With the real estate market constantly fluctuating, many homeowners are tasked with deciding to remodel or buy a new house.
The Spicewood-based Wild Hare Construction and Remodeling, owned by Jimmy Johnson II, has been serving the Austin area for 14 years. Community Impact spoke with Johnson to learn more about the remodeling process and the benefits of remodeling.
What are some of the benefits of remodeling?
When the market is good, people are looking to remodel to get the most out of their house as they move on to the next one. Unless it’s just a minor thing, they're typically looking to move to the next house, so they're making their current house nicer to get more out of it. When the economy goes down the other way, it tends to be more of the "okay, we can’t afford to get as much house as we have here if we sell, so let’s make this house as close to what we want as we can."
Why do people choose to remodel instead of buy?
The two main reasons are you’re either making your house nicer to sell or you want to make it more of what you want. Say you have water damage and you’re about to have a bunch of repairs. You’re already replacing half of the bathroom, mind as well put back what you want, instead of what was already there. Styles change. ... No different than cars or clothing.
What does the process of remodeling look like?
First thing, you make a phone call and say, "hey... we want to do a kitchen remodel, what do we need to do?" We come out, measure and answer all the questions: What is it that you would like to do? Tell me about your vision. Give me your dream kitchen. If there’s a designer involved, there will be plans that have all of the specifications for tile and all those things. Depending on the contractor and how large the job is, it takes anywhere from a couple of days to a couple of weeks to get a bid together. Then we send it to the client. ... If they say "that’s great," then we set a date to start, we get a deposit and we build the job based on the plan. If they say, "okay, well that’s more than we want to spend." Then we ask, ‘what is it that you could walk away from that you're not as concerned about?’ We just go down the list ... because not all styles are the same in terms of cost ... and we go back and forth until we come up with a compromise.
How long does the remodeling process typically take?
Bathrooms tend to take somewhere between 4-6 weeks depending on size. If you have a really large master bathroom, it could take up to two months. Kitchens tend to take a little longer, typically somewhere between 8-12 weeks, but it also depends on the kitchen. Effectively, the more you tear up, the longer it takes.
What are some tips you would give to someone looking to remodel?
People make the mistake of not telling the contractor what they want because they tell them what they think they can afford. They may end up losing out. For example, what we really wanted was to open this wall up, but we didn’t think we could afford that, so we didn’t. Well it turns out if you would have taken that wall out, you could have cut $10,000 out of your job. Those kinds of things happen more often than people would like to admit. The builder should ask, "what is your dream?" Don’t ever start with what you think you can afford because it’s arbitrary. If the guy you hired is not willing to work with you, go find another one.
Take a moment to decide if you actually like the contractor that you’re choosing. Not just are they good enough. You can get references, look at pictures, you can check them out. But more importantly, do you like the guy? Because you’re in a partnership with them and if you butt heads every single time something happens, you are not going to have a fun time during your remodel. There are stressful moments and it’s not cheap, but there should be enjoyable moments. But if you don’t like your builder, it can go south fast.
What’s your advice to someone who’s currently debating remodeling or buying a new home?
Get a good Realtor. Get somebody who knows the neighborhood. Get a real market analysis on your house and discuss the differences. A good real estate agent can go a long way to help you make those decisions.
