When it comes to renovating homes the first thing you should do is contact a small select group of home renovation contractors. Professional home renovation companies can offer you trusted advice and guidance through your renovations.
If you have a home renovation experience or not, evaluating your options is an important part of renovating a home.
If it be a kitchen renovation or a major whole home remodel, there are many factors to take under advisement before you start tearing your home apart.
When it comes to renovating homes most owners are emotionally invested. They commonly have lived in the home and become very attached to the memories that are enclosed in the home they know.
They may not like a number of things about their house, but the mere thought of dismantling it brings utter fear to them. It is natural to get emotional about the thought of tearing up your home.
There are indeed many matters to get anxious about when your mind turns to the thought of you renovating home.
We will discuss preparing for the process for renovating homes and offer some insight in the handling of home renovation contractors to achieve your renovation needs successfully.
We will discuss the many benefits of house renovations and the impact of your home’s value. During these discussions we will also look at the cost of renovating homes.
What are the Different Types of Renovators for Renovating Homes?
When you are preparing for renovating a home one of the first things that you need to do is select a short list of qualified renovation contractors.
This typically takes some research in asking neighbors or friends and searching the internet for the home renovators that fit both your project and your personal needs.
Let’s start by saying that not all home renovation companies are the same or do the same type of project work.
The primary difference in contractors for home renovation are that some of them operate with subcontractors and some operate as self-performing contractors with their own employees. There are advantages of working with each of these construction business models.
Self-performing home renovation contractors are normally small firms with one to multiple crews of 2 to 4 men. The members of these crews will perform many of the renovation tasks required to complete the project.
These types of renovation companies will hire professional trade contractors to perform the licensed trade activities such as mechanical, electrical and plumbing. The remaining activities will be executed by the renovation contractors crew.
The other primary type of home renovation contractors hires independent trade contractors. These types of renovation companies operate like a general contractor.
They prepare contracts and insurance certificates and manage the work scope required for the project.
These types of renovation contractors are great for larger projects, while the self-performing contractors are best suited for smaller projects.
Once you have identified what you think is the best couple of remodeling companies to select, it is time to conduct a formal interview to determine if the renovation contractor’s interest is aligned with yours.
We offer a collection of important questions to ask your home renovation contractors;
What are the Benefits of Renovating Homes?
- Increase the Value of the Home
- Increase the Functionality of the Home
- Increase House Safety
- Increase Energy Efficiency
- Personalize your Homes Space
- Avoid Moving Cost
- Make the House Healthier
The primary question you need to ask your self are the cost of the home improvements you are planning going to be recaptured when you sell and or are you resolved in accepting that the cost does not matter. We examine house renovation cost later in this article.
As suggested, there are many house renovation benefits that result from a well planned and executed renovation project.
The primary reasons that motivate owners to undertake a major home renovation is for the enrichment of their lifestyle.
Families may consider their maintenance and repair schedule starting to pile up or maybe they have been planning on updating but could not afford it when they purchased their house.
The family also changes in its needs as children mature. What was acceptable when the children were toddlers becomes an undesirable environment as the owners begins to host the family holidays as the owners parents age.
It is important to understand your goals and benefits for any house renovations.
Getting caught up in the options and details can cause you to lose focus of the bigger picture and cause haywire with your renovation budget.
Once you have identified your general renovation needs it’s time to prioritize the features of your project. For instance, if you are renovating your kitchen you will want to recognize if you want to replace the cabinets or give them a face lift.
Replacing the cabinets will normally require replacing the counter tops and backsplash. So, the decisions you make should not be hasty.
This is when you should consider the benefits of a home remodel.
What is the Renovating Homes Process
Renovating homes has two paths in preparing commencement.
If you are making structural changes like moving walls or changing the footprint of rooms, you will need to have construction drawings prepared.
If you are just planning changing windows, roofing or flooring in your home, you will normally not be required to produce home plans.
If your home design requires home plans or construction documents, you have several different directions you can take.
The first is hiring an architect to help you prepare these documents. There are two immediate benefits for preparing home plans.
Once prepared you can use them to solicit bids from your short list of renovation contractors. You will also need these documents to obtain a Houston building permit.
The down side of this approach is that you can over design your home plans. This results in your house renovation cost being much higher than you planned.
To resolve this outcome, you will need to redraw the renovation construction documents. This will add time and cost to your renovation project and require you to value engineer your home plans to reduce your house renovation cost.
The alternative approach for design document preparation available to the owner is to use the design build method.
The design build approach is when the renovation contractor provides both the design and construction services for your home project.
They will prepare the construction documents as a separate scope of work. When the drawings are complete your contractor will prepare a schedule of values for the cost of renovating a home.
The ideal difference is that the home renovation contractor is guiding the design process and providing cost information about certain design features to avoid a complete redesign.
Secondly if there are design plan errors, the design build contractor is responsible instead of the owner, as would be the case if the owner hires the designer directly.
The design build approach also offers the advantages of saving the time of soliciting bids and vetting contractors, creating a team approach toward the design and building process and typically reducing the overall house renovation cost.
What are the House Renovation Cost
The primary question you need to ask your self are the cost to renovate a house you are planning going to be recaptured when you sell and or are you resolved in accepting that the cost does not matter as much as having the improvements.
The cost of renovating homes will need to be a renovation contractors bid or a targeted investment amount that is financially feasible for you.
If your answer is that house renovation cost recovery matters, then you will need to do some additional research to understand the impact of the cost on your ultimate house resale value.
The method you will need to use to determine the impact on your home’s value is to go to your local appraisal districts website and research neighboring home values.
Look for properties that have been remodeled and those that have not. Compare the assessment values taking notes for additional research.
In addition, research the selling price of any renovating homes recently sold will help you determine a market value baseline for your home.
Adding the house renovation cost to the estimated market value will result in the net effect of your after renovation value.
Multiply the after renovation value times 4% per annual x the years you plan on living in your home.
Compare the after renovation market value to the values of recently sold homes using the same inflation factor.
For further results of the cost to renovate a house visit our infographic.
Conclusion
When it comes to renovating homes there is no better way to start then selecting the services of a qualified renovation contractor for advice and guidance.
Undertaking a major home renovation can be rewarding if properly planned and carefully thought through.
Professional home renovation companies follow a very structured process that is time tested.
Renovation contractors can make renovating homes a rewarding experience by avoiding the pitfalls managing your house renovation costs and renovations.
