Buy as is then renovate yourself or buy renovated. Or a 3rd option, a hybrid, buy as is with renovation plans and your input into the design.
This is why?
As fully renovated homes are becoming more popular there are more people asking which route they should take when buying a home: buy as is and renovate on your own, or buy renovated. That’s a great question!
The answer is that it depends. It’s up to you. What do you want to achieve, what are your investment interests, what are your skills, do you have connections with contractors and very important is what is your time availability? More generally, what is most important to you? Everyone will have a different answer.
Here’s what could happen:
Investment
You buy a property that needs updating, you invest a certain amount of money and time, and then the property is worth more than the total you invested (original purchase price + renovation costs ) and you get what you want.
Quality and sustainable building practices
Whenever you do something on your own, you have the best chance of getting the best quality out of what you’re working on. You’re probably going to buy the nicest property, you’re probably going to renovate it to a slightly higher standard, and it’s probably in a slightly nicer area.
As sustainability becomes an increasingly important issue around the world, the real estate market is no exception. More and more buyers are prioritizing green homes and sustainable building practices when looking for their next property. In response to this demand, the green real estate market has grown rapidly in recent years. Sustainability is no longer a luxury – it’s a necessity.
Time and effort
This method can take an excruciating amount of time and effort. Once you gain experience and progress, you can put systems in place to speed things up. But, especially when you’re just starting out, you should expect this method to be one of the most time-consuming and effort-intensive strategies. You can cut down on time and effort by buying “as is” with renovation plans, your input into the design and guidance from professionals.
Expertise
If you have never renovated a house before, you must rely on the expertise of a contractor. And you will need help finding good properties, The levels of expertise you might need if you are doing everything yourself are: finding a good house that needs updating, in a good neighborhood, negotiating, finding creative financing, then renovating.
Our service, evolution.immo, can connect buyers with the resources needed.
Risk taking
Speaking of skills that aren’t inherent to begin with, every time you talk about needing to do something without knowing exactly how to do it right, you’re increasing your risk. If you have never renovated a house, your risk may be very high. If you don’t know how to determine what a good property in need of updates is and where the right place to buy it is, you greatly increase your risk with the possibility of unforeseen additional costs. The risk of delay is higher if you don’t know exactly what you are doing, and you don’t know all the building codes and municipal bylaws.
Financing a renovation
It depends on your situation, but unless you can get a short term finance loan, you may have to use your own money for the renovations. This may require a lot more capital than you have.
Everyone is in a unique position so involving your mortgage advisor early in the process to include the renovations in your mortgage.
