience doing both of these things and we see it all the time in working with investors and homeowners and home sellers. So I think this this is definitely one of the biggest decisions people face. It's something you should really give yourself some time and space to consider what works best for you, do your research and then listen to what you really want and be really clear about that.

Speaker 2: 34:49

And we'll put a link to spending some time with us. Especially if you're local, we could help you with the value of your home. Us, you know, especially if you're local, we could help you with the value of your home, even if you're not local. We're part of the EXP network. We could find you a real estate agent that could help you with that big piece of the puzzle of what is your home worth now and what could it be worth after renovation or, you know, start searching for new homes. So if we can be of assistance with that, we will put a link in the show notes. You can set up some time with us and, again, if you're local, we can work with you. If you're not local, we're part of an awesome network of terrific agents across the country, really across the globe.

Speaker 1: 35:28

So we'd be glad to help you with that as well. We refer people all the time Yep, yeah, awesome. Okay, this has been a really fun episode for us and best of luck in your decisions and let us know how this hits for.