Should You Sell or Upgrade Your Home?

Sell or Upgrade Home

If you’ve owned a house for some time, you may be facing a dilemma: you like your home, but it’s not exactly your dream home. In this situation, you might be wondering whether you should sell it or upgrade it.

There are many factors that you have to consider. How emotionally attached are you to your home and your neighborhood? What is your current financial situation? Will you be able to sell it quickly and will you be able to ask for a price that would let you buy a better home?
If, after thinking things over, you decide that it’s better to remodel your home then to try and sell it and find a home closer to your preferences; here are a few ideas on how you can remodel your home.

1. Increase Security.

One reason why you may want to move is because there have been a few burglaries in your neighborhood. Unfortunately, unless you move to a very wealthy neighborhood, chances are you’ll encounter the same problems elsewhere. A more realistic response is to get a monitored system that allows you to safeguard against burglaries; protect your family, pet, and possessions; monitor your home with remote access features; and to manage Home Security with home automation technology.

2. Make a list of changes you’d like

You may have begun to focus on the things that you don’t like so much that you’ve forgotten all the reasons why you initially loved the home. Perhaps, there are only a few things that you need to upgrade. Also, research possible design themes to get a better idea of what you’d like.

3. Work from a budget

Now that you’ve got a list of the changes that you’d like, it’s time to figure out how much you’re willing to spend. By working with a budget, you’ll be able to have a realistic expectation. In addition, you won’t risk overspending on home improvement.

4. Should you be your own contractor?

If you have plenty of practical skills, you might conclude that you’ll save thousands by working as your own contractor. Unfortunately many sources of information—from books to courses—tend to overestimate how much you’ll save and underestimate how much time, energy, difficulty, and problems you’ll face. While there are success stories of people from people selling information on how to be your own contractor, you don’t get to hear much about the high failure rate of DIY home contractors and projects that became nightmares.

When you become your own contractor, you may find that it is not as easy to do nor do you save as much as you thought. In fact, if it was easy and you did save a ton of money, most contractors would be out of business. Unless you have a lot of knowledge and experience, you could end up paying more for your mistakes and creating an inferior quality of work. It might be easier to work with someone who has plenty of experience and can do things far more efficiently and cost effectively.

5. Finding a good contractor

It can be difficult to find the right contractor. Many people are better salesmen than contractors. Here are some tips on how to find a good contractor:

1. The worst way to find a contractor is to look through the service pages of local newspapers, magazines and directories. Just because someone has an excellent ad, doesn’t mean anything. Advertising firms can make anyone look good. Instead, use the National Association of the Remodeling Industry to find people in your neck of the woods. Also, speak with building inspectors and any friends who have used contractors.
2. Once you’ve got a list, then create a long list of questions that you want answered to qualify the contractor. For instance, what projects have they done in the past and can they furnish a list of previous clients as references. Instead of arranging to meet them in person, which will be time consuming, do telephone interviews.
3. After your telephone interviews, you will have a short list of people who could provide you with the quality of service you need. Now is the time to meet with them and get to know them in person.
4. A final step is to investigate people who look like good candidates. This way you won’t be duped by someone who has greatly exaggerated their ability to do the job well.

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