Should You Renovate Or Build New?
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Whether or not to renovate or build new. Many of you may be in a situation where you've been saving your money, you've got some plans, you own an existing property and you've thought about how you want to renovate. Then you delve into it and you start to look and think about, "Okay, we want all these niceties, but are we going to get it if we renovate? Or do we demolish and start from new and can we create what we want from new?"
This is when you really are posed with three big questions. You need to really cover this carefully because sometimes it has merit to stay with the renovation idea or there is merit in actually going with a new build.
Firstly, what changes do you want to make and what is it you want? It is important to list all those things down and prioritise them from what's most important, to the least important. If you miss a few things, don't be too bothered, because they're not a priority right now. However, keep in mind when you're going to spend dollars on renovation, are you going to get that end result that you really want? This is so important, because without that, you may not get the character home you want. You may also not have the dream reno that you thought you were going to get. That's when you can start to say, "Maybe we can recreate those ideas with a new build."
You've got to work at how many changes are there and are they the big changes? Are they structural because if they're structural changes, that's when the big money comes into play and that's really where it could force your hand and to understand that maybe a new build could cost you the same as a renovation and end up with a better result.
Secondly, budget. Whenever you are budgeting, there's a rule of thumb to add 10 percent. We tend to advise customers to go with 15 or 20 just as a buffer at that planning stage. But some people get their numbers way out and when you're starting to think about that, you might go down the path and think, "Well, the renovation will save us money."
You need to understand that if you're going to go down the renovation path, you have got to have the budget piece spot on and work through that. Understanding what it is you're going to be working with and where there are potential pain points because they're the traps that a lot of people fall into with renovation.
Thirdly, it doesn't matter how good you are, how many television renovation shows you've watched, how much advice you've been given from friends who have been through that experience, get professionals involved. The big part about this is that even at the stage of understanding whether you should renovate or go the new build, it would pay to invest in getting some professional advice for that piece. Explain to them what it is you want. Articulate your dream and the style you want. Get them through there because they can picture what it is you have and they would have gone down that experience many, many times as professionals. They will also be able to understand whether it would pay to stay with a renovation piece and approximately how much you'd save on a renovation versus the new build.
So a professional will always guide you down the path and give you that something extra to think about with a bit of piece of mind there to understand that your hard-earned dollars are spent correctly.
If you want to get more expert advice like this or need help with your next renovation project, get in contact with a Monsta Pro now and book yourself a free ten minute consultation.