A family has outgrown the house. They love the street, the children are at the school, and they have no idea whether adding two rooms costs more or less than moving to something bigger three miles away.
They have been discussing it for two years. Nobody has ever put the two columns side by side for them.
The decision they are making
Not architectural. Financial and personal, with an architectural component. A practice that helps them make it properly is the one they appoint if they extend and recommend if they move.
When extending usually wins
A good location, a school catchment, a plot with room, a house with structural potential and a family whose need is space rather than a different life.
When moving usually wins
A plot that cannot take what is needed, a location that is the problem, a house fighting the brief, or a cost of extending that approaches the cost of the house.
When neither is obvious
Which is most of the time, and where an hour of honest arithmetic is worth more to the client than a year of discussion.
Lay out the moving costs
Agent fees, legal costs, taxes on purchase, survey, removals and the gap between what they sell for and what they buy. Families consistently underestimate the total.
Lay out the extension costs
Construction, professional fees, permissions, contingency, finishing and the cost of living through it, which is the ground in budget conversations architects should have first.
Be honest about added value
That extensions rarely return their cost pound for pound, that ceilings exist on what a street supports and that the value is usually in living there rather than in the resale.
Raise the disruption question
Months of building work with a family in the house, or one difficult day of moving. It is a real factor and families weigh it heavily once somebody names it.
Raise the timescale honestly
That extending takes a year from first meeting to finishing, and that moving can be faster. Families with a deadline need to know.
Ask what they actually need
Space, a different layout, light, a downstairs bathroom or somewhere to work. Frequently the requirement is a reconfiguration rather than an extension and it costs far less.
Offer the third option
Remodelling what exists. It is cheaper, faster and frequently better, and almost nobody suggests it because it produces a smaller fee.
Say plainly when they should move
A practice that advises a family to move has lost a project and gained a reputation. Those families come back, and they tell people.
Raise the planning uncertainty honestly
Extending assumes permission that has not been granted, and families compare a certain purchase price against a project that might be refused. Explaining how that risk is assessed early, and what a refusal would mean for the money already spent, is what turns an optimistic comparison into a realistic one.
Offer a paid comparison session
An hour, a fixed fee, with the arithmetic and a view. It is a genuine product, it converts, and it filters the enquiries in project enquiries architects should qualify early.
Learn from what people actually ask
The enquiries themselves show which comparison matters most, which is the practice in reading your chatbot conversations, and the same structure as warranty versus independent repair decisions.
Getting started
Publish both cost columns with an honest view on added value, offer a paid comparison session and capture the brief at any hour. SpideyChat for architects answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.