Renovating for Yourself vs. Resale: The Question to Answer Before You Renovate

Before you renovate, work out one number: what percentage of the project is for you, and what percentage is for resale. That single answer changes almost every design and budget decision that follows — which is why it's the first thing I ask in a design consultation. 

I ask every client the same question early on, and it catches most people off guard. 

Out of a hundred, what percentage of this renovation is for you, and what percentage is for resale? 

It sounds like a throwaway question. It isn't. It's probably the single most important thing I need to know before we draw a line, because the answer changes almost every decision that follows. 

What prompted this? A call about one more round of works 

Last week I spoke with a couple who've owned their Federation home for thirty-odd years. They've renovated in stages, fixed the core, extended the back, built up, and redid the garden. Classic long-game renovating. Now they're in their mid-sixties and thinking about one more round of works: better bathrooms, moving a staircase that's been "temporary" for twenty years, and finally getting the house to a point where it feels finished. 

When I asked the question, the answer was 80/20. Eighty per cent for them. They plan to be there another eight to ten years. 

And here's the thing: if they'd said 80 per cent for resale, I'd be giving them completely different advice. 

Why does renovating for yourself vs. resale change the design? 

Renovating for resale is a numbers exercise. You're designing for a buyer you'll never meet, so you play the percentages: the configurations the market wants, the finishes that photograph well, the spend that returns its cost and not a dollar more. It's disciplined, slightly ruthless, and honestly a bit boring, which is exactly what it should be. 

Renovating for yourself is a different job entirely. Now we're designing how you actually live. Where you work from home. Whether your adult kids boomerang back for six months between houses (theirs do and most people's do these days). Whether an ageing parent might need a bedroom with its own ensuite in a few years. None of that shows up in a sold-price report, but it's the difference between a house that works and one that just looks like it should. 

Most projects sit somewhere in between, and that's fine. But you need to know where. A couple staying ten years shouldn't compromise their daily life for a hypothetical buyer a decade away. And someone selling in eighteen months shouldn't spend $80,000 moving a staircase because it's always annoyed them. 

Is the problem really that you need more space? 

The other thing this couple said stuck with me: "too many bad bedrooms, not enough bathrooms." 

That's the case for most established homes in Sydney's older suburbs. The problem isn't size, it's that the spaces don't match how families live now. In their case, the option we'll test would probably give them slightly less floor area than they have today, but a house that flows properly. Purpose tells you that trade-off is worth making. Without it, you'd never cut floor area on purpose. 

Should you fix repairs now or wait for a master plan? 

They also had a practical question: the dormer windows need repairing. Do they just fix them now, or wait? 

My advice — and it applies to anyone with a list of niggling repairs on an older home — is don't repair anything significant until you have a master plan. Going through a proper design and feasibility process might tell you those dormers get rebuilt anyway as part of the bigger works. Or it might tell you the smartest move is to sell and not touch a thing. Either way, you've spent a few thousand dollars on planning instead of tens of thousands on works you'd redo or regret. 

Days and weeks spent planning save months and serious money later. I've never once seen the opposite. 

The takeaway 

Before you talk to any architect, us or anyone else, get honest about your answer to the question. Are you building this for you, or for the person who buys it from you? What's the split? 

You don't need drawings to answer it. But every good drawing starts there. 

Thinking about a renovation and not sure where to start? Ballast Point runs a fixed-fee initial consultation: we scan your home, research your site and planning controls, and give you two 3D options with budgets — enough to make good decisions before committing to anything big.