Build or buy a house: the pros and cons of both options

Buy a finished home or build from scratch? This difficult choice arises before everyone who plans to improve their living conditions and become the owner of their own home. Our advice site invites you to figure out together what the pros and cons of building a house and buying a ready-made one.

Let’s start by buying a finished home. Let’s list the advantages of this choice:

• Saving time. There is no need to wait until all construction work is completed, which may take a year or even two. If you still have to wait for the house to shrink, and only then do the finishing work, then the housewarming will have to wait for exactly a couple of years. And buying a finished house, with decoration, sometimes even with built-in furniture, allows you to move as quickly as possible. If you turn to a realtor, you won’t have to look for anything yourself. I told a professional what you need, and then just go, look, choose … Convenient and fast.
• You can choose a house in an area that already has all the infrastructure, including kindergartens, schools, supermarkets. The neighbors have already settled in, there is no construction site nearby.
• Communications have already been carried out, there is no need to deal with this issue.
• The owners themselves will tell you about the peculiarities of life in this house, you can learn about the transport interchange, and how to use a solid fuel boiler, for example.
• The territory adjacent to the house has already been ennobled, maybe there is a veranda, a gazebo, a garage, a summer kitchen, in general, everything you need in the yard for the comfort and relaxation of a family.

However, there are some downsides to buying a finished home:

• It is far from always possible to find the ideal option. Well, this is not the kind of house your family needs! There is no bedroom downstairs for an old mother, the children’s room is not next to the parents’ bedroom, but generally in the attic, and this is inconvenient and dangerous for kids. The bathtub is too small, the bathroom is far away, the kitchen is cramped, but you wanted it to be combined with the living room … There can be a lot of complaints about finished houses and their layout. Often, it is after looking at a dozen houses offered by a realtor that failed buyers decide – we’d better build what we need ourselves!
• The older the finished house is, the more problems may arise in the future. Even during a thorough inspection, you might be missing something. And in the fall it turns out that the roof is leaking in two places, in winter it will blow from the window in the nursery, and the boiler will refuse to work in a month … You never know, the house is already several years old.
• Price. In the case of buying a finished house, a margin, the seller’s profit, is added to the costs of building materials, arrangement, decoration. Yes, no one will sell their house cheaply, unless you have to make concessions and look for an option away from the big city, where prices are always lower.

Building your own home from scratch has the following benefits:

• You choose the project yourself. The house will definitely have everything a family needs – a kitchen-living room, a huge glazed terrace, a spacious bathroom, and two bathrooms, and a study in the attic.
• Costs can be stretched. There is no need to immediately give a couple of million rubles. At the first stage, expenses are needed to buy a plot, then we give money for the project, we buy building materials, we make an advance payment to the construction team. After a while, we begin to buy finishing materials, and the cost of arranging the site can be postponed until next year.
• New technologies are more energy efficient. You will definitely get a warm home thanks to the choice of modern materials, energy-saving double-glazed windows, insulation. New items on the construction market appear regularly, what a couple of years ago seemed exotic is becoming available to everyone.
• New materials for construction are usually more environmentally friendly, now this point is paid more attention than before. You will know for sure that the new house is absolutely safe for all inhabitants.
• A new home is easier to resell, experts say. According to the realtor, if you invest in the construction of a house in a prestigious and developing area, in a couple of years it can be profitably sold.
• Building a house is usually cheaper than buying a finished building of the same size. Let us remind you about the seller’s margin again! In addition, during construction, part of the work can be done with your own hands, thanks to the numerous tips of the site, also savings.

But building a house also has significant disadvantages:

• It takes a long time. Even if everything is planned out, construction is a rather lengthy process. The weather can also interfere and, although construction can continue even in winter, torrential rains and spring thaw can become a serious obstacle and delay the completion of the project..
• It’s complicated. Of course, you can hire a team of professionals and pay an architect for architectural supervision. However, you still have to delve into all the details and control the process. And if you decide to handle it yourself and save money, then the construction will take up all your free time, believe me.
• There is a risk of choosing unscrupulous builders, and it is more difficult to change the team already during the construction process.
• There may be additional costs and problems associated with the purchase and supply of materials.
• Finding a suitable land plot not “at the end of the world” can be as difficult as finding the perfect finished home.
• Perhaps there are no benefits of civilization around your site yet. Or new buildings are being actively constructed. There is a risk that for a couple of years you will have to listen to the noise of construction equipment and drive up to the house on a dirt road.

The choice, of course, is up to you. If you already have a suitable piece of land, then building a house is a logical, optimal option. If you need to move urgently – buy a ready-made house, making the right choice. It all depends on the specific circumstances and needs of the family. We only note that the purchase of a ready-made new building can neutralize a number of disadvantages, which we listed above..