3 Questions to Ask Before You Decide on Moving or Renovating

By Nick Berard

Nick Berard is a world-class Realtor with a passion for helping clients manage wealth through real estate.

A contractor’s bid can change the whole conversation.

You start out picturing a new kitchen and end up staring at a number that looks more like a second mortgage. That’s when many Bellingham homeowners ask a bigger question.

Is it smarter to fix up the house we have, or move and buy one that already fits?

I help clients work through this all the time, and my wife and I are working through it ourselves.

We bought our house eight years ago. It fit us then, when the kids were small, but they have grown, and our needs have changed. We would love a newer home with a layout that suits us better today. We even hired an architect to redesign the place. And yet we have a great interest rate, the house is still good, and we care about the location and the schools, so for now staying is probably the right call.

Going back and forth on it is what shaped the three questions I ask clients to think about first.

1. What are you actually trying to fix? Kitchens, bathrooms, flooring, paint - those are straightforward to update. But if the real problem is the location, the lot, or the school district, that is a different conversation, because you can change almost everything about a house except where it sits. Floor plan changes also tend to cost more than people expect. When our architect came back with a number in the hundreds of thousands, we had to ask whether we would be over-improving the house.

2. What does the renovation cost versus what it adds? Spending $100,000 or more doesn’t mean you have added that much to your home’s value. Some improvements do help resale, and I have covered which ones in other videos. Others are things you will enjoy, but the next buyer will not pay extra for. How long you plan to stay matters here too. Renovating before a sale in a few years is a different decision than renovating a home you will keep for 20 more years.

3. What is the real cost of moving? Maybe you have a mortgage around 3% that you are not eager to give up, and that is fair. But you may also have built up real equity, enough to get into the home you want without living through months of construction. An honest comparison includes everything: the mortgage payment, the cost of selling and buying, the renovation itself, and what your time and peace of mind are worth. For clients who are not tied to a school district, that quality-of-life piece often decides it.

Over the years, I’ve learned we get so focused on improving the house that we forget to ask whether we are improving our lives. Your home should support the life you want to live, not the other way around. Sometimes that means renovating, sometimes moving, and sometimes realizing what you already have is pretty good.

If you have been wrestling with this one, I am glad to help you think it through. We can look at what your home is worth, what you are really trying to fix, which improvements make sense, and what moving would actually look like.

And if staying put is the best decision, I will tell you that too. Reach out to me at 360-770-3245 or nick@nickberardhomes.com, or visit blog.nickberardhomes.com. Let’s figure out the right move for your life, not just your house.