Need More Room

Are you feeling a little cramped in your current home? What options do you have? There are two main options that are available -- moving up or adding on.

Housing prices have sky rocketed all over the county. Mortgages have tightened. You need more room, but your income has not kept up with the increases in housing costs. What do you do?

The most logical thing to do is to add on to your existi5B4ng home. The reality is that dirt is incredibly expensive these days. If you already have the dirt (lot), it makes sense to add onto the home you already own. In the current market, construction for an addition is still cheaper than building new. Currently, additions are about 20% cheaper than building a new home (excluding the lot). However, there are a few things that you will want to take into consideration.

First, are additions a wise choice as far as value goes? As a general rule, building an addition is a very wise move. That's if it's done professionally with well thought out plans based on the flow of the house. Any time you add square footage to your home the value should increase.

However, before diving in you should consider a few things. What is your house size compared to the other homes in the neighborhood? If you are already the largest home then you may want to rethink your decision. You never want to be the largest home in the neighborhood unless you have plans of never selling. If that's the case, go for it! Of course, I learned many years ago to never say always or never. On the other hand if you are the smallest home in the neighborhood, or some place in between, you could profit with the correct addition.

The second thing to consider is how the addition will affect the flow of your home. Can you keep the flow smooth? I was out on a job site the other day and they were thinking of a5B4dding a new family room. The problem was that to get to the new family room everyone would have to walk though one of two rooms -- either the master bedroom or a child's bedroom. Sure, they could have knocked out a few walls and rearranged the whole floor plan to make it work; however, the value would not have matched the investment required.

Always have the plans drawn out so you know what the finished product will look like. No, you do not have to have the plans professionally drawn up at this time. It's quite easy to just do it yourself. It may not be to scale or very pretty, however, it will give you an idea of what it will look like and how the flow will feel. When I planned an addition to my own home the first thing I did was pull out a note pad and start drawing different options. The first option was going to give me two side by side bowling alleys. "At least that's what it would have looked like when finished. I guess the grandbabies would have a great time drag racing, but it was not functional. I just kept playing with different ideas until I found one that worked.

The third thing to consider is the new addition going to serve you for years to come. Nothing is worse than adding on only to find out that it's really not what you wanted. Before you start is the time to have a talk with a professional. Discuss the needs of your family. What are you really trying to do? As an example, my lovely spouse ha5B4s always wanted a bigger kitchen/dining area. She loves to cook and entertain. I want a place that the family could gather after dinner to have conversation away from the TV and other distractions. We can do that very easily while maintaining the flow and look of the home. Those are the only two things that we have ever missed or wish we had in our current home. We love the area and have no desire to move. The kids are grown and out of the house so we don't need any more bedrooms, although one of my married sons thinks we should build a guest room. I'm not even going to start that one.

Take these ideas into consideration and if everything looks good, enjoy your new additions. If not, you may want to think about moving up. We'll talk about that in my next article.

Mark Weisenburger has been a real estate agent were he sold new construction as well as existing homes. He has also been a mortgage officer. Mark is currently in construction sales helping families' dreams come true by helping them with remodels, additions and/or building their dream home. For more information you can visit his website http://hirethemonsters.com