Owning your own home in the United States has always been part of realizing the "American Dream," and this trend does not seem to change anytime soon.
In fact, in the latest analysis by Nerd Wallet, 32% of Americans said they plan to buy a house in the next five years, while 15% have bought a house in the past five years.
Americans do not intend to give up homeownership, which leads us to ask:
Are people looking for new housing plans to buy existing homes, or do they want to design and build their own homes?
If you are reading this house building guide, you might ask yourself the same question.
Is it worth designing and building your own home, or just buying an existing home and moving in?
There are nuances to building your own custom house or buying an existing house. If you are not sure which party you belong to, that's fine!
In this article, we will explore the advantages and disadvantages of both. We will also study the entire process of designing and building our own houses.
If you are excited when considering a building or buying your next house, please continue reading our house building guide.
Table of Contents:
Now that we have understood the pros and cons of building our own home let's look at the pros and cons of buying an existing home.
The following are some of the main reasons to buy an existing home:
Even if the average time to close a house is 30-45 days, it is usually faster than building your own house. As long as there are no significant problems, you should be able to move into the purchased house relatively quickly.
One of the most challenging parts of designing your own house is that you have unlimited options. Working with a custom home builder is helpful, but there are still many decisions to be made.
Most of the existing houses have built a beautifying environment on the property. Depending on age, there may also be mature trees or hedges. This usually means that you only need to maintain the existing landscape rather than designing and planting it.
If you are approved for a fixed amount of financing and have a specific housing budget, buying a house will become easier. When buying an existing home, especially when using a reputable real estate agent, there are few surcharges or budget surprises.
Since the house is already built, buying an existing house usually reduces stress and time. It does not require design work, floor plan layout, or contracting.
On the other hand, buying an existing house can eliminate most situations through a simple "what you see is what you get" method.
Although there are many benefits to buying an existing home, it is not always smooth sailing.
Here are some reasons why people tend to design their own houses instead of buying them:
Whenever you buy an existing house, you will face potentially unseen or unknown problems when you buy it. These issues include maintenance issues, but more challenging is health concerns such as asbestos, mold, or odor.
Before purchasing an existing house, it is best to have a licensed house inspector conduct a thorough investigation of the house. This allows you to understand any potential problems or maintenance issues before buying a house.
This includes roofs, water heaters, pumps, sewer systems, AC and heating units, plumbing, electrical and structural issues.
However, since the house and its components are not brand new and used, the existing house will always have more maintenance.
Although it is impossible to find a ready-made house in your "dream place," it usually takes more time and usually costs more.
Usually, cheaper houses nearby are priced accordingly due to where they are located, such as a less desirable area because of noisy highways, heavy commuting areas, commercial real estate, or other forms of intrusive buildings.
Older houses are generally less energy efficient in terms of electrical appliances and actual house structure. Leaking doors and windows or insufficient insulation can cause higher electricity bills.
If equipment needs to be upgraded due to low energy efficiency, this cost should be considered in the budget.
Because you are buying a house that has already been built, it is almost impossible to customize unless you are able and willing to retrofit an existing house. Although you can choose to remodel, sometimes it is easier to build your own house from scratch.
Ultimately, whether you want to buy an existing house or build a house yourself is up to you and your family.
Please continue reading some practical tips to simplify this task if you plan to build your own house. If you plan to buy an existing house, please feel free to continue reading!
Building a new house allows you to start from scratch and have a clean start. You can choose the options you have always wanted in your dreamer, customize and design!
Let us first look at the advantages of building a house by ourselves.
Whether you are designing your own house or using a custom house builder, it is exciting to think about the possibilities of building your own house!
When designing your own house, the possibilities for customization are endless. From the floor plan to the size of the closet, you can fully control every detail of the new house!
Custom house builders usually have mortgage subsidiaries or branches that provide financing for custom clothing. This includes prepayments, loan fees, and even interest rates tailored to your budget and circumstances.
Because you are starting from scratch, you can choose more options from the location. At this stage, it is essential to consider the needs and wishes of your family.
Do you want an urban or rural environment? What do you think is the ideal way to commute to get off work? Do you like a wooded or open environment? These are some of the questions that should be answered when choosing a location.
There is no better feeling than moving into your brand new home! You can fall asleep on the first night because it has never been used. You also don't have to worry about old roofs, bad smells, leaking windows, or other maintenance issues.
No need to worry that your house will soon become obsolete! Instead, you can design a modern-style house with updated features. Maintenance-free
One of the beauties of building your own house is that it should be maintenance-free for many years.
If it is built right, then you are able to enjoy your new home for years before you need to worry about replacing your water heater, roof, or other parts of your home.
These savings in maintenance costs are significant when you consider the cost of building your own home because older homes may require expensive maintenance or repairs.
Building a new house allows you to design and optimize modern technologies such as security systems, modern entertainment systems, and communications. Older houses usually need to be refurbished to match the newer technology.
Many older houses require repairs that are not covered by any warranty. However, when you build your own house, you must first provide a complete warranty for all building components. You can also choose to purchase an extended warranty for specific materials.
Many new houses are built to be energy efficient and have a small ecological footprint. Efficient houses require less energy to heat and cool.
They can also have high-efficiency hot water systems, low-flow sanitary equipment, solar energy, bamboo flooring, and other environmentally friendly designs.
Although designing and building their own house seems to be an ideal choice, most people still buy an existing house rather than build it themselves.
Although building a new house has many advantages, there are also some disadvantages.
Choosing a bad contractor
Whether you choose to work with a custom home builder or play the role of a general contractor yourself, your new home can only be as good as the builder of your choice.
Take the time to research the contractor of your choice. Read customer reviews, understand their guarantees, and find out everything possible about them.
Before starting the actual construction, a lot of paperwork and red tape are required. Most of the cases occurred during obtaining the necessary building permits and required inspections from local authorities with jurisdiction.
If the requirements are met, this process usually goes smoothly, but it does cause potential problems with documents or drawings. If these problems arise, it will postpone the construction schedule.
It takes a lot of time from the beginning to the completion of the new home. This schedule will only increase if you have to purchase land first.
The design, permitting, site preparation, construction, completion of work, and other miscellaneous items for constructing a new house takes a lot of time. Depending on the time and place of the year, the weather will also delay construction.
If you work directly with custom home builders, they will solve most of these problems for you.
Upgrades and additional fees will increase costs.
When you design your own house, it is fun to think of all the extra facilities you want, but these come at a price. Almost all functions in your home can be upgraded, but every function increases the cost of the new house.
Building a new house requires a lot of initial investment. You need to buy land and build everything on site. The construction of a new house also requires payment of permit fees and other costs.
Because the cost is based on materials and construction time, the price of a new house is usually fixed and not as negotiable as an existing house.
If you study whether you should hire a contractor (also known as a house builder), you will find many different opinions.
Many people use house builders to do most of the construction work, but let us quickly understand some of the pros and cons of using contractors:
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Cost considerations: Although the goal of a house builder is to get an average of 15-25% profit on a construction project, this does not mean that you save this cost immediately after building your own house and hiring your subcontractor.
Many custom housebuilders have teams that are made up of experienced subcontractors, strong construction teams, and wholesale prices when building houses. In this way, they can buy the same materials cheaper and build houses in less working time.
Therefore, if you build your own house, the estimated cost savings is close to 10-15%, which is the premise of assuming everything is normal. If something goes wrong, your savings will soon diminish.
Many homeowners know how much time, pressure, and schedule it takes to build a house. Find the preferred way to hire a reputable contractor.
Even if you rent a custom house builder for the project, it will help you know some of the necessary industries and types of jobs used to build a house.
This list is not included but can help you better understand the steps to make your dream home a reality.
External industry:
Internal industry:
As you can see, building your own house requires many types of transactions and experience!
Many contractors have their teams do most of the external work. They hire professional subcontractors to complete detailed internal decoration work, such as painting, flooring, etc.
When preparing to design your own house, you need to make sure you are not deterred by "option overload." Sometimes homeowners want to build their own houses, but they are at a loss for these choices, and as a result, they don't know where to start the design process.
Fortunately, you don't have to be a victim of option overload!
Here are some practical tips to guide you through each step of the design process.
Inspiration
Initial design
Construction
Designing and building your own house is exciting!
It requires work, time, and planning, but it will result in you decorating a fully customized house precisely as you and your family want.
If you hire a reputable contractor, the process should be almost painless and stress-free. There will always be mistakes in construction projects, but knowing that there are experienced house builders around you will give you peace of mind.
For more than two decades, we have been making the dream house of our customers a reality. We cherish every customer during the design, construction, and inspection process.
If you are looking for a custom home builder in Houston, Texas, San Antonio, Waterfront Realty, or other parts of Central Texas, please contact us immediately. We look forward to working with you in the process of designing and building your dream home!
