Building Vs. Buying A New Home: Which One Should You Go for?
Home buying involves a lot of choices, one of them being whether to buy an already established home or to build yours from scratch. Owning a home is a huge investment and a way too big a financial commitment to make a wrong choice. Everyone will have their own reason for choosing one over the other. However, each option has its own upside and downside which you should take into account. If you are unsure whether to buy or build your own home, this article presents you with a guide on the benefits and drawbacks of each approach.
With so many factors to consider, let’s get right into it.
Buying An Existing Home
Many people consider the option of buying a home first when looking to move into a new home. This is primarily backed by the reason of cost and convenience. It is important to buy from a trusted real estate company if your final decision is to buy a new home. Here are some pros and cons of buying an existing home.
Pros Of Buying An Existing Home
1. Convenience
The convenience that comes with buying a new home is probably the most obvious catch. Unlike buying land and building yourself, when you buy an established property, you are free from the hustle and bustle of taking care of managing all the details that go along with building from start to finish. You wouldn’t have to deal with the headache of land acquisition, registration and litigation issues, hiring contractors, deciding on a home design, chasing contractors on delayed work, daily monitoring of events and others. Dealing with these can be very stressful, especially if you are busy with work and other things. For this reason, many people make the decision to buy an already existing home to save themselves from all these troubles.
2. Cost-saving
All other things being equal, it’s cheaper to buy an existing home instead of building a new one. This is true in most cases but not all cases. You can save yourself some money when you decide to go this route. An alternative look at cost-saving has to do with home comparison. When investigating established homes to buy, you can compare the prices of multiple properties and choose the best deal. Big real estate companies have the manpower, tools and equipment, experience and some economies of scale so they deliver quality products at an affordable cost as compared to building the same by yourself.
3. Less waiting time
Buying a pre-existing home is a quicker process. Buyers on a tight schedule such as relocating for a new job will feel the need to buy a move-in ready home. Building a new construction home will require some time to complete and if you have a short time horizon, then buying an established home will allow you to move forward quickly. Sometimes the property you are buying might not be readily available but will take about two months or some few weeks to complete, which still has a shorter waiting time than building from scratch.
4. More options with location
If you would like to be in a particular neighbourhood, buying an established home will be a better option. In most developed areas and neighbourhoods, all suitable lands have been turned into homes, making it nearly impossible to get a lot to build your own home. Buying an established home can place you into your desired neighbourhoods with close proximity to friends and family, schools, work opportunities, public transport, restaurants, entertainment hubs. You have the flexibility to investigate properties in different areas and select the location that will match your interest.
5. Landscaping
An existing home will probably have mature landscaping, eliminating that expense of planting flowers, starting a new lawn, garden and waiting for trees to grow. Some even have a swimming pool and other things that you might otherwise have to pay for a new build.
Cons Of Buying An Existing Home
1. Customization
The most obvious disadvantage of purchasing a home may be that you may not get exactly what you want. It may be difficult to find a home with the exact floor plan as you desire, you may wish to have the master bedroom on the first floor, get a jacuzzi in all bedrooms etc. An estate may use one particular painting colour and style for the exteriors which ought to be maintained by homeowners within the estate, not giving individuals the flexibility to change the exterior painting of their home. In a nutshell, you may have to make some compromises when you decide to go through this option. It is however worthy to note that when buying from some real estate companies, they allow for some level of customization on some features, especially if it is under construction.
2. Time and effort
It can take you considerable time and effort to search for the right home to move in. When you settle for this option, you will have to do a lot of research, search the market for your desired properties, talk to real estate companies and agents, arrange a tour of the properties, get answers to all your concerns and other steps to help you make your final decision. If you are following this process for a number of properties, it will take you a lot of time and effort but in the end, it is worth it. You can make concrete decisions after going through the search.
3. Renovations
Unless you get a home that matches your preference exactly, if you have the time and money, you might want to re-decorate, remodel or landscape. With a newly built home, Most newly built homes, everything is fresh and up to standard and therefore, have low to no maintenance requirements. But depending on the taste of the homeowner, they might want to add a few additions to match up to their desires. Depending on how extensive the additions are, you might end up spending a lot more and practically having to build a new one anyway. Buying from a trusted, multi-award-winning company like Devtraco Limited guarantees you a home beyond the standard.
Building A Home
Just as with buying a new house, building a home yourself also comes with benefits and drawbacks. With so many factors to consider, let’s examine them one after the other so that you can conclude what matters most to you.
Pros Of Building A New Home
1. Absolute control
This is probably the biggest advantage in building yourself. You get exactly what you want. You get to personalize every detail of the house to match your lifestyle. From the layouts, flooring and painting to lighting, cabinets, sink and all the interior designs. Whichever dream you had for your home, building it yourself will give you the control and customization you are seeking and you don’t have to compromise on anything. When it comes down to materials for building, you decide on specific materials to use.
2. No competing buyers
There is usually less competition for buying land and building than for buying an already established home. Depending on the market, a home on the market may have different competing buyers bidding on the property. With homes getting off the market quickly, competition to get the best home at the lowest price can be difficult. Once you own a piece of land and want to build your own home, you won’t have to deal with any competition at all.
3. Create a more efficient home
New homes are built with energy efficiency in mind and If you are energy efficient minded, you can build a home that is more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly. You have the liberty to make choices throughout the construction to prioritize green architecture and sustainability in your new home by using green appliances such as energy rated electrical fixtures, plumbing fixtures, efficient toilets, windows and other efficient materials. Efficiency is good for our environment and it can save you a lot of money on utility bills.
4. Low maintenance
Since you supervise your own construction and everything is built to your standards and specification, you probably won’t have to worry about heavy maintenance and huge repairs. You get to start fresh as the first owner and enjoy the newness of every component in your home.
5. Satisfaction
Designing and building your own home will deepen your feeling of ownership over it. Because you were involved in the whole process of construction, you’ll experience a definite feeling of emotional connection and a level of satisfaction to living in a new home that you built. Satisfaction may also be in the form of getting exactly what you desired for your new home.
Cons Of Building A New Home
1. Stress
building a home can be very stressful. It requires a hands-on approach from beginning to finish. When starting the whole process, you’ll need to find land to build on, prepare the land, decide on the home layout, select fixtures and fittings, flooring, exterior designing, interior designing, electricals and so on. You will also be working with a variety of people to make your dream home a reality therefore you will need a lot of stamina to make sure that everything is done right. During the construction process, you will encounter lots of challenges that you need to overcome to stay on track. Managing all these details whilst staying within your budget takes a lot of time and effort.
2. Higher cost
One of the biggest drawbacks to building your own home is the higher cost. The bulk of the cost is likely to be building materials, excavation, permits and infrastructure, major appliances, and loans. You may receive estimates of materials and costs ahead of time but that is just the tip of the iceberg. You will be met with unexpected costs during the construction process. Hidden costs may sneak up on you and you to drive up the amount you spend on construction. Additional costs can add up as many homebuilders won’t include post-move costs like landscaping and sodding. You will need to ensure that utilities are set up to accommodate your home and sometimes they may not be easily accessible and you need to hook them up at additional costs.
3. Longer timeframe
If you have a longer timeframe, building your own home will work for you but the downside is obvious. It takes time. It takes between six to eighteen months to build a new home and within that time frame, you could be hit with a number of delays and complications. Construction of a new property cannot begin until all legal paperwork is signed which can also take some time. Building a new home doesn’t happen quickly therefore you may need to rent a property to live in while your new home is being constructed.
4. Location
Unlike buying an already established home, you may find yourself building in areas that are less desirable. This may not be true in all cases but the fact still remains for the most part. This is because all suitable land in prime areas and close to city centres have already been built upon. You may end up building in areas that are far away from the city centre, schools, entertainment hubs, family and friends. On the flip side, if you happen to get land close to the city centre or in prime areas, it will be very expensive as the place is already established with high demand for the property.
Choosing to build a house or buy a new one both have positives and negatives. It all comes down to your personal taste and situation. Buying a new home can help you move forward quickly although you may have to compromise on some things. But it is less stressful and convenient. When buying from Devtraco Limited, our home purchasing process is stressful free and you are assured of high-quality buildings with some level of customizations if you wish to.
Building on the other hand will give you total control to realize your dream home but you should expect a hectic process that will take your time, money and effort.
