Buying your first home is often one of the most stressful life experiences a person can endure. It’s also, however, one of the most exciting. When you’re beginning the search, there is a multitude of factors to consider, not least of which is determining if you want to buy a home that’s on the market already, or start from scratch and build one from the ground up. Here are a few key points every prospective home buyer should keep in mind when it comes time to decide on building vs buying a home.
The idea of a dream home
This is what most home buyers chase, isn’t it? When you work with new home contractors to build your next dwelling, you really have the ability to customize every inch of it. That means you end up with something closely resembling a true “dream home,” but of course, it comes at a price. It typically costs more per square foot to build a new home than simply to buy one already on the market. Although, you could say that you get what you pay for.
Saving money on monthly energy costs
The more places you can cut your monthly costs, the better. Sure, you’ll likely be paying a higher mortgage on a home you’ve built for yourself. But you can also outfit that home with the most energy-efficient appliances and lighting in order to cut down on your energy costs. Older homes, after all, tend to have outdated equipment that often costs homeowners plenty more to operate. Building a home allows you total creative control over your bills.
The need for more repairs
Here’s an important question to ask yourself in the building vs buying a home debate: What kinds of repairs are you looking at down the road? If you bought a home on the market, you likely got a proper inspection before you closed. What did the inspector say? Are there leaky pipes, faulty water heaters and renovated roofs to keep an eye on? Ask yourself a big-picture question: Will these demands drain your money in the end? Building a brand new home, when done right, typically won’t.
How much money you actually have available to spend
Of course, building your own new home can be more expensive. If this is the only factor you’re worried about, though, you might want to look into finding the right real estate agent to review your home-buying requests. These agents tend to know the inside opportunities that you, as an independent buyer, might not be privy to. One of the biggest benefits of using a real estate agent is that it just might help you land the biggest deal of your life on a new home.
Aesthetics and playing the waiting game
This one is secondary to your financial needs, but it’s still an important factor in the equation. New homes tend to have freshly planted grass, which means you likely have a few years to wait before you can actually tend a viable lawn. These new developments also tend to be further out in rural settings, meaning you might be dealing with a longer commute. The winner of the building vs buying a home battle depends a lot on your particular needs and answers to these types of questions, so think about them.
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