What Would Make a Remodel Worth It?

[ny96]

I posted in Randoms, but I thought I’d ask a specific question here. We will definitely be moving out of our current house within the next 18 months after realizing that our plans to expand this house were not in line with our budget, and we are now busting at the seams. The question now is whether to do a smaller remodel, mainly for profitability. Our real estate agent thinks he could put our remodeled kitchen and baths house on the market for 200k to 250k over the number it could go for now without the remodel. Remodeling cost would be about 150k to 200k. Given the stress of a remodel, would you do it? Other factors: we’re in a hot area so a remodeled and updated house may bring more of a bidding war, and if we are going to stay another 18 months then we would probably enjoy the house quite a bit more for the final 12 months (let’s say). The other thing I should add is that we’ve already got a contractor and have kitchen cabinets and appliances ordered (which can be cancelled).

[Susie]

Personally I would not want to live through a major, life-disrupting reno, especially a kitchen, amid the current supply chain issues, just for the hope of profiting when it's over. My frustration and stress in the interim would not be worth it. But that's just me, and the current stage of life I'm in.

[simpsongal]

If I were you, I'd probably try to give it a budget facelift, rather than a full reno. Are the cabinets salvageable? Paintable? Could you swap counters and backsplash, etc. for an updated look? You'd probably still get more interest in a house that got that treatment, whereas I think you're more likely to break even on a full reno.

How much were the appliances? Are they std sizes? If yours are really old/worn, I might keep those on order for sale of the house.

Can you PIP the space?

[KellyEasterbrook]

May 2, 2022 14:00:41 GMT -5 ny96 said:

I posted in Randoms, but I thought I’d ask a specific question here. We will definitely be moving out of our current house within the next 18 months after realizing that our plans to expand this house were not in line with our budget, and we are now busting at the seams. The question now is whether to do a smaller remodel, mainly for profitability. Our real estate agent thinks he could put our remodeled kitchen and baths house on the market for 200k to 250k over the number it could go for now without the remodel. Remodeling cost would be about 150k to 200k. Given the stress of a remodel, would you do it? Other factors: we’re in a hot area so a remodeled and updated house may bring more of a bidding war, and if we are going to stay another 18 months then we would probably enjoy the house quite a bit more for the final 12 months (let’s say). The other thing I should add is that we’ve already got a contractor and have kitchen cabinets and appliances ordered (which can be cancelled).

Ditto everything in Susie’s response. I’ll add that from what I’ve heard locally from contractors, even if things are ordered and contractors secured, a big remodel like that might take a year or more btw still lingering supply chain issues and labor shortages. Ideally, we want to remodel our kitchens, bathrooms and flooring. However, we don’t know if we’ll be in the house three more months or three years Between the fact we’re also in a hot area where a remodel won’t make or break a sale and the horror stories I’ve heard from contractor friends regarding scheduling and such, we’ve decided not to remodel. Now I’m just upgrading thing i can take with me instead. 😁

[ny96]

May 2, 2022 14:37:31 GMT -5 simpsongal said:

If I were you, I'd probably try to give it a budget facelift, rather than a full reno. Are the cabinets salvageable? Paintable? Could you swap counters and backsplash, etc. for an updated look? You'd probably still get more interest in a house that got that treatment, whereas I think you're more likely to break even on a full reno.

How much were the appliances? Are they std sizes? If yours are really old/worn, I might keep those on order for sale of the house.

Can you PIP the space?

Our kitchen is original to the house, from 1940. Unfortunately nothing is salvageable and based on what our realtor has said and recent house listings in our neighborhood, we’ll have to do more than just a facelift to get a good price. We have already ordered professional appliances with a 48” range, but I think if we go ahead we’ll scale back a bit.

[clairebear]

As a current homeowner and real estate agent, I would absolutely NOT do full renovations. That's a large, stressful task that may or may not pay off. Who knows what the market will be like in 18 months? That's a huge amount of money to gamble.

[daisyduck]

I would never spend that kind of money on a remodel for a house I knew I would eventually sell. I would only spend the money and deal with the stress if I was making an improvement to my forever home.

[noodleoo]

No way! After all the pain and money, you’d only be making about $50k more after dropping $200k on the remodel? No way the stress of all that would be worth it. Plus from all the people I’ve known to do remodels, they always go over budget and are a huge amount of work.

Is there any chance you’d stay after doing that remodel? That’s so much money, I can’t imagine investing that in the house only to move a year later. Especially after designing your perfect kitchen, it would be hard to move unless you are also planning to build a brand new house or remodel wherever you end up.

[k3am]

Nope. There’s no way I’d put my family (mostly myself) through the stress of a reno that I wouldn’t get to enjoy.

My guess is also that if you’re doing a reno with the intent of a sale, all your choices are going to be bland with a goal of not alienating buyers, and that’s boring. We turned down several houses that wanted a premium for recent renovations that we just weren’t impressed with.

[audry80]

No I would not. We just lived through a remodel and it was one of my top worst decisions I have made. We should have moved out.

With the delays, and increased cost of everything I wouldn’t take the risk. What if the market crashed and you spent all that money to not get it returned?

[mrsukyankee]

Nope. We remodelled before moving in with my MIL and then decided to sell 2 years later. If we had known that we were going to move, we'd never have gone through it and just sold it as is. It wasn't enough of a cash builder and it was so much stress/pain. Nope.

[sandandsea]

I was also going to say nothing. It’s still a sellers market so I wouldn’t do anything. Remodels are awful, they take longer and cost more than expected and are stressful and inconvenient. We are in the midst of our landscape remodel and it’s reminding me why they are pretty awful. There’s no way I’d do this for someone else’s benefit.

Antidote- This weekend we will be climbing out a window to enter and exit our home as they are pouring concrete by every entrance point. This is the kind of stuff that happens during a remodel. You don’t want to deal with it.

[Roc A Bee]

I would be really worried about the market in 18 months. No I wouldn’t do this.

[InBetweenDays]

I would not do the renovation. I wouldn't want to live through a big renovation for a home I wasn't going to stay in. And I would worry about scope creep and in the end the not seeing a big enough return on the investment.

Plus, I would worry about how long the reno would take. I know this varies by area, but our neighbors are doing a huge renovation and are 9 months behind schedule. We just converted a wood burning fireplace to gas. Should have been a relative easy and quick project but due to a backorder on parts, scheduling of inspectors, and scheduling of finish contractors what should have been done in October was finished yesterday.

[dancingirl21]

It’s 0% ideal, but would you think about listing now and renting for a year, or until you find a different home? With the market the way it is, I would consider selling your house just as it is now and know that you’ll still probably get a good price. I realize moving twice is not at all fun but who knows what the market will look like in 18 months.

[bittybomb]

After having lived through a gut reno over about 10 months, any kind of major construction is something I’d rather never live through again.

[julygal]

I would not do it. If you’re not selling for 18 months the market could be a totally different place and you may never see that $200k. I have also seen people move into 1 to 2 year old homes and completely tear out the kitchen, so I also dislike the potential environmental impact if the next owners do not like what you did. Finally, while our kitchen was newer than yours, a $10k refresh transformed our space. I would at least get an opinion of a second realtor about selling as is, with a facelift, or with a full remodel before moving forward.

[pittpurple]

Nope. Never.

[SusanBAnthony]

I don't know that I'd do a large scale remodel but we just tore out our whole bathroom and redid it. It took 6 weeks and was fine. A kitchen would make me more nervous though.

[hbomdiggity]

I’ll be the outlier that says we regret not doing our kitchen before listing our last house.

It was 6 years ago, but still a pretty hot market. Desirable area. We were just finishing a major reno of the primary bedroom and bath. Kitchen was tiny and we had good contractors engaged. It would have been $15-20k. But multiple realtors told us not worth it.

We had an unusual selling story where we went under contract multiple times. Each time the buyers used our kitchen as a reason to haggle at inspections. That’s the regret - the “sales price reflects needing work” didn’t work and the inspection period was an absolute nightmare. Despite multiple over ask offers, we ended up giving $25k in concessions.

The kitchen did not match (style or upgrade) the rest of the house. The layout was awkward, accentuated by being out of date. We were in a high end market, with buyers looking for pristine move in ready. We are handy and could have dealt with another month of disruption and done a lot of work ourselves where the typical buyer was looking at $50k minimum.