Oliver Baumeister von Bretten, Broker | Sotheby’s International Realty Canada, Brokerage

Important Things To Consider While Renovating a Condo

A person renovating a condominium unit.

It is essential to maintain and constantly care for the place you live in. If you are living in a condo, you need to be very cautious of any call to action that your condo could be throwing at you. One such call can be related to renovation. While renovating a condo is no easy task, planning in advance can make it a lot easier for you. Being well-organized with your ideas helps you to make the optimum use of the space you have. A detailed plan can help you with your condo renovations without any problems.

Here are a few important things you should keep in mind before renovating your condo.

  1. Get Acquainted with the Rules
    Every development project has different policies defined by the condo board. This may include some rules, regulations, or guidelines with respect to the renovations you may make to a condo. For instance, the material you can use, days and times of the week you can go for renovations, and etc. Staying on the top of these things will help you remain realistic with your renovation designs and get an easy permit for renovating your condo.
  2. Know Your purpose of Renovating The Condo
    Before renovating, you should clearly know the purpose of renovating the condo. Do you want to get it renovated for self-use or for resale or rent? It may seem like a very trivial question but will help you define priorities of the work involved. For instance, if you are getting the condo renovated for renting or for resale, deep detailing might cost you a lot, leading to low return on investment.
  3. Define Your Limits
    At times, condo renovations have certain limits concerning the architectural structure. Thus, it is essential for you to define your limitations while finalizing your condo renovation design. Consider the structural changes that are too hard to complete in your condo and come up with the renovation design accordingly. Be realistic about the plan you finalize.
  4. Be Flexible
    Be flexible about your ideas and notions of your condo renovation. You’ll need to be smart enough to consider the changes in the designs and stay in terms of the things that aren’t really possible in the renovation. Prioritize what’s really important for you for this will make you’re the picture clearer to you.
  5. Try to Maximize the Storage
    Condos often have very low or no storage at all. However, it is essential to have a place where you can store things. How about having a separate place to store your clothes or pantry items? If you consider from the point of view of resale or rent, this can be a factor to demand extra rent or sale price.
  6. Painting is the Key
    Paint can change the overall hue and aura of any space. Get your condo painted, especially if you are planning to rent it out or resale it. It will have a dramatic effect on the resale value of your condo. While choosing the colour of the paint, be sure that you focus on the requirements of the next user.
  7. Choose to Work with a Third Party
    If the condo you are planning to renovate has a strict condo association, we recommend you hiring a third party and working with them. This will mean you’ll have a person who will deal directly with the duties of the contractor so that you can focus more on the functional details of your plan.Having a person dealing with the contractual duties will ensure that the materials arrive in time and in the right quantity. Overall, this will guarantee a smooth project without any hassle.
  8. Stay Somewhere Else During the Renovation
    Although you can very well live in the same condo at the time of renovation, it can lead you to deal with a lot of things, all at the same time. Moving to a temporary space, for the time being, will not only keep you at bay from all the unnecessary complexities but will also give you peace of mind.
  9. Expect Obstacles
    We understand your excitement but wait until the contractor has completed the inspection of your condo. No matter, whatever hurry you do, there are bound to be delays due to a variety of reasons which you must consider. Save yourself from unnecessary frustration and expect the obstacles beforehand.
  10. Hire a Cleaning Company
    We all know the kind of mess contractors create. Don’t expect them to clean up all that once they have completed their work. We don’t expect you too to do it all by yourself. Thus, hire a cleaning company that can make the process much easy for you while you concentrate on more important tasks.
  11. Mind the Budget
    The prices of properties are already touching the sky, maintaining them costs no less than a fortune. Thus, keeping your budget in consideration is better while you finalize things to renovate your condo. This would help you in determining the cost and keep your budget intact.

 

Final Thoughts

With proper planning, you can have a smooth and successful condo renovation. All you need to do is, keep a few things in mind and you should be good to go.

Know all the rules, regulations, and policies involved in the renovation of your condos before taking any other step in this direction. Once you are done with that, everything will fall in place if you have a detailed plan. Renovate your condo by keeping in mind the above-mentioned pointers.

 

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