Should You Purchase a New Home or Fix up the One You're In?

Ed Pluchar with Real People Realty Podcast

Should you buy a new home or fix up your current one? Today I’ve got a few things you should consider when making your decision.

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Is it better to buy a new home that you want or fix up an existing home that you’re living in? A common scenario I personally went through was having my family simply outgrow the size of the house. The question is, do you build an addition to the house or move to a larger house?
The way to deliberate this is to first decide on a location, which is the primary focus of real estate. Look at the house you have now and the house you would buy and see which location makes more sense. Are there any fatal negatives? Are you itching to get out of the location you’re living in now or if you would move to the new location, are there any aspects that would make living there intolerable?
Next, you’ll want to look at your budget. Buying a new home can and will be expensive, especially if you’ve got a wish list and you’re trying to check off all the things on that list. You may have a hard time finding the perfect home with everything on your wishlist or you may have to pay a premium to get that.
Alternatively, look at the budget you make for your current home. You have a bit of a blank canvas, so what would it take to build on, remodel, or modify the home that you have now? You won’t have to pay another purchase price—only the price of what it takes to fix up the home.
What’s interesting is both of those will break down to a monthly cost. You most likely are carrying a mortgage now, and if you’re going to refinance or finance the cost of your remodel in some other way, what is your monthly burden going to be? How much out of your savings are you going to have to dip into versus how much will you have to pay (including down payment) to get that new house?

You want to choose the option that has a better payback period.

You have to make sure that if you think you might stay and fix your current house up, you check with your municipality or county and make sure that the things you would like to or plan to do can be done. Especially if you plan to make the footprint larger and build an add-on, you’ll need to get a permit, and some counties—based on your lot lines—may or may not let you do that. So if you can’t expand your house and you need an expansion, that may answer the question of moving for you.
Another consideration is hidden costs. A hidden cost that may not appear to you right away is what the new property taxes might be if you add square footage to your existing home. Your assessor may look at any additions and tack on additional taxes as a result. See what would happen if you do make the renovations you plan to make.
The last thing I want to ask is how long do you plan to be in the house? Whether you decide to fix up or plan to move, how long do you plan to be there? The answer tells you what you should look for in terms of a payback period. In commercial real estate, a payback period is the length of time it takes for a new piece of equipment to pay itself back with the savings incurred by getting it.
That happens far less in residential properties because you’re not getting the same use out of the equipment. If you’re talking about an energy-saving project or if you’re thinking that it’s going to cost a certain amount of money to fix your house and get it where you like it, what is the new mortgage payment? What is that payment versus paying less for a new house and having less of a mortgage payment? The point is that you’ll want to choose the option that has a better payback period.
These are very general guidelines and useful for getting started, but if this is something that you’re considering and need help getting into the details of, please give me a call. I would be happy to sit down with you and help you make a sound decision.