Wrestling with the "Sell or Remodel" Decision

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Wrestling with the "Sell or Remodel" Decision

Before you post the "for sale" sign or start ripping up the bathroom floor, visit www.remodelormove.com. This new website from homeowner advocate Dan Fritschen will help you make the right decision.

If you're a homeowner looking for a change, you will be subjected to some pretty intense sales pitches. Thinking of moving? Commission-minded real estate agents are all too happy to put your home on the market and find you a nice expensive new one. Remodeling on your mind? The contractor you call about your new bathroom may well suggest that it's time to upgrade your tired old kitchen, too. And the specter of upwardly-creeping interest rates adds a sense of urgency: You'd better make a decision" the right decision" now. Aaarrghh ! Where's a confused and conflicted homeowner to turn?

Dan Fritschen has a suggestion: www.remodelormove.com, a homeowner support resource that provides objective and unbiased advice on making the "remodel or move" decision.

"Too many people make the decision to move when they would actually be better served, financially or emotionally, or both, by simply remodeling," explains Fritschen. "And of course the converse is also true in many cases. My website is a safe haven for homeowners who know they want a change but aren't sure exactly what that change is. I have no agenda to promote. I simply want to provide impartial information so that individual homeowners can make the decision that's right for them."

The website's centerpiece is the Remodel-or-Move Calculator. This free online analysis tool helps to determine what's financially best for you by calculating the cost of your hypothetical remodeling project vs. the cost to move. Then, it helps you determine your "gut feeling" about the decision based on your feelings about your neighborhood, your home, and the remodeling process. Taking all of these factors into account, the calculator makes a recommendation geared specifically to you, your lifestyle, and your unique needs.

But the calculator is just part of the story. The site is a clearinghouse of practical information. Fritschen and company offer twenty or so articles on various aspects of moving and remodeling: good reasons to move, good reasons to remodel, the advisability of various projects based on length of time you plan to stay in your home, etc.

Consider the following statistics and facts, excerpted from www.remodelormove.com :

* More than 6 million families spend $60 billion to sell their homes each year, many because they choose not to remodel. Other homeowners spend $170 billion to remodel instead of move. Either way, most families will spend tens of thousands of dollars.

* A very common misunderstanding is that moving is free. In truth, it can cost up to 15 percent of your home's value ($30,000 for a typical $200,000 home) for expenses associated with getting your home ready for sale, real estate sales commission, closing costs, moving expenses, and the cost of decorating your new home.

* It's easy to overspend on remodeling, for two reasons. First, since many homeowners remodel only once or twice in their lives, they aren't educated remodeling consumers and don't shop around for the best prices on the work to be done. Second, they get caught up in the excitement and spend money on upgrades and features that they don't really need or want. So take the time to become educated . . . and shop around.

Remodelormove.com also offers a wealth of links to reference materials and resources that address such topics as remodeling, home purchase/selling/financing, moving, home valuation, home plans, and decorating.

So who should visit the website? According to Fritschen, any homeowner who knows he or she wants a change but wants to avoid the wrong decision.

"Don't underestimate the importance of this decision," he urges. "Too many people see their friends move to a new home or install an extravagant new kitchen and immediately want to do the same. But it's easy to see the glamour and not so easy to see the hard work and money that's involved. Both choices can be expensive and cause major upheaval. That's why you should empower yourself with plenty of information before you take the plunge. Then, when the dust settles, whether it's dust from the moving trucks or the contractors, you can enjoy your new home without regrets."

Remodel or Move, is an independent organization whose mission is to empower consumers to make the best remodel and move decision. To achieve this mission, Remodel or Move provides reference materials, evaluation tools, and no-nonsense advice to all consumers. Remodel or Move promotes no agenda other than the interests of consumers.

The organization's reference materials and educational components include:

· The website: www.remodelormove.com

· The Remodel-or-Move Calculator: an online analysis tool that provides homeowners with a specific recommendation: to remodel or move

· Private consultations

· Group seminars

· The book: Remodel or Move? Make the Right Decision, in bookstores nationwide, Spring 2005

About Dan Fritschen:

Dan Fritschen is the creator of remodelormove.com, a homeowner support organization that helps homeowners become better informed so that they can make the right decision on whether to remodel or move.

He started his company after twenty years of remodeling his own homes and helping others make "remodel or move" decisions for themselves. Because he is neither a realtor nor a remodeler, he is qualified to offer pragmatic, unbiased advice. Fritschen's goal is to make homeowners aware of three important messages:

1. Selling your house COSTS money.

2. There are MANY right ways to remodel, some expensive and some cheap.

3. It is better to move than to over-improve or do an "ugly" remodel.

To help homeowners make these remodel or move decisions, Fritschen employs some of the same methods that he has learned during the past fifteen years while helping some of the world's leading high-technology companies.