One of the most common questions I hear from people who are looking to buy a home is whether or they should buy a new or pre-owned house.
Let’s talk about it. Today, I want to look at the advantages of buying a new house compared to a pre-owned house.
Price
This should come as no surprise, but you will always pay more for a new home than a similar pre-existing home. Typically, a newer home will go for about $30,000-$40,000 more than an older home. With the way construction costs are right now, that number may even be larger.
That being said, you will pay much less in maintenance on a new house than you will an older one. It will not take many maintenance issues in an old house to eat up the money you saved by opting for an existing house.
Because things are less likely to break or need emergency maintenance, insurance on newer homes is much less expensive. This can be a huge cost factor, especially right now because insurance rates have skyrocketed recently.
Also, new houses are built to be much more efficient and eco-friendly than older houses. Almost all newer houses have better insulation so that it takes less energy to keep warm. Essentially, new houses are intentionally built in such a way that will lower your utility bill from month to month. Even if it is only mildly lower from month to month, this will make a huge difference over time.
Finally, if you get into a neighborhood early, your house is almost guaranteed to appreciate over time. New developments are usually built in phases and the builders will increase their prices as new phases are built. If you can buy before phase three, your house will almost certainly be worth much more than you bought it for in a relatively short amount of time.
All in all, new houses cost more upfront, but over time they will save you a lot of money. In most cases, newer houses are well worth the extra cost just because of the future savings alone.
Customization
With new builds, you get to pick out what you want to put in the house. Instead of buying a place and redoing it the way you want it, you can get it built the way you want it. This will save you a lot of renovation time.
I will say that you need to be aware of how much you are customizing your house. It is really easy to over-customize your house. Some people go to the design center and spend double the average of what most people spend in there. If the average cost is $40,000 and you spend $80,000, when you go to sell that house, you will likely lose a lot of that difference. This is because you can’t price your house too much higher than the rest of the houses in the neighborhood because no one will buy it, even if it is truly worth that extra money.
Pros of pre-existing homes
There are some benefits to buying a pre-existing home. The biggest one that comes to mind for me is that you know what the neighborhood will be like. The neighborhood has already been established and had time to mature. This means that there is much less chance that the value of the homes will fluctuate. Also, the trees will be richer which means more shade which is very nice in the Texas summers.
A major pro of pre-existing houses, especially for those in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, is that the house is there. Right now, building a new home can take much longer than usual due to supply chain issues. If you are looking for a place to live sooner rather than later, you may need to look at pre-existing houses. Unfortunately, this is often more time-consuming for you than building a new house would be because you should take time to look at the property and you may get caught in a bidding war with someone else for it. If you lose this, you may have sunk a lot of time into a house you will never get. With new builds, it’s much easier because, even though it may take some time, you know you will have a house as they are sold on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Conclusion
There are many advantages to buying a new home instead of a pre-existing one, including lifetime costs and the customization available. However, sometimes buying an older house is a perfect option for you and your needs. Ultimately the choice is yours.
Whether you are looking to move into a new house or a pre-owned house, we would love to help you! Don’t hesitate to contact us about selling your current house and finding something new.
