We have a lot of customers that we meet with that are trying to make the decision on what to do: add on to their existing home, buy another home, and/or build a new home. We don’t always have the exact answers for what to do but we have become good at bringing up different points that potentially help customers direct what decision is best for them. Adding on an addition is an investment, it’s one of the largest remodeling projects you can do, however; building a new home is also a big investment. We
like to talk to customers about their situation:
- Do you like where you live (location, neighbors, lot layout, etc.)?
- Do you like the layout, design, and function of the rest of your house?
- If you did an addition what other projects would you want and/or need to become a part of it (roofing, siding, windows, furnace, etc.)?
- If you did the addition how long would you then envision staying in your house (5 years, 15 years, as long as possible)?
- Is there an existing house on the market that would suit your needs if you bought it, would you need to do any work to it also?
- What would you want your addition to function as (sunroom, kitchen, master suite, garage, etc.)?
- Is the addition you’re interested going to work out well with your existing house construction-wise?
After talking through the above points and potentially expanding into other areas we give our honest opinion if an addition makes sense for this particular customer, in general we’ve come up with a couple of points throughout the years on additions:
- If you plan to stay in your home 5 years or more an addition will likely be useful for you and sound for resale purposes.
- If it’s time to upgrade other aspects of your house that affect the addition it’s the time to do it with the addition (roofing, windows, siding, flooring, furnace, etc.).
- If you’re going to do an addition plan to make is big enough (trying to cut down on the square footage likely won’t be worth it in the long run).
- Although you might not be elderly think towards your elderly years in planning for the addition (doors sizes, washer/dryer, ADA shower, etc.).
- If the addition is the only thing missing from your house making/forcing you to move it’s something you should look into before selling.
An addition can be a very rewarding project and give you home the extra use that you’ve been longing for, the proper planning with likely make the finished product that much better!
