The honest answer is that it is usually neither. A full renovation is rarely the right move, and selling a home completely untouched is rarely the best outcome either. What tends to work is targeted, cost-effective preparation, guided by two things: the actual condition of your house, and what you are competing against in your neighbourhood.
So the first question is what you are actually selling. An original post-war bungalow in East York from the 1940s or 50s, with no insulation and mostly untouched, is a completely different decision than a relatively modern 2006 Mattamy home in York Region, which is a different decision again from a 1960s or 70s bungalow in North York or Unionville with aluminum wiring. The right call for one of those is the wrong call for another, and it also depends on whether the homes for sale around you are turnkey or in similar shape to yours.
That said, my default leaning is not to renovate. In my experience, renovations rarely return what you put into them, and often you recover less than you spent, though how it plays out depends on the cost, the condition of the home, and what you are competing against. There is also the problem of cohesion. When you renovate one part of an older home, a fresh bathroom in an otherwise dated house, it rarely flows, and buyers notice. On top of that, most buyers today want to put their own stamp on a place and will redo things regardless, even in newer homes, so there is a good chance whatever you install gets torn out anyway. The exception is a genuinely cohesive, turnkey renovation that matches what the market currently wants, and that is expensive and hard to get right.
Where I would put the money instead is in making the home show as clean, cared for, and well kept. In my experience that matters more than most people realize. Paint is one of the best-value things you can do, and it tends to help both the price and how quickly a home sells, so do not go too cheap and make sure the colours flow through the house. Beyond that it is deep cleaning and small handyman work: clean windows and baseboards, caulking, no mould in the showers, clear eavestroughs and working downspouts, degreased exhaust fans, patched and painted wall damage. None of it is glamorous, but together it tells a buyer that the person who lived here took care of the place. An older, original home that is clearly loved actually has a compelling story. Someone raised a family there and kept it well for decades, and the buyer can picture doing the same and putting their own touch on it.
A recent listing of mine is a good example. The owner had lived in the home for about forty years, and it was mostly original with a few updates. We did not renovate it. We decluttered, removed some built-in storage that had been added over the years to open the space up and make it feel more airy, painted over the dark wall colours, and had a handyman repair the grout, the tiles, and the bathrooms. Then we staged it in a way that suited the house. The result showed pride of ownership, and the presentation flowed straight through to the photos and the marketing.
That is the mindset: not renovating for the sake of being able to say it is renovated, but making thoughtful, cost-effective choices so the home presents as a cohesive package. Floors are a good example. If the flooring is damaged right at the entry, where it sets the tone for the whole house, it is usually worth addressing, and sometimes the cleanest fix is to pull matching flooring from a closet or a low-visibility room to patch the entry, then use a replacement floor in the spot you borrowed from, where it matters far less. These are small, inexpensive, detail-oriented decisions, not a gut job.
Selling as is is a different question, and the term deserves care. Marketing an entire house as 'as is' can make buyers suspicious and raise their sense of the risk, which can work against you. Genuinely significant condition problems can also complicate a buyer's financing or insurance, though the words 'as is' on their own do not automatically cause that. Who is selling matters, too. In an estate sale, the seller or executor often has limited personal knowledge of the property and may not be able to speak to its condition, which is one situation where selling as is can be appropriate. If you are the owner and you know your home, you are usually better off dealing with or pointing out a specific issue, a sump pump that is not working, say, than labelling the whole house as is. What you actually have to disclose depends on the facts and the applicable law, so treat it as a conversation with your agent, and where appropriate a lawyer, rather than something to settle with a single line in a listing.
So should you renovate or sell as is? For most homes, the smart money is in between: targeted preparation that fits the condition of your house and how it stacks up against what else is for sale. If you want, I will walk through your home, tell you honestly what is worth doing and what is not, and build a plan that gets the most out of it without spending on work you will never recover.