There are a few good reasons to renovate your current home.  The most common is for your own personal enjoyment and that’s a great reason.  But some people want to renovate with a future sale in mind. Even if the primary reason is personal enjoyment, it doesn’t hurt to understand how your renovations will impact a future sale, and where you get the best bang for your buck.

First of all, if you have the room to add square footage, according to a study conducted by the National Association of Realtors, you get an increase in value of approximately 30% for every 1000 square feet you add to the average sized home.  Keeping that figure in mind, if your home is worth $1 million, and you add 1000 square feet, the addition should be less than $300,000 to increase your equity in the home.

The best renovation for return on investment is a bathroom.  Bathroom styling, although based on 3-4 main fixtures, changes considerably within a relatively short period of time, and buyers don’t want to deal with a bathroom renovation on a house they just purchased.  If your bathroom is 10 years or older, maybe the time has come to consider a renovation if you are looking to get the highest value for your home.

Another big draw these days is a “special use” room.  This can be a craft room or a hobby room or perhaps a theatre room.  If you have the space, and you might enjoy it until you sell, this is generally a good addition/investment to make to your home.

Just be mindful that you do not generally want to price your house out of the neighbourhood.  In other words, don’t become the most expensive house on the block. It can be hard to get that top dollar out of your house if the neighbourhood does not support it.

If you are looking to invest in a home renovation, and need to take some equity out of your home to do so, please contact me for mortgage advice. We can work with you to best get access to your equity, whether refinancing, switching lenders, or looking at alternate arrangements to fund your dream renovations.

Canadians now have new protections when it comes to dealing with their bank thanks to the new Financial Consumer Protection Framework which came into effect June 30^th of 2022.

Among the more than 60 changes that came into effect are:

1. Banks now must deal with customer complaints within 56 days, reduced from the previous 90 days.
2. Liability for lost or stolen credit cards is now limited to $50.
3. Banks must now send electronic alerts to help customers avoid going into overdraft or spending over their credit limit, which can result in fees.
4. They must provide advance notice so customers can decide whether to renew or cancel products or services.
5. Banks are obligated to provide separate agreements for each product and service provided to ensure the customers are informed of their options.
6. Banks will now be required to create a whistleblowing program to encourage employees to come forward if they see anything happening in the bank that they feel is wrong, knowing their job will not be at risk.

The alerts required, and notices of renewal, are areas of welcome improvement, and can help save consumers money.  Alerts to avoid unintended overdraft charges, should decrease fees and charges.  Getting warned about an upcoming mortgage renewal should give consumers time to look at alternatives, perhaps reaching out to an independent mortgage broker for all of the options.  In this competitive market, with increasing interest rates, this is certainly a positive change.