Buy unfinished or not: all important nuances

There is a different attitude towards buying an unfinished house. Someone is sure that they will save money and time on this option, someone is categorically against it, others are hesitant. Meanwhile, there are a lot of offers to buy an unfinished house, Our site of advice decided to sort out this issue with you.

Let’s first define what may be meant by an unfinished house:

1. Building “for finishing”. That is, in fact, all construction work has already been completed, you can deal with the decoration of the facade and premises. Not a bad option, such houses are often offered by developers in cottage settlements, rightly believing that the new owners will be able to make all the decoration for themselves. It is like an apartment in a new building, with supplied communications, but with “bare” walls;
2. “Box”, that is, just walls, without a finished roof, without windows, utilities. Sometimes the foundation is called unfinished, which the owners managed to build on the site and stopped there..

If the first option, in general, is in demand among buyers, there are few questions with it, then the second case of buying an unfinished house should be studied more closely.

When deciding to buy an unfinished building, you need to find out three most important points:

1. For what reasons, the house has not yet been commissioned. Perhaps the owner found out that a shopping center, a motorway, or a landfill in general is planned near the site. Most likely, of course, the owners simply do not have the money to bring the house “to mind”, but there may be other reasons. For example, it turned out that the foundation was built with errors, and in the case of UWB, they can become fatal;
2. How long the house has been unfinished. According to experts, if more than two years is a risky purchase. Such a structure becomes illiquid, which the owners cannot realize in any way. Do you need to agree to an offer that no one has appreciated for over two years? Great question;
3. In what condition is it unfinished. Was the house properly mothballed for the winter? The portal has dedicated a separate article to this topic. If not, there is a high likelihood of problems..

An unfinished house must be inspected very carefully. What should alert you and make you refuse to purchase:

• cracks in walls and foundations;
• mold, mildew inside;
• wooden structures that have begun to rot;
• sagging roof;
• flooded basement.

All these problems will be very difficult, and often impossible to fix..

Another important issue is documentation. There are two options:

1. The documents were issued only for the land plot. In this case, unfinished construction will be considered just building materials located on the territory of the allotment. That is, the new owner, after the completion of construction, will have to deal with the registration of real estate on his own;
2. The owner himself registers the building as an unfinished building, after which it is possible to buy and sell it.

So be sure to ask the owners for the availability of all the necessary documents. It is highly desirable to see the project of the house that you have to complete. It is also important the presence or absence of permits for the installation of communications, in particular, gas supply, connection to the electrical network. If none of this is present, you will have a new problem, because the paperwork for utility systems is a long and costly business..

So, in order to make a decision to buy an unfinished house, you need to go through the following steps:

1. Invite a specialist to assess the condition of the object, the quality of the masonry, foundation, roof, existing partitions;
2. Make an estimate. How much it will cost you to complete construction, can build from scratch cheaper;
3. Examine the documentation, including for the site, the intended purpose of which should allow the construction of a residential building;
4. Assess the layout. The box is already ready, maybe the house is small or too large for your family, the rooms are tiny and inconveniently located, there is no way to attach a garage or sauna;
5. Assess the location of the site itself, views, the presence of all the benefits of civilization and transport accessibility.

Let us state that it is advisable to buy an unfinished house if it is in good condition and has been mothballed for no more than two years. Otherwise, most likely you will just get a land plot with a building that you have to demolish and do all over again. Well, this option also has the right to be implemented if the owners offered a very favorable price, trying to get rid of their unfinished construction, which has become illiquid..