It’s natural to get bored with your home. After living there for so long, the familiarity of everything can go from reassuring to uninspiring. What do you do when you start to have these feelings, though?
Essentially, you’re faced with three options. Firstly, you can do nothing and just accept the fact that your home doesn’t excite you anymore. Secondly, you can do some renovations to give it a new lease of life. Finally, you can move.
Those last two options can be significant commitments, and working out which one is best for you can be tricky. If you’re not sure which one to go for, try asking yourself these questions first.
What Don’t You Like?
Before you can make any big decisions about your future, you first have to consider what it is you don’t like about your current house. Is it the size? The location? Are there recurring problems with the features?
Once you understand what it is that’s wrong, you can start to tackle the question of whether or not you should stay. If the issues are as little as not liking the wallpaper or wishing you had a different oven, then obviously renovating is the way to go. However, if the problems are more significant than this, renovations might not necessarily be enough to make you happy.
What’s Your Financial Situation?
Whatever decision you make, there’s going to be a lot of money involved. With renovations, you need to have enough funds to cover all the new stuff you buy, as well as the fees for any professional help that you receive. As for moving home, along with paying for a new property, you also have various other legal expenses to deal with too. Plus, you can’t forget about all these hidden costs.
If you don’t have much in the bank, then moving house is probably too big of a jump right now. Although you’ll get money for selling your current place, what you receive might not be as much as the cost of your new home.
How Much Will Your House Sell For?
It’s worth getting to grips with the ceiling price of your local area. This gives you an idea of what homes in your neighborhood sell for, so you know how much you can expect to get for your property. Take note, selling your home in San Diego can be tough but with the right plans, you can manage!
In terms of renovation, this could prove incredibly influential. There’s no point in making a bunch of expensive changes to your home if it’s going to raise the value of your home too much. Potential buyers aren’t going to pay a significantly higher amount for your property if all the other houses in the area are much cheaper. That could be a problem if you later decide to sell after you’ve completed all these renovations.
Are The Issues Significant?
Every house has its problems, even ones that are newly built. Some of these issues are little things that you can easily resolve and which don’t cause much of a fuss. Others are far more of a nuisance and can really impact your quality of life.
If your home has significant issues that can’t be completely fixed, you may be more inclined to move. It’s worth getting them seen to first, though, before you make any big decisions.
For instance, if you find that your pipes regularly get blocked, it’s worth getting them seen to by plumbers. Gillies Group includes clogged drains as one of the many issues that they can deal with immediately when you book an appointment. Whether there’s a problem with your pipes, toilet, faucets, or you just want to know if everyone’s working properly, they’re the plumbing company to turn to. Their work could make all the difference between whether you renovate or move.
How Much Can You Change?
Something else to consider before you pack your bags and move away is how much of your current house can you change? Is it possible to fix all of the interior problems, or are there certain issues that will remain no matter how much money you throw at them?
Obviously, the more problems there are that you can’t fix, the more of a reason you have to find somewhere else to live. Provided that those issues aren’t something that will affect the resale value of your home, it could be better just to start again somewhere else.
Are There Exterior Problems?
It might not actually be the house itself that’s compelling you to seek change. There are certain exterior factors that come with every property which people have very little control over. These include stuff like neighbours, the conditions of the road, the commuting distance to other places, and so on.
If you live on a busy road, an hour from where you work, surrounded by rude, noisy neighbours, it’s understandable why you’d want something to change. Unfortunately, while you can try to soundproof your home to drown out the noise, there’s not much renovation work you can do to fix these problems. The best course of action here would be to move somewhere that’s quieter and closer to your office.
Will It Significantly Affect Your Life?
Moving is more than just packing up all your stuff and taking it from one house to another. Depending on where you go and how far you move away, it can have a significant impact on every aspect of your life.
While this can be a good thing – such as moving closer to work – it can also have its downsides. For instance, if you have kids, it’s important to consider how moving can affect them and their development. You may have to send them to a completely different school, forcing them away from the friends and connections they’ve made elsewhere. You have to ask yourself if this is worth it, and if it’s not, you might be better off staying where you are and doing some renovations instead.
If you’re torn between renovating or moving, there’s obviously a lot you need to think about. We can’t tell you what the right thing to do is, but these questions should at least clear up what you need to contemplate before you make a decision.