Should You Buy a Home or Build a New One?

Image: Leonid Mamchenkov (cc)

If you and your family want to move out of your current house but don’t know whether to buy a home or build a new one, look no further. There are pros and cons to both options but by considering each idea thoroughly, you’ll be able to make the decision that is best for you.

The Benefits of Buying a Home

The big pro of buying an already completed home is pretty easy to figure out: you don’t have to pay to build it. But there are also some other benefits to buying over building. For one, you don’t have to wait as long to move in. If you’re really dissatisfied with your current house and want a new place immediately, buying might be the path for you.

Another benefit of buying over building is that you have a template to work from in terms of interior design. With a new home, everything comes from your mind’s eye which can be a little overwhelming for some people. When you buy a home, you know ahead of time what space is available, how the rooms are laid out, how much yard space you have, etc. For some families, this is a more desirable situation. If, however, you know exactly what you want your house to look like, building a new home may be the better choice for you.

The Benefits of Building a New Home

When you choose to build your own home, you get a say in every aspect of how your house will look. You get to decide how many bedrooms you want, how many stories the house will have and what kinds of kitchen features will be installed.

In addition to custom designing the interior of your home, you also get to design the exterior of your home from the get-go. You can choose the siding and roofing and even where you want the windows and how big they should be. The possibilities are as endless, as long as you can finance your custom-made dream.

The Disadvantages of Building a New Home

Financing your new home can get rather pricey. Not only do you have to purchase the land, but you also have to pay for the construction of the house itself. Then there’s everything inside the house. You need to pay for plumbing, electrical hookups and heating and cooling systems. And then you have to pay for landscaping. That sounds like a lot, right? Well yes. But building a home may be the better option when you consider the disadvantages of buying a home from someone else.

The Disadvantages of Buying a Home

The benefits of buying a home may, at first glance, appear to outweigh the cost of building a new one. However, when you consider how much money most people spend fixing up their recently-purchased houses, building doesn’t seem so pricey. According to the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES), homeowners in 2011 spent $79 million on household furnishings and equipment alone.

So while, at first, it may seem cheaper to buy rather than build, you need to consider the additional costs that you’ll rack up after purchasing someone else’s house. After you change the floor tiles, fix the leaks, buy furniture that fits, repaint, etc., you end up spending much more than you originally planned. Rather than buying an okay house and piling money into it over time, you might want to consider building the house you’ve always wanted right from the start.