Renovate smarter. Move with clarity.
Before you spend money on either one, MAX or MOVE™ puts both options in front of you, costed and compared.
Every advisor answers
from inside their own lane.
Ask a broker whether to sell and the answer is usually yes. Ask a builder whether the house can be changed and the answer is usually yes as well. Each answer is correct inside its own trade, and none of them is the comparison you actually need.
Roula Bakis is a licensed Massachusetts broker with a degree in environmental design. Artemis is not a design-build firm and does not hold the hammer. It is a brokerage that keeps the comparison in one place and brings in independent architects, builders and engineers when a property needs them.
The agents who run that comparison hold the firm’s DesignerAgent™ designation, licensed agents with design and construction backgrounds, so the design view and the market view arrive together instead of a year apart.
Four questions the comparison answers
How do you want to live?
Not whether you want to sell. How you want to live, for how long, and what would have to be true for that to work here.
What can the house become?
What the structure allows, what it would take to get there, and what that work would cost to build. A scope, not a wish list.
What does it cost, and what does it return?
Current value, renovation cost, resale potential, maintenance and the long term financial picture, worked out on the same sheet.
How do the two options compare?
A clear side by side plan, so the decision gets made before the money is spent rather than after.
The best move isn’t always selling, and it isn’t always renovating. It’s making the decision that’s right for your future.
Roula Bakis · Westwood Living, August 2026
What a side by side plan covers
Nine things, weighed together rather than one at a time.
- What the home is worth on today’s market
- What the house could become, and what the structure allows
- Estimated construction cost for that scope
- Resale value of the renovated house, not only the current one
- Accessibility opportunities, if staying put is the goal
- Maintenance and carrying costs across the years you plan to stay
- Local market conditions at the price you would be buying into
- How you want to live, and for how long
- The long term financial picture of each option, side by side
Our goal isn’t to persuade you to stay or convince you to move. It’s to help you understand your options.
Roula Bakis · August 2026
Sometimes the house can change with you.
The same comparison answers a narrower question: whether this house can hold the years ahead, and what it would take to get it there.
Questions about
renovating or moving
Should we renovate before selling, or sell the house as it is?
That is one of the two options MAX or MOVE™ costs out. Some work returns more than it costs and some does not, and the answer changes with the house, the scope and where the market is that season.
Can you tell us what the renovation will actually cost?
An estimated construction cost for the scope you are considering is one of the nine things the comparison weighs, and it is enough to set the two options against each other. A binding number still comes from a builder bidding real drawings.
What happens if the answer turns out to be move?
Then the search starts, and it can start with the homes that are not on the public market yet.
We are asking because of how the house will work over time, not because of a renovation?
Same comparison, narrower question. Whether the house can hold the years ahead, what it would take, and what the alternative looks like. That version has its own page.
Where do architects and builders come into this?
Earlier than most people expect. Artemis works with independent architects, builders and engineers while the options are still being compared, so feasibility and cost are part of the decision rather than a surprise after it. Artemis can review an architect’s plans and advise on scope and sequence.
Start with the comparison
One conversation about the house you have and the life you want next.
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