Strategic renovations will add value to your house in Ottawa’s red-hot real estate market
With the meteoric rise in housing prices in Ottawa, many homeowners are asking themselves should they stay or should they go? Should they sell their houses now to profit from them, or should they stay in place because they don’t want to buy a new house for an outrageous price?
No matter what they decide, a well-considered renovation can either increase the value of their home in the current red-hot market or serve to make them more comfortable places to live in and enjoy for years to come, says Dan Seguin, who co-founded renovation company NeighborBuild 15 years ago with his brother Pat as a companion business to their highly-successful landscaping company NeighborScape.
“There are two opportunities in this type of market,” explained Seguin. “You can either stay in your home and continue to build value in your property through renovation by using equity that you can take out and put back into the home or, if you’re trying to sell, you can add some renovations to get solid price action on your house by adding nice amenities that people want.”
There are many renovation possibilities that will not only enhance a home’s value, but also make them more enjoyable for their current inhabitants, said Seguin, but he believes that the most impactful enhancement is simply to add more living space.
“An easy renovation that is really solid for increasing home value is adding square footage,” said Seguin. “We can look at Vancouver for some perspective with their housing bubble. The prices of homes there started to depend purely on square footage and not even on what they looked like.”
Square footage can be added in the forms of an
addition to a home, finishing an unfinished basement or building a three-season room, something that Seguin says can be especially economical because it doesn’t require insulation for the winter months.
Seguin added that homeowners should keep scheduling in mind when planning a renovation and insist their renovators give them a realistic timeline, something that he says NeighborBuild prides itself upon.
“We dedicate our crews to specific projects and we try to leave those guys on those projects until they’re complete,” said Seguin, who added that they’ve been adding work crews to take on more projects and are generally planning them out three or four months into the future.
With demand so high for renovation work right now, Seguin suggests that prospective customers contact NeighborBuild as soon as possible for a free consultation.
For more information, visit
If you’re trying to sell, you can add some renovations to get solid price action on your house by adding nice amenities that people want.