Should We Renovate or Should We Move?

Should We Renovate or Should We Move?

Yesterday I had the opportunity to meet with Award Winning Yuri Sagatov of Sagatov Associates. He runs a construction company who builds homes or does large scale renovation projects (and sometimes smaller remodels like a kitchen). He has a great reputation around Arlington for modern, energy efficient homes and easy construction process. You can find some of his work on their Houzz profile. This one happens to be my favorite: 29th Street. I was able to pick his brain a little for this blog. A recap of some of the highlights is below.

1. Timeframe for renovations: about 8 weeks for a kitchen. For a larger scale renovation (think 2nd story addition), you’re looking at 1-2 months for design, another month for permits, and then anywhere from 3+ months for construction, on the longer end if they’re gutting the existing inside. For a bump-out that’s a little smaller (think rear addition for an exisiting colonial), you’ll have the same design/permit phase and then a shorter 3+ month construction phase.

2. Costs: my all-time favorite answer: it depends. I should have expected that! Smaller scale renovations on the inside are the cheapest, but when you’re adding space such as additions, you’re looking into the 6-digit price ranges. This would be a question better answered directly by him based on your goals for the house. Keep in mind, if you don’t already own the land/house, you’ll need to pay that first. Tear downs in Arlington exist in the $700k and under range, but builders/cash buyers are snatching up the lowest priced lots quickly.


Now, should you renovate or should you move? Keep in mind for renovations, if you plan to do everything at once, you’ll likely be unable to live in the house while you’re renovating so you’ll have housing expenses of renting a place to live in addition to your design/construction costs. You can also do renovations piece by piece as time and money allow. Or, let’s say you’re going to be putting in $500,000 for a renovation. If your current home is worth $700,000, can you take the equity from your sale and buy a $1.2M home and be happy and not have to deal with the construction and moving twice? That’s up to you really. Obviously when you build, you can get exactly what you want (space and money permitting), but are you willing to potentially sacrifice something in order to move sooner and be happy where you end up?

If you’re thinking of renovations, I highly, highly recommend you call Sagatov Homes. If you’re exploring the option of selling/buying or buying a tear down/rehab project, call me!