4 min readWhen you buy a home you love and, at the time, has everything you’ve been wishing for, it can be easy for that home to grow with you throughout the years. But tastes and needs change, and you might find that your home is no longer keeping up with your lifestyle. Or perhaps, you didn’t always love your home in the first place, and you’re itching for a change.
“Most signs that you’ve outgrown a home track with the phase of life you are in,” says Allison Freeman, a real estate agent at Christie’s International Real Estate Emerald Coast.
While home renovations can be wise if you plan to move someday (and you can enjoy them while you’re still there!), the cost might not make sense in the long run. “Home renovations can be stressful and expensive, and if you are not careful, you may waste your money on renovations that do not pay off,” says Tiffany Sears, CEO and broker-in-charge at The Sears Group. “Sometimes, homeowners know they want to move, but the thought of selling, packing, and buying another home feels like too much. That alone is not necessarily a good reason to renovate. I always encourage homeowners to separate the emotional decision from the financial one and look at what will actually serve them best for the next five to 10 years.”
If you’re on the fence about whether to renovate your home or pack it up and move, read on for signs that you might be experiencing “growing pains.”
You’re Short on Space
There are many reasons why you might need more space in your home. You could have a new job that requires you to work from home, and you don’t have a proper office. Or perhaps your family has grown, and there simply is no buildable space on your lot.
“If you need another bedroom, a home office, an additional bathroom, and more storage, you may be asking the house to become something it was never designed to be,” Sears says. “At some point, adding on or reconfiguring the home stops making practical or financial sense.”
Apart from needing more rooms, Freeman points out that a growing family might also require a bigger yard, a quieter street, a larger driveway to accommodate more cars or frequent guests, or a neighborhood with amenities built with kids in mind. That said, the same idea holds true for empty nesters: if your children have moved out, and you have an entire upstairs you never see with bedrooms that are rarely used, you may need to consider a new house.
You Improvements That Aren’t Worth the Investment
Before pouring money into renovations, homeowners should understand the value of the surrounding homes. “You do not want to spend $150,000 improving a property if the neighborhood will not support that additional value when it is time to sell,” Sears says. Before hiring a design team to helm a renovation, do your due diligence and review comps in your area for homes that closely mirror what your renovated space will include. “You may want better appliances, fixtures, and a different layout, but it’s not a good idea if the price point of the house will not return that investment at resale,” Freeman says.
Your Issues Can’t Be Changed
If you feel like you’re constantly trying to make your current floor plan work, you might be ready for an entirely new house. “If you have converted the dining room into an office, the guest room into a playroom, and part of the garage into storage, your house may be telling you something,” Sears says. “When every room is doing double or triple duty, it may be time to consider a home that better fits your current lifestyle.”
The same mindset goes for other unchangeable factors, like a less-than-ideal neighborhood (or neighbor) or a long commute that’s wreaking havoc on your mental health. “You can renovate a kitchen. You cannot renovate your commute, school assignment, or proximity to family,” Sears says. “If the bigger issue is where the home is located, spending money on renovations probably will not solve the real problem.”
A Renovation Costs as Much as a New House
If your renovation wishlist has grown to the point that the remodeling budget is close to what it would cost to buy a new house with everything you want, a move may be the way to go.
“If what started as ‘we just need a bigger kitchen’ has turned into a kitchen renovation, another bedroom, an additional bathroom, and a finished basement, I would recommend taking a serious look at the numbers before starting construction,” Sears says. “You may be trying to build your next house inside your current one.”
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Shelby Deering is a freelance lifestyle writer who frequently covers home design and decor for national publications. She has worked as a full-time freelance writer for over a decade, and has worked in the industry for nearly 20 years, writing home tours, interviewing top designers, and beautifying her own home. She holds a master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and when she's not writing, you can find her at thrift stores and flea markets, running, or exploring local trails in Madison, Wisconsin, with her husband and corgi, Dolly.
