Get Even More Visitors To Your Blog, Upgrade To A Business Listing >>

Building a Home Vs. Buying a Home — Costs, Timeline, and Pros and Cons

 

There are a lot of people who are building homes nowadays. Thanks to the lower price of land here in the Treasure Valley and the slightly diminishing supply of homes, it has become a pretty big competitor for the ideology of Buying a pre-existing house. You have probably seen it happen wherever you are from. Seemingly, out of the blue, builders are in your backyard, getting ready to lay down house foundations. It is a beautiful thing for the residents and soon to be residents of the Treasure Valley as well as the local economy, but it does pose a very important question: “is it cheaper to build a house or to buy a preexisting home?” On that same note, many people aren’t sure how long it will take to build a home or what the true pros and cons of it are. Today, hopefully, we can answer some of these questions for you today. If you want to learn more, be sure to give one of our real estate agents a call or shoot them an email today and the will be happy to help you in any way they can.

Before we begin

Let’s start out by explaining that there is no one right answer to this question. A lot of factors will differ from state to state, city to city, and even neighborhood to neighborhood. So, realize that every home and every builder will be different so you won’t be sure which option is better for your budget until you do some research.

Now, there is also the fact that almost anyone may afford a custom built home, though there might be the possibility that it could be smaller or in a less than desiable location in comparison to a preexisting home you bought for the same price.

Lastly, it is good to think about buying and building like you would buying a new car or a used car. When you buy a brand new car that is hot of the assembly line, it is going to cost a lot of money. However, the moment you drive it off the lot it decreases in value at a more drastic rate than its actual quality does. So, even though a car is used or ‘pre-owned’ it doesn’t mean it is automatically in worse shape than the one you got off the assembly line. The same goes for a newly built home and a preexisting home, further complicating the issue of determining which is a better deal.

However, luckily, there are people out there who monitor prices across the nation, so we can get a glimpse at the difference in cost. The one we are going to talk about today is the National Association of Home Builders. Now, they published an article back in the beginning of 2016 saying that shows that the median price for a newly built home is are anywhere from $60,000 to $100,000 more than the median house price for a prebuilt home. Now, you have to remember that when it comes to statistics, there are a lot of factors that can mess with these numbers. For instance, if people who are building homes decide to build bigger homes than those who are buying preexisting homes then it is perfectly reasonable to expect the median price to be larger. So, these numbers don’t tell the whole story.

The real kicker though, when it comes to building vs buying, are all the costs they don’t tell you about when you build or buy a home. There are different expenses for each of these so, let’s take a quick look at each.

Hidden Costs of Building a Home

After the cost of the land, materials, and labor that go into building your home, another cost that is sometimes not included in the builder’s bottom line is landscaping. There are many builders that do not bother with making sure the landscaping on your home is taken care of making that another expense that you will have to take care of after you have paid for the house and moved in.

Another expense that goes hand in hand with your landscaping is fencing. Sometimes, when people are building homes in a new development, the builders will put up the fences for them. However, there are sometimes when they won’t worry about it at all and it will be up to you to take care of.

Hidden Costs of Buying a Preexisting Home

The biggest hidden cost when buying a preexisting house is fixing things when they break — ones that were already broken and those that break while you live there.

First of all, when you move into a preexisting home, you are more likely to find something that is broken than if you were to move into a newly constructed home, which can be very frustrating. You just purchased a house and now you are going to have to shell out some more money. If you were to build a home and find something already broken, on the other hand, the builder would come in and have it fixed (in most cases).

Now, let’s say you buy a preexisting home and then find out that something has broken, like an appliance, while you are living there, that expense will be on you. This is more likely to happen in a preexisting home since the appliances have been in use for longer than in a brand new home. Again, this is another scenario that you wouldn’t have to worry about when building a home because, even if something were to break, usually it will be under warranty for the first few months or years. So, you won’t have to worry yourself about it.

Buying or building a house, whichever you choose, is a big decision, so it is always best to talk one on one with a professional from the area where you are moving. So, if you are moving here to the Treasure Valley, our licensed and experienced real estate agents would be happy to help you figure out what options you have when it comes to home buying and building are concerned.

Sources:

https://www.nahb.org/~/media/Sites/NAHB/Economic20studies/home-sales/16-03-28/201602-new- and-existing-single-family-home-prices-US.ashx



This post first appeared on Real Estate, please read the originial post: here

Share the post

Building a Home Vs. Buying a Home — Costs, Timeline, and Pros and Cons

×

Subscribe to Real Estate

Get updates delivered right to your inbox!

Thank you for your subscription

×