When the time arrives to buy a home, many home buyers must make a choice. Should they build a brand new home or buy an existing home? While some people find the idea of building a home exciting, others aren’t quite so brave. In fact, some people think that building a home doesn’t make any sense at all. They worry that building a home will be fraught with unexpected costs, hard decisions, and situations that they are not equipped to handle. Here are a few things to consider when making the decision:
Buying Ready-Made Homes
One of the major advantages of buying an already-built home is that because the home is already built, you know exactly what you are getting when you buy it. Plus, the purchase price includes the land it sits on and a lot of other potentially expensive items like appliances, sprinkler systems and landscaping. And, although the real estate market is always changing, sometimes you can find a great price on an existing home, and it will already have most of the features that you want. If it doesn’t, you might be able to add them at a later time. Another selling point is that most buyers are eager to move in as soon as possible, and they can do that right after they pay for an existing home. Reasons like these make buying an existing home less stressful when compared to stress associated with building a home.
Building Custom or Tract Homes
Creating a home from the ground up can be a wonderfully satisfying experience if all goes well. If you build a bonafide custom-built home, you and your contractor can work together to choose unique designs, interesting materials, and modify the size of your home to suit your needs. Based on your needs and budget, you can add anything you want to your brand new home. For example, you can add an amazing feature such as a curved, wrap-around iron hand railing designed especially for your home. In that case, you contractor may need to find a company that specializes in pipe bending services, since the needed material will not be readily available in stores or catalog. Such items will add to the unique beauty of your home.
However, a custom-built home can take a long time to build because unexpected problems can arise, including delays or changes in permit approvals, inspections schedules and crew availability. What’s more, unexpected building costs can add up, such as increases in the price of wood, appliances or other building materials. For reasons like these, contractors are usually unable to stick to their initial estimates. Those unexpected costs can add up to a lot of money over the course of the building project. The costs to build a home, but the average price to build a new single-family home in 2009 was $377,624. The majority of that price tag came from buying the lot and building construction costs, which totaled to $299,102.
Another type of home that home buyers can build are tract homes. These types of homes are situated in planned communities and are also brand new construction. Although buyers can only choose from a limited selection of materials, designs, and features, the major benefits of a new tract home are that not only is the home brand new, but the costs are better controlled and are known right upfront.
Things to Know
If you decide to build a home, remember to keep an eye on your builders’ initial cost estimates, since they can go up after the projects begins. If you decide to buy an existing home, make sure to get inspections before your purchase or finance, and get a home warranty.
