Introduction 

"Welcome to a captivating episode of 'Remodel vs. Relocate: Transform Your Home or Change Your Address?' In this riveting exploration, we take on one of life's most significant decisions – whether to renovate and breathe fresh life into your current abode or embark on an exhilarating journey to a new place.

Join us as we embark on a quest to uncover the hidden intricacies of this age-old dilemma. We're here to provide you with a treasure trove of insights, tips, and expert advice that will help you navigate the crossroads of home transformation.

Throughout this episode, we'll delve into the art of remodeling, discussing innovative ideas, cost-effective hacks, and creative ways to maximize your space's potential. From DIY inspirations to architectural marvels, you'll learn how to turn your existing house into a sanctuary that perfectly aligns with your dreams and lifestyle.

But the allure of a fresh start and a new address can be undeniable. That's why we'll also explore the exciting world of relocation, sharing stories of those who've taken the plunge and found their dream homes in unexpected places. We'll discuss the intricacies of the housing market, relocation strategies, and the emotional journey of moving to a new neighborhood, city, or even country.

Our expert guests will provide valuable insights into real estate trends, financing options, and the factors to consider when making this monumental decision. Whether you're a homeowner pondering the prospect of a remodel or a prospective buyer with dreams of a new beginning, we've got you covered.

Join us for a deep dive into this fascinating dilemma, and by the end of this episode, you'll be equipped with the knowledge and inspiration needed to make the choice that's right for you and your family. So, grab your headphones and a cozy seat – it's time to embark on a journey of transformation and discovery. Welcome to 'Remodel vs. Relocate: Transform Your Home or Change Your Address?'"

Remodeling Your Current Home:

Pros:

1. Cost-Effective: Remodeling can often be more cost-effective than buying a new home, especially if you love your current location.

2. Customization: You have the freedom to design your space exactly as you want it, tailoring it to your needs and style.

3. Familiarity: You already know your neighborhood, neighbors, and the local amenities, providing a sense of comfort and stability.

4. Minimal Disruption: You can continue living in your home during the renovation, avoiding the stress of moving.

5. Potential Value Increase: A well-executed remodel can increase the value of your home, potentially leading to a higher resale value in the future.

Cons:

1. Cost Overruns: Renovations can sometimes exceed the budget due to unforeseen issues or changes in plans.

2. Disruption: Even minor renovations can be disruptive to your daily life, and major ones may require you to temporarily move out.

3. Limited Space: You're constrained by your current property size and layout, which might not fulfill all your desires.

4. Hidden Problems: Older homes may have underlying issues that are only discovered during the renovation, adding to costs and timelines.

5. Resale Limitations: Personalized renovations may not appeal to potential buyers when you decide to sell, making it harder to find a buyer.

Relocating to a New Home:

Pros:

1. Fresh Start: Moving allows you to start fresh in a new environment, which can be invigorating and offer new opportunities.

2. Better Amenities: You can choose a neighborhood with amenities, schools, and services that better match your current needs and lifestyle.

3. More Space: You can find a larger home or one with a more desirable layout, providing extra living space.

4. Resale Potential: Newer homes typically require fewer immediate repairs or upgrades, making them more appealing to potential buyers.

5. Change of Scenery: A new location can offer a change of scenery, potentially improving your quality of life and well-being.

Cons:

1. Costs: Moving involves significant expenses, including real estate agent fees, closing costs, and the cost of physically moving your belongings.

2. Emotional Stress: The process of house hunting, selling your current home, and moving can be emotionally draining.

3. Adjustment Period: You'll need time to acclimate to your new neighborhood, potentially facing challenges like making new friends and learning about local services.

4. Unpredictable Market: Real estate markets can be unpredictable, and there's no guarantee you'll find a suitable new home in your desired location.

5. Selling Challenges: Selling your existing home might take longer than expected, leading to financial strain if you've already purchased a new property.

Transcript of Episode #11

Welcome to the your Home Sold Guaranteed Radio Show, where you get advice you can trust, from the latest real estate trends to the best mortgage rates, from curb appeal to home warranty. This is the show that will help you save and make the most money when it comes to buying or selling your most valuable asset. Now here's your host, broker and founder of your Home Sold Guaranteed Realty of Florida, rick.

Kendrick. Happy Sunday, everybody. Welcome to your Home. Sold Guaranteed Radio Show. This Rick, kendrick, harry and I are gonna be tackling a very good topic that I want everybody to pay attention to, and the reason why I'm saying that is because interest rates right now are up there okay. So people are kind of thinking about you know, maybe I should remodel or I should go ahead and sell, and I think it's a common homeowner dilemma. Maybe your space isn't right and maybe you should be considering a stain or are moving, don't you think, harry?

Homeowners have an interest rate below 4%. So that's what is prompting the historical low inventory, right. So nobody is moving. And then not only that, but one out of four people have a rate below 3%. So if you're gonna be staying in your home, we're gonna be talking through today some repairs or some refreshing or even some renovations. That might make sense if you're interested in staying put, but if you do, at some point in the future, decide to sell your home, you're gonna be able to recoup that investment and I think that's probably what some people are thinking about doing.

But caution to the wind here, sellers. If you are thinking about maybe making a move, give me a call, okay, at 561-901-3333 or rickhathabuyerscom. I can come over your house, sit down with you and kind of go over all your closing costs. When you know all your closing costs, plus what you're thinking about remodeling and the cost related to that, there's gonna be some comparisons that you can look at. So in your mind, what do you think people are thinking today as far as where they want to go with a home?

So the first avenue, of course, would be like a refreshing is what we like to refer to it as, and these are things that you can do around your home that do not necessarily involve pulling a permit. Right, and they also tend to be things that are less, less costly, right, like painting, maybe upgrading your flooring, maybe upgrading your countertops, or even, you know, painting your cabinets versus, like, total renovation of your kitchen.

And you know, carrie, you don't want to find yourself spending a lot of money doing this right.

Yeah, you really do need to weigh the pros and cons of the amount that you're gonna be spending, because a lot of things that you can do to your home, you won't be able to get that money back out.

Yeah, the return off your investment on this is something you seriously want to consider when you're thinking about doing a remodeling or just making improvements to the property. So when I go and I talk to somebody's thinking about maybe listing a property, what I suggest is not a total remodel, it's just making improvements to the property. Ie doing a you know, cleaning up the yard, doing some plants, going inside, maybe paint a wall or two, something that's not major in respects to that. So we just love the opportunity to be on the radio here today with our listeners. You know, carrie, we're out there every day meeting home sellers and buyers, so when they are ready to make a move, we want them to think about us in this process. So if you are a home seller and you're thinking about looking to make a move here, I would love to interview with the job, so you can give me a call at 561-901-3333 or rickhasthebuyerscom. After the break we're going to dive into this a little bit more. The big topic here today is remodel vs relocate, so stay tuned and we'll be right back.

The schedule and appointment with Rip Kendrick to help you buy or sell your home. Call 561-901-3333 or go to rickhasthebuyerscom. Rick will be right back with more of the your home sold. Guaranteed radio show here on News Talk 850 WFTL.

You're thinking of selling your home. Now's the perfect time to put a plan in place, and may I suggest you schedule an appointment with my friend, rick Kendrick, from your home sold, guaranteed Rilleteer, florida. I trust him. You can trust him as well, but listen to this heartwarming tale. Tom and Alicia's journey with Rick began seven years ago when he provided them with the free home evaluation. However, it wasn't quite the right time to sell back then. Rick didn't fade away though. He stayed connected over the years and when Alicia's mom needed them nearby, the time was right for Tom and Alicia to make the big move. They immediately called Rick to help them sell their 25-year home, hoping to make the most of the booming market. Just one call later and Rick worked his magic Miraculously. In just five days, their home sold for $26,000 over the asking price. Rick's persistence, trust and unmatched marketing strategy created an unforgettable success story. Call Rick today, schedule an appointment 561-901-3333. Or visit rickhasthebuyerscom.

Hi, I'm Eric Rosemary, branch manager at Cross Country Mortgage in Boca Raton. If you're deciding which lender to trust, whether you're purchasing or refinancing, I would love the opportunity to work with you. Over my 20-year career, I've helped close to 10,000 families buy or refinance the place they call home. Despite what you're hearing about interest rates, you might be surprised, as what we can do for you, let's talk, call or text me at 954-312-3104 or visit rosemarymortgageteamcom.

If you're ready to buy or sell your home and would like to schedule an appointment with Rick, call 561-901-3333 or go to rickhasthebuyerscom. Now back to the your home-sold guaranteed radio show and your host, rick Kendrick.

Well, welcome back from the break. In this segment, kerry and I are going to be really digging into should you remodel or should you sell, right, kerry? So determining whether remodeling is most cost-effective is a big thing, correct?

For sure. You have to take into consideration, you have to, like, compare the two scenarios, right? Am I going to remodel it or am I going to refresh it, versus am I going to put it on the market and then go, try to find another home? All right, you have to think to yourself, okay, if I intend to stay in my home, like, what is it that I need to do to it that will make me happy, right? Is it just cosmetic type stuff, right, like freshening the paint, maybe upgrading the flooring, maybe, you know, swapping out your Corian for granite? Right? Versus something that would be considered a lot more major of a project? Right? Like adding a bedroom or adding a bathroom. When you start getting into, like, major, major renovation, okay, you have to start considering the timing. All right, your budget, because most certainly you're going to go over budget. And then, how much time do you have, right, to get this project off the ground? And it's always going to take a lot longer than you would expect. So you might just say to yourself, well, I'm going to go out into the marketplace and I'm going to, you know, find a home that already has everything that I want, and then what would it cost me to purchase that home and then compare the two options right Now.

Do they want to put it on the market, just to pull out the equity, or do they have to sell, right? But let's just say I have to walk in there and I'm looking at it and it's totally outdated, all right, and I see more than two, three, four kids in there and it's a two or three bedroom house. I know they're looking for more of an expansion, right? So the aspect about me telling them listen, obviously the cost factor of remodeling becomes a big factor to you in this ultimate cost and selling your place. So what I say to them is this I'm going to give you tips of what to do to sell this place right now. Right, simply painting walls, cut the yard, put some plants in there, or, if you're really thinking about expansion here, okay, it's going to cost you a lot of money to do. My recommendation is let's take a look at the market and see what it has to offer you, okay. So the cost of selling, okay, becomes a determining factor what the fees are in selling fees of the real estate agent cost as far as what you have to pay, far as closing costs, moving costs moving costs are a big factor here. Minor repairs, which I'm recommending is do minor repairs because in reality some, in some instances, they have to move right. So they have. What you want to do is keep it to the bare minimum. Generally speaking, okay, when buyers walk into the place, they are going to do their own remodeling and put it to their liking right. So that's the big thing. And then on top of that, the cost of the new home. That's another big factor. Here what you want to do is keep that cost to sell at a minimum. But the cost of getting a new home All those things come into play when you're looking to either purchase a new home or remodel your place. Cost of remodeling has always been a big factor. Permits. These things just pop up at a moment's notice because you really don't realize how much it is involved when you're doing remodeling. As everybody you know, carrie and I are married and so every day we look at what we want to do to our condo, right, and I say I want to put in a shower. She goes no, there's no reason to put in the shower, and she's looking at it from the cost basis of it. I'm looking at it as far as the home is concerned or the condo is concerned. I think it would be more convenient, when we have guests, that they have a shower as opposed to a bathtub to get into it. But these are the things that you're going to be contending with. Okay, because it's just not you making the decision. It's your lovable wife that's making those decisions too. So there's a little pressure to do in remodeling. So just keep that in mind, mr Sellers, when you're thinking about remodeling. You're not the only decision maker in this process. So you know not only that, the materials and labor involved permitting, when you look at all the costs, including the hidden costs, it may be better for you to go ahead and make a move. And that's where I come into play, because I can come over and take a look at your place and say, hey, folks, listen, it is time for you to make a move. Or, you know what, make some improvements right now. We could get a higher value with some minor improvements to the property. Or it's probably just not the right time for you, and I'll tell you that. I will say, honestly speaking, it's probably just not the right time. Carrie, you know our last two transactions. We had these folks that made a purchase of a house. They lived in their house for six, seven years. They say, rick, now you know you've come over a couple of times and you talk to us and you said to us it wasn't the right time. Is it the right time now? And I said, absolutely Now's the time to do it because, number one, values are at the best that it can be and, number two, you can get a lot of equity out of your house and get that house that you're really looking for. Does that make sense, carrie?

Yes, it does. Yeah, and the other thing that you need to consider as well if you are thinking about remodeling your home is take a look at the homes that are on your street and in your community. Right, like you don't want to over improve your property and be like the best house on the street, like the strategy always in real estate is to be have a value that's the lowest or the mid-range on your street. You never want to be the highest priced house on the street.

The other thing is, kerry and this is where we come into play and this is how we can help them out in making a decision is really kind of research the real estate market right, so you got to make sure that the market is right for you to do this, and we're going to be talking a little bit more later on about the aspect of creative ways to do this, either through financing or pulling equity out of your house, and I think these things are probably one of the top items that you got to consider. The other final thing that I want you to clearly understand is that when you are thinking about maybe making a move or remodeling, you got to evaluate the emotional attachment to the community that you're part of. How long have you been there, your friends there, and if you take a move, you're going to be making new friends somewhere else. But that's all part of moving. All right, no matter how you look at it, it's probably going to be a situation where you're going to have to consider those strong points, weak points, but get down to that point where you're going to be making a move or going ahead and then just improving the property.

So again, also, you know you do need to consider, like we mentioned earlier, was your timeline right, Like, how much time do you have to go through this process, right? Like, obviously the quickest thing to do is to probably sell your house and to buy another one. Anytime you're getting yourself involved in any extensive renovations with the home that you're living in now you need to. You know, whatever timeframe you think it's going to be, you just double that.

And I mean it's a rule of thumb when you talk about improvements, right, but the factor is is that we always have very expensive taste in what we want to do and we want to make it fairly nice. I know every time I've told a seller okay, do this, go ahead and paint this wall, clean this up, take care of the front yard a little bit, put some plants out there, improve the bathrooms, put you know, put different tops, countertops in there, and then, after they do that, they go wow, maybe I shouldn't sell the property, right. And that's that makes it a situation where you go. Now you see the value of what it is to make simple improvements as to major improvements to the property. So when I say be realistic in your renovations, what you need to do is you need to sit down on a pencil and piece of paper and really start to calculate what the costs are in renovating, right, kerry? So you've kind of done your research on this and found out there's some items that probably a key up that would really number one, maybe add value or make sense for you to go ahead and just do remodel right.

Sure, but as far as being realistic about what the renovation is going to be solving for you, I would say that there are some issues that remodeling or renovating your home just are not going to solve right. So one of those, of course, would be like the location right, like if you're not happy with where your home is located, it doesn't really matter how much you spruce up the interior of the home or these these things that you're considering right, because you're not moving. The location of the house and also the size of the home is probably another one where getting into renovations is not realistically going to solve your problems cost effectively Right, like if you're just if your family has outgrown your home, there's really not going to be anything that you're going to be able to do there. You should just sell your home and buy a bigger home.

Right. Yeah, you know, Kerry. It's really interesting that you mentioned it because when I do go on appointments with sellers, I'm sitting there and they got a two or three bedroom house and they got four kids on the couch and I got a crowd, an audience, listening to my presentation and I'm only seeing two bedrooms and I see bunk beds in each of the bedrooms. I go it's time to sell Right, Because they got it pretty much. If they were to expand this, it probably cost them, you know, based on today's standards, a couple hundred thousand dollars to make improvements to make everybody comfortable. Everybody needs space in their own home to enjoy Right.

Absolutely. And also if you're living in a community with a lot of rules right Rules and regulations, like a homeowner's association or a condo association and let's say that, due to COVID, you know you're now working from your home and you know working out of your house may not even be permitted by the, the association rules Right. So in that instance, I mean, making a move is the wise choice, because it doesn't matter how much you renovate it, you're not going to be able to work out of your place, right?

They find out real quick. There are people and I'm for one quite honestly love homeowners associations because it keeps everything going at a certain level right, or a certain standard. Some people need space and they do not want somebody to tell them their yard needs to be cut or they can have a truck in there or things of that sort. You know how to paint their house. The color of their house will color the roof is. Some people don't want that, so that may be a reason why they want to move Right, carrie.

Yes, yeah. So getting into, like the cost effectiveness of making a move right and like what kind of return are you going to see on any improvements that you're making? So you have to take into consideration. Obviously, the thing that we're most concerned with has real estate agents and that we try to advise as much as possible is not to over improve, Right. So, like when you're considering renovating your kitchen, like you've got three sort of like levels of renovation right. Like the first level would be, you know, painting the cabinets that are there already and maybe swapping out the countertops. Then you could have like a mid range renovation and then your most expensive option obviously is ripping out the whole kitchen, you know, redoing the layout of it and so on.

That's what you like to do, right? You like ripping things out and starting over. I go well, let's just paint this wall here. This'll be fine.

If I had unlimited funds, sure, but in terms of making a decision as to which direction you're going to take here, you know there's they have these studies, right that they publish on the internet and you can look them up if you like. But so let's say you're just, you know, painting your cabinets and swapping out the countertop. The investment that you're spending in that you'll probably get like 60% of it back when you go to sell the property. But if you're ripping out your whole entire kitchen, your budget to renovate your kitchen can get out of hand rather quickly, right, because you've got the cabinetry, you have the countertop, the appliances, right, like the bill can add up. And if you're going to go that far in a kitchen renovation, they say you're only going to get maybe 20 to 30% of your money back out. So unless you're planning on staying there long term, definitely wouldn't advise ripping out the kitchen and starting from scratch.

And I would also say, just add this to fact, if you're thinking about maybe making a move, I wouldn't recommend unless you want to stay there, I wouldn't recommend putting these totally unique, very, very expensive European style countertops in there that are shipped over and imported. Those things are very expensive and you really do not see value in that. When I'm talking to potential sellers, it does hurt their feelings. Now understand, sellers, this is a business proposition. Okay, you can't take it personal when I come over there and take a look at it and I say, hey, listen, you need to do this, you need to make some improvements to the property. Here's what I want you to do. Well, I like it, like this. I understand this is what you do. You like it. But to be honest with you, that's the reason why you're going to hire me is because you are asking for the most amount of money for your property, and the only way I can do that is to be honest with you in the front. So, kerry, when they make improvements to the property, they should be looking at maybe a kitchen and the bathrooms. Are those the two most important parts, or is there something else that maybe they should?

look at. I think those are the ones that most people quite often think about right, bathroom kitchen, maybe the master suite? Right. Maybe replacing your windows right, hvac right. We're in Florida, so there are a lot of efficiency options out there now. So upgrading something like your air conditioning system, right. They say that you get 72% of your money back if you were to upgrade your air conditioning system.

So you know, improving your property, you got to understand the risk of over improving. Don't over improve your property if you're thinking about making a move, but if you're thinking about, say, staying there for a few more years, understandable.

So probably the traditional thought process is to do like a cash out refinance, right. But obviously that's not a great idea given the current interest rate environments because you would be refinancing your mortgage into a higher rate.

And you brought up earlier the reason why is because 61% of the people today right are below that 5% 4% mark. So, there's a lot of people out there. You know they'd be looking if they were going to go ahead and refinance. They'd be looking at maybe a 7%, 7.5% right.

Potentially. Yeah, it depends on their credit and a lot of other things. Maybe they want to do a 15-year loan instead of a 30. But the other alternative ways right to finance your home improvements are a home equity loan, right, which is a second mortgage, which is basically a lump sum right. The rate's going to be a little bit higher than your first mortgage, but definitely, you know, it would be way lower than just going to Home Depot and using your credit card, right. And then, of course, a HELOC, a home equity line of credit, which is basically similar to a home equity loan, except it's more like a revolving line of credit. So you get an amount to repay over, you know, 5 to 10 years, and you can use that money like periodically right. So you may take out 10 to make an improvement on your property. You pay back that 10. Maybe a couple years later you take out another 5 and then pay back the other 5, all right. And then, of course, we do have options for those of you who want to sell and who want to get the most money possible. But there are certain things to your home that really need to be taken care of in order to get the highest price, and you don't necessarily have the funds to do that.

So what we're talking about here okay is that we have a contractor that will actually go into your home, sit down with you, do a design of the remodeling that you want done okay. But you still want to move? All right, we'll do the improvements because you don't have the money in hand at that time, but you have a lot of equity in your home and they'll go ahead and do the improvements before the sale of the home and then, once they do the improvements, we put it on the market, right, kerry?

Yes.

So we put it on the market and then what they do is they agree with you that they'll take whatever costs for the remodeling and they'll use that will pay the contractors at the closing table. So really no cost to you out of your pocket. You get the improvements done and then at closing we pay the contractors and you're off to your new home that you're really, really looking forward to having. Is that right, kerry?

Yes. So you're looking for people who are trying to decide, like, do I stay in the home that I'm in now and try to make it work, or do I explore selling right now? Right, because it is true, the home values in our area have risen so dramatically that you could have a significant amount of equity in your home. You can cash out on that equity and then go buy your dream home. And you may be thinking to yourself well, why would I want to give up my 4% interest rate to take a 7% interest rate? Right, which is what they're currently hovering around right now, and there are a couple options that we put forth for you to kind of evaluate this scenario. Right?

Right. So you know, eric Rosemary would cross-country mortgage. We sit down with him and we say, hey, listen, this seller right here wants to sell and wants to buy another house. Can you help us out? He'll sit down with us and show them the different ways that you can make this happen. Number one you have so much equity in your home. You can buy down a rate right, or you can get a variable rate right. There are other avenues to this right, kerry, that they can do to as far as making it feasible for them to go ahead and sell Builders. Builders right now are offering probably about 5%. Is that right, kerry?

Yeah, so builders are constantly coming out with various incentives right to entice buyers. Okay, and one of the big ones that they've been doing lately to combat the rise in the interest rate is offering special rates right, because they usually have their own financing in-house, so they'll offer like 4.9%, they'll offer 5.25. The other thing you could do is consider a 15-year mortgage, which are typically you know your rate is going to be lower, and then you can always just go ahead and buy now and refinance later when the rates come down and that's what I encourage sellers to do.

okay Is it what you do? Okay is that you date the rate and marry the home or mortgage right. That's the phrase that they use today, because right now, to be honest with you, buyers have abilities to get buyer seller concessions or buyer concessions on this. But sellers, I would safely say, if you're looking to make a move, this is what you need to be seriously considering. Go ahead, take the plunge in, buy the home that you're looking for right now, because it is gonna appreciate in value. We talked to you last week about what the numbers are. Medium households continue to go up. The average household sales price of a household continues to go up because we're living in paradise. Thank you for taking time to listen to this. Today, carrie and I went over the aspects of, you know, versus remodeling as opposed to selling. This is a Rick Kendrick your home sole guarantee reality show Serving the Southeast coast of Florida. Our network extends across the country in Canada. Give me a call or text me at 561-901-3333, or go to rickhasthebuyerscom. Carrie, thanks for coming on. We'll see you next Sunday. This is Rick Kendrick, your home sole guarantee reality. On A50 WFTL News Talk Radio.

You've been listening to the your Home Soiled guaranteed radio show with broker owner Rick Kendrick Heard every Sunday morning here on News Talk 850 WFTL. Rick's company name is his promise your home sold guaranteed reality. To speak directly to Rick about buying or selling your home, call now to schedule an appointment 561-901-3333,. Or visit rickhasthebuyerscom and mark your calendar to join Rick again next week at the same time for the your Home Soiled guaranteed radio show here on News Talk 850 WFTL.