As the price of real estate in many areas of the Canadian market continues to rise, first-time buyers can find it increasingly challenging to find a house that fits their family. Growing families already in their own houses are also feeling the pinch – outgrowing their present home and anxious to find living space that “works”.
There always seems to be this persistent longing for more and bigger – magnificent looking estate homes boasting more square footage than anything we have right now. Have you ever eagerly visited one of these larger homes, ignoring the smaller lot size than that of your former home, opening the front door and finally being underwhelmed by…space? Walking away from such a visit myself one time, I could not help but feel that the STEEP surcharge on the attractive façade and extra interior square footage would bring an acute sense of buyer’s remorse.
In contrast, I remember several years ago, when I used to pick up my sons from their babysitter’s house. Dorothy was a grandmother who used to babysit her 4 other grandchildren during the day in her 3-bedroom ranch bungalow. That house never ever seemed confining or too small, no matter how many guests she had at Christmastime. I remember walking into the kitchen and seeing 6-7 children in Omi’s kitchen sitting at the oversized dinette booth playing crokinole or Monopoly. How that space worked! It’s no wonder that this feature (dinette booths) has found its way back in many homes. It made me think: What could we get by on if we used every square foot of our house and fully inhabited the space we lived in?
Years ago, my wife and I spoke to my sister-in-law, who was also our realtor at the time, who suggested a book by Sara Susanka. I remembered a feature article on Ms. Susanka in Fine Homebuilding magazine, so I was familiar with her work. In her signature book, The Not-So Small House, and in her articles, Sara talks about inhabiting your space FULLY, without anything getting cluttered. She talks about emphasizing design over materials, and mentions things like foregoing granite as a major cost-saver. We have all experienced moments where we’ve entered a room that felt inviting and made us want to sit in it, not because of any luxurious appointments, but because of how the space was used, and how and what furniture is placed in it.
It’s hard to convey the impact of such renovations so I would just encourage readers to do some research on the internet and view some before and after pictures. Some of these transformations are truly amazing.
Rustic and functional seems to be a trend on the rise (how many websites on furniture from wooden pallets are there??) with costlier materials not as alluring as they once were. One does not have to go to this extreme, but this is just an example of how better design and economy can trump inferior design and costlier materials.
One classic dilemma growing families sometimes face is needing an extra bedroom. So in this case would a basement reno solve the problem, creating a bedroom on the lower level? Or even a set of bunk beds (and if you want to see some fantastic bunk bed ideas, go online to sites like Houzz to view some examples).
A number one favourite reno is, of course, a new kitchen. Again, Susanka urges, consider design over materials. Susanka talks about opening up space in walls, transforming them into places that feel more spacious and also more connected. I know, this is an old idea, but readers are encouraged to search before and after pictures to see how homes have been transformed by this idea.
Consider storage solutions for the garage and/or the basement, which helps to de-clutter and free up much-needed space, not to mention helping you find things again! Or fully renovate the basement to create more living space.
These renovation costs, when compared with the cost of selling and buying your new home, combined with the hassles of moving, can sometimes be the less arduous (and less expensive) path. Also, the new place will, more often than not, still require some work to customize.
If future home buyers might believe that an alteration, renovation, or addition of their existing home might work for their family’s needs, the refinance plus improvements program may be the perfect program. In it, the costs of the renovation can be added into the mortgage. It is a VERY powerful program used by the mortgage insurers and, in my opinion, it has been under-utilized. It can be an ideal solution to make your existing house look and feel perfect!
And if that doesn’t work, the flip side of that same program, Purchase Plus Improvements, can make the search for that new home that much easier. It can eliminate a lot of time searching for the elusive perfect home – now, you can add that one (or several) feature(s) to make it your dream home! Again, renovation costs can be rolled into the new mortgage.
Be sure to call so a Dominion Lending Centres mortgage professional can walk you through the process.
Courtesy of Daniel Lewczuk, AMP – DLC Parato Mortgage Group