Homeowning is one of the monumental steps that happens in a person’s life. It’s not the route everyone takes, but for those who decide to enter into the journey of homeowning, it’s often one of the biggest and most expensive decisions a person makes. But which route is the better route to take to get your dream home? Buying an already existing home, or building one from scratch?  

Unfortunately, there are many factors to take into consideration when making that decision. It’s one of those things that is not just black and white, it has many grey areas.  

Buying

Buying an already existing home has many benefits to it. As far as time frames go, it takes considerably less time to purchase an already existing home rather than building one from scratch. Of course, sometimes a home needs a little updating or TLC, but you’re still likely to be able to live there while you work on it. 

Often when families are on the hunt for a home, a lot of their drive is neighborhood based. And not often are you going to fall in love with a neighborhood and find a piece of buildable land in it for sale. I’m not saying never, but it is a rare situation. And because it’s a rare situation, when a buildable lot in a desirable neighborhood does go on the market, it’s usually listed at a higher price and doesn’t last long.  

Also, a big consideration in this decision-making process, is cost. It’s generally cheaper to purchase an already existing home than to build your own. Unless you’re over in Beverly Hills trying to buy Cher’s old home. The average cost of purchasing a home in the US, as of April 2017, was $368,300. Whereas the typical cost range for building a home is between $169,425-$447,644. That cost is not factoring the price of the land in. Now of course, those figures are just a US average and vary greatly depending on location and the type of home you’re looking for.  

Perhaps the biggest factor for people though is getting a home that’s exactly what they want. Purchasing an already existing home, you’re less likely to find exactly what you want especially in an older home.  

Building

Building your own home has many benefits to consider as well. Like previously mentioned, you can design the home to be exactly as you want it. But, being particularly picky about making it perfect to your imagination can drive the cost up. Wanting specific colors or shapes can make an object, such as a lighting fixture or tiling, cost much more.  

But while we’re talking about price, there’s a notable point to make in building a new home. While the initial cost might be greater, in the long run you could be saving money. When building a new home, you can build it with energy efficient items and materials.  

Another point we mentioned before, is time. Building a home from scratch is time-consuming. And living in an area with unpredictable weather can drag deadlines out further than expected. Sudden snow storms where we get hit with multiple feet of snow, when it rains heavily for a week at a time etc. Deadlines are more of rough guidelines than actual expectations.  

Sometimes, you enter the homebuying process with a clear vision on the route you’d like to go, only to end up in a completely different direction! This is a very big life step, one that should be taken with caution and hopefully influenced by someone with the knowledge that can help you end up somewhere you love, with some money still left in your pocket! You can contact any of our agents if you have any questions.