Renovating vs. Building New

At some point, virtually every family has to ask themselves the question: "Should we renovate this house, or buy a new one?" The answer to this pertinent question is not an easy one, for there are a number of factors to consider. There are both pros and cons to both courses of action.

Naturally, the primary concern of every family in search of a new or renovated home is money. As one would suspect, renovating has the economic edge, for instead of building from the ground up, construction forgoes the foundation and works with an already existent structure. However, there is a boundary that one must consider: if the number of rooms being renovated ascends to a certain amount, renovation is no longer a cost effective solution and a new home would be a better option. For example, the renovation of a single room, or even two rooms such as a kitchen and living room would be a reasonable instance to renovate, as long as the other rooms in the home are in decent enough condition and do not need drastic improvement. However, if a family wants a new kitchen, living room, master bathroom, and office, for example, the cost of renovation would be too great, thus the money would be better spent on a new home entirely.

In addition to finances, convenience is another fundamental principle that needs to be taken into account. By opting for a renovation, planning and finding the right personnel is much easier, as a more narrow and concentrated group of specialists is needed. If building a new home, one must hire a real estate agent to sell the current home, an architect to generate a floor plan, and a contractor and crew to do the manual labor. This can be cumbersome and frustrating, especially attempting to synchronize the selling of the current home with the completion of the new home to avoid extra payments. However, since construction is being done outside of the current home, the family does not lose the functionality of any given room, nor is there any hassle with construction noise or management of workers.

The final primary factors to ponder are time location. Renovation would certainly consume far less time than the construction of a new home. While a single room renovation may take a few weeks, building a new home may take several months. Often times families cannot or do not wish to change locations, due to a job, convenience, or a fondness of the area or its residents. Therefore, building a new home would not satisfy their requirements (unless of course they were able to find a lot nearby), so renovation is the next best solution. If time and location are not pressing issues, though, and the economic situation is accounted for and stable, a new home may be the best course of action, for the options are endless. Renovation has limitations, both in style (for the renovation still has to retain some cohesiveness with the style of the rest of the house) and location, but starting from scratch offers infinite possibilities.

There are few events more exciting than building a new home. However, for many people, it is simply not feasible due to financial restraints or various other reasons. While a renovated home does not have the zeal of a newly constructed one, it is often times more accessible. For those who are pressed for time, money, or patience, renovation is a viable option. In the end, though, despite the hassle, financial strain, and time consumption, a newly built home is much more satisfying than a renovated one.