Without a doubt, home is a magic word for everyone. When you’re all spent up in the office, you certainly would want to just laze around and be at home. But home means different things for millions of Americans. While the majority of Americans own a home, millions of homes in the Land of the Brave are rented.
Stats show there are over 82.8 million owner-occupied homes in the U.S. and only 4 .8 million are renter-occupied. Certainly, there are big advantages to owning a home. You can do with it as you please and you have greater leeway to improve the property.
But if you’re on the lookout for a house, you may spend an inordinate amount of time planning how your actual property should look. That may be a waste of time. Let’s face it. Before you actually look into the details of your future home, you need to decide whether it’s best for you to shop for an already existing home or to actually build a new one.
Both of these choices have their advantages. However, it’s best you weigh the pros and cons of each against your own personal circumstance. At the end of the day, the best decision comes down to what best fits you. Listed below are key takeaways on how buying a finished property stacks up against building one.
The Merits of Buying an Existing Home
When you buy an existing home, you enjoy greater convenience and lesser costs. Certainly, it all boils down to the specific home you’re buying. But the thing is once you get the pre-approval nod of your lender, you can start the ball of the buying process rolling: pick out a property and make your offer.
Plus, relying on a dependable real estate agent should help you streamline the process. The professional will aid you in narrowing your choices while ensuring all the paper works are in order. Once a deal is closed, you can enjoy the property in as short as a month, maybe two.
It involves quite a few steps but overall the benefit of being able to move in right away can be buying a home’s biggest draw. It’s definitely a good choice if you’re tight on the schedule. For instance, people who just relocated for a new job assignment or when your kids have just transferred to a new school.
The Merits of Building One
What a building a new home offers is an entirely different advantage compared to buying one that’s standing already. And that’s customization. You get exactly the home you want.
The ability to decide on how your house looks like is a dream come true for many. For them, it’s simply worth the hassle of waiting. That means you can build one that’s as eco-friendly or as energy-efficient as you want. You can factor in the latest standards in HVAC and air filtration for instance.
If you want to be as healthy as can be, then building a home is logical. You can choose the material that suits your tastes best, something you can’t do when buying an existing one.
The Down Sides for Both
Existing homes have an established neighborhood. That can be good or bad for you. If you belong to a noisy one with a high crime rate, that can make your choice a questionable one in the long run, especially if you have kids.
A good solution to this is to buy homes in a master-planned community. Not only are other owners properly vetted, but also there are rules and regulations to keep things in order. Even better, some of these communities offer both: a land where you can build the home of your dreams or ready-to-move-in properties.
A good example here is peppercornhill.com.au. Their top-of-the-line master-planned community offers a quality living of the highest standards. The long line of satisfied clients should speak volumes on their track record.
The biggest drawback to buying an existing property is you may need to factor in the added cost for renovations and updates. That can certainly add up. You certainly are getting someone else’s design. So expect it won’t be as perfect as you want it. In short, it’s a hand-me-down that may need improvements.
That truth is painfully obvious if you’re buying older homes. They may be functionally obsolete, needing a lot more attention than you may be willing to give.
Building a home is a tedious long-drawn-out process. You not only have to make sure you have a dependable builder to make sure your specifications happen as you desire, but you may have to shell out more as time goes by. It’s easy to go over your budget when building one.
There’s no wrong or right decision when it comes to buying an existing home or building one. It all boils down to purpose. Ask yourself: What do you need the property for?
If you’re saving to build a better future home for your family, then building a new one is spot on as you have the benefit of time while staying in your old home. But if you’re into business and would like to earn some, flipping an old house can be a major source of income, and fast.
