Home ownership is a big deal! If you’re thinking about becoming a home owner, one of the first things you should decide is whether you’re going to build or buy. Let’s look at some of the pros and cons of each homeownership path to help you make the best decision.
Timeline
If you need to move into your new home quickly, buying is the best option. Of course, buying a home may still take some time; you’ll probably want to see many properties before making a choice. But it is still much faster than constructing a home from scratch.
Customization
If you want a home that’s tailored to your family’s needs, then consider building. You can work with an architect to design a house that’s perfect for you. Contrastingly, even if your family likes an already-built house, it may not have everything you want. Maybe you want an open-plan kitchen but the kitchen is boxed off. Or maybe you want a bathtub but all they’ve got is showers. You’ve got to consider whether you can live with these features of whether you’ll be renovating.
Unexpected costs
We can’t say whether it would be cheaper to build or buy a house because that all depends on the type of house you’re considering and whether you already own land. However, when you buy a home, the mortgage is usually pretty straightforward. When building a home, you may have to contend with cost overruns which can be caused by many factors like increases in material prices, an extended timeframe until completion, and design errors. You can plan to mitigate such mistakes but it’s impossible to avoid them completely.
Less maintenance
Once your new house is well built, you’ll have less issues with maintenance. Furthermore, many items in your house will probably be under warranty. So, if your new roof does start leaking, you won’t have to pay to fix it. Contrastingly, an older house, with older pipes, older electricals and older walls, is more likely to need repairs.
Community
Depending on the community you’d like to live in, there may not be many parcels of land left for you to build a house. If you prefer living in or around an urban area, buying may be much easier. Of course, this is all a matter of personal preference; some of us would be happier living in less populated areas where there’s much more land available for building.
Technology
You can configure your new home to be energy efficient, so that you can have lower utilities costs for as long as you live there. You can also design your home to incorporate any technology you’d like, whether that means cameras for security or a smart home of the future. Of course, you can make modifications to an existing home as well, but these changes can be quite significant and costly.
Buying or building your dream home is a deeply personal decision. Whatever path you take, working with trusted professionals will make the journey much smoother. If you want to delve further into these options considering your unique situation, you can always reach out to a financial advisor for assistance.
