So, you’ve decided to leave the rental market and get yourself into your very own home. From here you have lots of major decisions to make. But arguably the most important decision is the choice between building a house vs buying. At No1 Property Guide, we’ve been in the property market for many years, and pride ourselves on our ability to get people into the housing market when big banks and traditional lenders won’t help.
Choosing between building new or buying can be a tricky choice. And there are many factors that can influence your decision. So, to help you choose, Darren Walters, CEO and Founder of No1 Property Guide, has put together this article to highlight the differences between building a house vs buying.
At No1 Property Guide we specialise in creating affordable, no or low deposit house and land packages. The first step for helping you get into your own home is to calculate your borrowing capacity. From there our New Home Specialists can work with you and discover all your factual new home options. Fill in our pre-qualification form to begin your journey to homeownership today.
The Time Spent Building a House vs Buying
Let’s start with the most undervalued resource you have. Time.
Buying A House:
When buying a house, your first step will be to find one that suits you. There are a few factors that need to be taken into consideration when making this decision:
- Where would you like to live?
- What’s your budget?
- How many bedrooms
- How many bathrooms
- Size of the house
- Size of the yard
- Features & amenities you would like to have
After considering what you want in a house, the next step is finding one that meets your standards. And then, once you’ve found one you think matches everything you want, you’ll need to find some time to inspect it.
Open houses are usually only held on the weekends for a few hours. So, you’ll need to be seriously determined to view all houses that could be your new potential home. The housing market is competitive, and if you want to be in your newly bought home ASAP, you will need to be more ruthless or willing to spend more than other home buyers.
When you’re looking at existing homes, there are many unknowable factors that can hamper your ability to buy your dream home, including:
- Competing offers
- Seller reluctance
- Real estate motives
These factors can greatly extend the time and price before you get to move into your new home.
So, you’ve found the perfect house, made an offer, and it’s been accepted. Congratulations the house is yours!
Almost.
From here there are still a few things to do. Firstly, final approval and transfer of the funds. This is where lawyers and conveyancers come in. The paperwork for buying and selling a home is no small task and having an experienced conveyancer or solicitor to handle everything will make the process smoother and less stressful for you. Regardless of who you get to handle your paperwork, this process can take months, but it’ll depend on your situation.
Then, once your paperwork is done, you get the keys, move your furniture in and the house is yours!
Building A House:
When building a house, the first step is once again to figure out where you want to live. Darren Walters has relationships with property developers across Australia. This means we get early access to almost all available development projects around the country.
Once you’ve chosen your block of land, you’ll need to pick a floorplan you like, organise finance and arrange paperwork.
The Mortgage Managers at No1 Property Guide will work with you to ensure the finance process goes smoothly. We tailor your application to meet lender requirements to improve your chances of approval and speed up the process of getting you into your own home sooner.
Then, once your finances are done, building starts.
At this point, you can just step back and relax and let the builders do what they do best. You’ll receive regular updates from them, keeping you updated with the progress of your house build. The exact timeframe for your house build will vary depending on the kind of floorplan, as well as external factors like the weather. But at No1 Property Guide, we used fixed build time contracts to ensure your new home build is guaranteed so you can plan your move with confidence.
The property market is competitive, and if you want to buy in a high-demand area, you’ll need to be prepared to fork out more than you might have expected. Or be prepared to wait months or even years to find the perfect home that you can afford.
On the other hand, building your home eliminates the unknowable factors involved in buying your home. Once the location and design are agreed upon, you will know the build time for your house and the rough move-in day.
Location
Sometimes, where you live, is the most important part.
Buying A House:
As the population of Australia continues to increase, the land available to build on decreases. If you want to be close to a major city centre, you have little choice but to buy an established home. Although new developments are springing up all the time, most of them are away from the CBD.
The closer you live to the heart of the city, the more housing prices increase. This is just a compromise you need to make to live next to all the action. If money is no object, your options aren’t limited to just buying a house or building one. You can even buy a property, demolish the current house, and then build your dream home.
Of course, for most people, this isn’t realistic. You’ll most likely be stuck trying to find a home that fits your borrowing capacity while also being in the area you like.
Building A House:
When building, you are only limited to where the available land is. Finding land next to CBD is going to be a difficult task, but the further out you go the more your options open up.
While you might need to get out of the city to be able to build your own home, there are actually a fair few reasons why living in the suburbs is actually a great lifestyle choice:
- You’ll be away from the noise & congestion of city traffic
- More affordable house & land package options
- More indoor & outdoor space
- Cleaner air
Darren Walters has been in the property market for more than 20 years and knows the importance of building on a quality block of land. During these years he has worked with almost every property developer and has established a reputation for knowing what makes a quality piece of land that you can build your home on.
Energy Efficiency
Consider the long-term effects of energy efficiency in your home.
Buying A House:
Depending on the age of your home, it may have been built to a lower energy standard. In the past, builders were less inclined, or the technology was not available, to install energy-efficient products. If you are buying an existing home, you may have to consider whether the costs of heating, cooling or even lighting your home will end up costing you more than spending a little extra to build an energy-efficient new home.
Building A House:
If you’re building new, you get many more options when it comes to energy efficiency. When you build a home with No1 Property Guide, we ensure that the most up-to-date products are being used. Including giving you options for additional sustainable home options like solar panels, LED lighting and more.
Building your own home means you get to tailor the energy efficiency of your home right from the start. Want to know more about our green homes, and how you can save thousands on your bills by building new? Simply fill in our pre-qualification form and one of our New Home Specialists will get in touch to go over all your factual new home options.
Read More – Building a House vs Buying:
- Darren’s Top 6 Tips on How to Invest in Property in Australia
- Use a No Savings Home Loan to Get into Your Own Home
- What’s My Property Worth? – Accessing the Equity in Your Home
Convenience vs Customisation
Try to find a house with a design you like, or customise your home yourself?
Buying A House:
When you fall in love with the look and location of a house that’s on the market, it can be a fantastic feeling.
However, you will most likely have to make some compromises to find that perfect home. Perhaps it doesn’t have as many bathrooms as you wanted, or the layout of the kitchen isn’t to your liking. These are the kind of compromises you’ll need to make to buy an existing home.
Of course, renovations are an option. Remodelling your kitchen, adding a dividing wall, or renovating your bathroom can seem like an appealing option, but the costs involved can quickly stack up.
Building A House:
On the other hand, you get plenty of customisation choices when building your own home. Whether it’s tweaking one of our provided floor plans slightly to better suit your family or drawing your own floorplan from scratch, there is a complete range of design choices when building new.
Our New Home Specialists will work with you to ensure your dream home is built exactly how you imagined it.
Maintenance
Compare maintenance on building a house vs buying.
Buying A House:
The older an existing home is, the more likely it has underlying issues that will cost you in the long run. You’ll never really know what needs to be fixed until something goes wrong.
Your best option to discover any underlying issues with your potential new home is to have a building and pest inspection done. These experts will check everything around your home to ensure it has no hidden issues that could cost you thousands.
However, these checks can add up over time. If you’re getting a report done for every home you’re interested in, you may end up spending more than a house deposit just ensuring your potential new home is well-maintained.
Building A House:
When building your new home everything comes new, built from the ground up. So, you can rest assured knowing your new home has no hidden issues. And, to give you even more peace of mind, our team at No1 Property Guide will be there with you when you inspect your new home to ensure our builders are delivering everything to the high standards we expect.
You’ll also be given a guarantee from the builder, ensuring if any issues do crop up with your new build, they’ll come back out and repair them ASAP. The exact guarantee will vary depending on where you are, so get in touch with our New Home Specialists to find out what kind of warranty comes with your new home.
Ultimately, when it comes to buying vs building your new home, the decision is yours. It comes down to what works for you, what your borrowing capacity allows, and what’s best for your situation.
No matter whether you build new or buy existing, your first step should be finding out your borrowing capacity. Our simple pre-qualification process allows our New Home Specialists to accurately estimate your borrowing capacity. From there we’ll your factual new home options with you and help get your homeownership journey underway.
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