Upsizing your home is a common response to life changes like:

• Starting a new job 
• Growing your family 
• Receiving a significant pay rise

These are changes that could lead to wanting to buy a bigger and somewhat fancier home. But there are some concerns and critical questions you may want to ask yourself before upsizing.

What Would You Keep | What Would You Change?

It’s always a good idea to do a qualitative checklist of your current home when you get to this junction in life. What do you appreciate about it? How’s the area? What about the neighbourhood? Do you have a sufficient number of bathrooms? Document it all down like you’re twelve, and this is your first journal. Let the feelings flow.

Now list what you’d adjust if you could. Do you want more bedrooms or a larger backyard? Do you wish there were fewer neighbours around? 

Merge what you enjoy about your current home with what you’d modify in a report – this document can help identify criteria and plans for your next move. 

Is Now a Good Time to Upsize?

It’s savvy of you to consider some main points as you weigh your upsizing prospects.

Check the value of other homes in your neighbourhood and the value of the places where you’d like to live. Whether you’re preparing to move across the country or simply a few rows down the street, knowing which way the expenses are trending always helps. Chat with an agent you trust to get a temperature check of where you’re interested in buying. Agents are always in touch with these trends as it’s their literal livelihood.

How Much Upsize Can You Afford?

And now the fun part – your budget!

Whether you rent or own, you’ll need to determine precisely how much upsizing you can afford. If you have a price range in mind for your desired number of bedrooms and bathrooms or square footage, you can do rough calculations with a mortgage calculator to get an idea of what you’ll be paying.

What are the hidden costs and responsibilities of upsizing your home?

Buying a greater property also comes with various time-consuming and expensive extra duties. A larger home requires more upkeep. From cleaning additional rooms to maintaining a larger yard – upsizing means everything is amplified, not just your space.

 Buying a bigger house means more expensive:

• Furnishings
• Property taxes
• Insurance prices
• Utility expenses
• Closing fees

3 Alternatives To Upsizing

Sometimes upsizing doesn’t meet your current requirements. If you can’t afford the higher mortgage payments (which have been on the rise), there are other options to consider.

1) Renovation & Extensions

Changing the dimensions or form of a room in your home could add some much-needed square footage to your property if done right. The costs of renovating or extending your property can be far lower than buying a larger, more expensive property.

New building plans as a way to customise your home may be an appealing option, particularly if you’ve got a precise wish list. You could start by renovating the basement/garage space to assemble another room, which could function as an extra bedroom or guest room. Add extensions by creating more storeys to your home and subsequently adding additional room(s) to your property, giving you much more space to work with. You’ll need to get planning permission from your local planning council to do this, though. 

When building custom rooms in your home you’ll have to account for negotiating with and enlisting an architect and builder, as well as calculating how long it will take to build your home instead of moving into a new one. 

Remodelling, which involves adjusting the structure or the function of regions within your home,  can be a reasonable option for homeowners. Ask yourself, can I modify what I dislike about my present home with a remodel? Remodelling won’t help if you want to alter your neighbourhood or commute situation. Some changes won’t be feasible at all, and others may be problematic to implement. It’s best to carefully price out any remodelling schemes before the work begins, as prices can spiral out of control if you fail to plan carefully. But if a supplementary bedroom or more space is all you require, it’s worth thinking about. 

Owning the land around your home also provides the opportunity for add-ons or an accessory dwelling unit, provided that local laws permit them, along with any HOA rulings (always such a fun organisation for a homeowner to deal with).

2) Create Multifunctional Spaces

If you cannot obtain planning permission for an extension or shed or don’t have the budget, consider creating a multifunctional space. This technique is where you transform your spare room into a home office (that happens to have a sofa bed) or make a living-dining space. Now there’s so much more room for activities!

3) Increase Your Storage

When attempting to maximise storage capacity, the first step is to declutter your home. Sometimes it’s not the physical lack of space that’s a problem, but rather a lack of proper planning.

By decluttering your home, you can develop more space and make your living space feel less claustrophobic. Maximising storage can create more space in your home, especially if you take the time to install shelving, cabinets, built-in wardrobes and cupboards as storage options.

If you have a garden, you could build a large shed or outside structure for external storage. However, you might still need permission from the local council again to construct this, especially if the creation is visible to your neighbours.

If you don’t have enough garden space to construct a shed or something similar, you could rent storage space and fill it with items you don’t need daily.

At StorageWise, we are self-storage experts with over 100 years of experience. If your space needs decluttering or you need help moving from one spot to another, we’re your best mate!

Get a quick and easy online quote, or call us at +353 61 446 302 to have a quick chat with our friendly team.