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Buying vs Building Your Dream Home: The Best Option?

Echo Chang

Echo Chang

6 mins read

620 views

Congratulations! Planning about your dream home is indeed a significant milestone that can potentially benefit your generations to come. Doesn’t it feel great to imagine that you are now going to be entirely in charge of your new residence without any fear of getting a notice from the landlord? In fact, you may even rent a portion or whole of your dream home to get a nice, return on the investment..

Owning your dream home is indeed a great achievement, but with it comes a serious question — should you build your luxury dream house from the scratch or you should look for a property to purchase and renovate it as required?

To help you make this decision, we will weigh the pros and cons of both options. As luxury home builders with over 15 years of experience, we have helped our clients in either case and here is what we observed:

 

Building Your Dream Home From Scratch

Investment in your real-estate, especially the one where you intend to live, is a long-term one. There are various aspects to consider that may not be relevant in the present such as your family planning, ideal location, neighborhood, and room for renovation in the future. So, when you are going to make your dream house, perhaps for the one and only time in your life, why not to unleash all your creativity?

 

PROS:

• You get to make a fully-personalized floor plan

Your luxury dream house may have a vintage look with the classical, old architecture or maybe the latest designs that are rarely found in the current market. Either way, you have full control over the utilization of the space. You may customize the construction area and leave rest for the kitchen garden or even a vast lawn to cover your home from all sides. In any case, this is the best option if you have some really unique ideas regarding your dream home. Not to mention the opportunity to build a sustainable luxury home, while sustainable tech might be more expensive upfront, did you know that it will actually save you more on maintenance cost per square foot in the long run? But we’ll save that topic for another day.

• There is complete transparency of construction material

Whether you like it or not, but the material used to construct your house can significantly affect its overall durability, weather protection, and strength against any natural disasters. For instance, houses made with red bricks are always cooler than the ones made with concrete blocks, regardless of the weather outside. So, this is the factor you can pretty much control while building your house. It will also pay off to spend a little extra on more quality materials as they are bound to have a longer life span.

 

CONS:

• It may require a lot of patience

So, first, you purchase a plot regarding your preferences for location. Then you make some serious effort to find a contractor who can understand you’re the floor plan in your mind and ensure its accurate execution. Then you have to wait for like a year or more to get your home ready. In short, building a house is a long, tedious process. However, you can relieve much of your burden by hiring a professional first-class construction service From choosing the best location to getting your ideal floor plan constructed, if you don’t have a background in architecture, it’s always best to hire a professional for first-class construction services. After all, this is your life long dream.

• It may cost you more

You purchased a land. Then that followed with consultancy costs of architect and contractor. After building, you are also responsible for every single accessory — not to forget the procedure of getting your utility connections in place. So, this all may demand a decent budget that can increase with any of the extra luxuries you may add into it. But, wait — your money is still worth the final, masterpiece house you get from your dreams to reality, isn’t it?

If budget is your ultimate deciding factor, we are experts in building forever/legacy homes and know the right areas to place your money in. Get in touch with and we’ll help you come up with an estimation cost.

 

Buying Your Home And Renovating It To Your Dream Home

So maybe you come across a house for sale that somewhat matches your ideal floor plan. Is it worth buying it and then renovating to meet your dream house criteria? Let’s see in a while.

 

PROS:

• It’s quick and a hassle-free

You liked the property, and you make an offer for it — that’s it. Unlike building your house, there is no need to spend days searching for the right land, meeting the architect and micro-managing several aspects such as finances and labor. Perhaps the best part is that you can move to it immediately and get any renovations done while living there.

• The location often has existing developments nearby

If it is an already established home, chances are that you can find many key facilities nearby. A good number of people are already living in your neighborhood, and it is generally a well-developed area. This is particularly beneficial for those who prefer a residence in city-hub-like regions. Not to mention that buildings have a long life span, it usually takes years before you start seeing defects and problems in the construction. Buying a home that has been around for several years will give you greater insight to the quality of the building and surrounding area that you are purchasing.

 

CONS:

• There is a significantly higher down payment

While purchasing your house, you may have to clear most of the amount first before getting to the mortgage phase. So, you will probably need a huge amount upfront. While building, you may divide the payments over a period of time as the construction progresses. Nevertheless, this ultimately depends on your home-loan scheme.

• You may have to skip some of your preferences

Let’s face it — renovation may not offer you the exact features you want in the first place. There can be some complications in the construction that make renovation even more expensive than building it from scratch. Otherwise, sometimes you just do not have enough space or authority to make those changes and have to work within the limitations available. So, if you are flexible with the architecture and overall structure, this may be something you can neglect. A great example would be purchasing a warehouse and converting it into the space you want. Warehouses offer more flexibility than any other property as they are mainly open space. Most of the renovation budget on the other hand will be gone towards changing the warehouse materials as they are usually not sustainable for family living.

 

Conclusion

As we have seen, most of the pros and cons in both cases largely depend on your personal priorities and preferences. Buying and renovating your home may be convenient and less costly, but it may not be exactly the same as your dream home. Similarly, constructing from scratch can end you up with a brand-new full customized home that meets your exact criteria which comes with extra hassle and more strategic planning.

Still can’t decide? We understand that the renovation process in general can be a headache. Which is why we have made it our mission to find out what is best for our clients. Contact us today for further consultancy or book a free consultation call at your preferred time  and discover the options you have to make this milestone even more significant in your life!

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