To Renovate or Sell:

The Love It or List It Dilemma

When your Adelaide home isn’t meeting your needs, should you renovate or sell? Pros and cons of each option are essential to avoid a costly mistake.

When you own a piece of Adelaide real estate for several years, at some stage you may have to decide whether to renovate or sell. The home may no longer be big enough for your growing family, it may need improvements or be aesthetically outdated – but should you sell it, or renovate it if you can?

Both renovating and selling can have substantial financial, lifestyle and emotional repercussions, so before you make that important decision weigh up the following things:

If extending, renovating or updating your home would solve the problem, obtain quotes and compare that cost to the cost of selling your home and buying another. Chatting to Boffo’s real estate agents in Adelaide will clarify the potential costs involved in selling your home and buying another.

With input from experts, you can create a budget to determine which option is the most cost effective.

Do you love the location, and does it meet your needs? Is your home near the schools you want your children to attend? Does it have lifestyle amenities you enjoy, such as local reserves, cafes and shops? Is it close to work, the beach, or public transport?

If the answers are yes, renovating is a good option. If not, they might be good reasons to sell.

How extensive are the renovations you need? Major renovations can be messy, disruptive and difficult to live with for a length of time. You may even need to move out while they are happening.

Consider short term pain (noise, mess, disruption, inconvenience, temporarily relocating, paying short term rent plus a mortgage and renovation expenses) vs long term gain (renovating the home to exactly what you want and improving the capital value).

Does renovating to create the home you want mean there is a risk of over-capitalising? Seek the advice of the best real estate agents in Adelaide to determine whether the renovations will cost you more than you could recoup when you eventually sell your Adelaide property. If that is a real risk, you may be better to sell than renovate.

If market conditions are highly favourable for selling, it could be more cost effective to sell than renovate.

If you need to buy straight away though, remember that a seller’s market means there is strong buyer demand and competition, so unless you are moving to another area, it may be difficult to buy again in a hurry.

How will selling your home make you feel? If there are aspects that you love and don’t want to lose such as the neighbourhood, your established garden or the layout and aspect of the home, you may find that renovating will be more satisfying and less stressful than selling.

But if you’re not especially attached to your home and the thought of a bigger, smaller, newer, or better-located home is enticing, then you should sell.

If you’re struggling with the dilemma of renovating or selling, our sales agents can help you gain clarity. They know what local buyers are looking for, and which renovations add the most value to a property for long term benefits. Pop in and see us or give us a call!