You’ve been going back and forth and have finally made the decision that now is the right time to buy your first home! Your credit score is perfect, and you’ve saved up enough money for a down payment. Now it’s time to decide on the type of home you want. Do you want to buy an existing home or new construction home? Let’s talk about new construction.
A lot of first-time home buyers think they can’t afford a new construction home, but there are many options available other than settling on a used home. New homes are available in many price ranges and in areas where you want to live. New construction can even save you money compared to used homes.
Unless you’re purchasing an existing inventory home, with a new construction home, you can participate in the whole process. For example, you can choose your favorite type of flooring. Buyers moving into a subdivision can sometimes even pick the lot they like best. There is a lot of flexibility for first-time home buyers to kind of put their personal signature on the product. You can’t do those kinds of things with a used house—it’s just not possible.
Newly constructed homes use energy more efficiently. They tend to have a tighter-sealed building envelope that helps prevent conditioned air—cool air in the summer, warm air in the winter—from escaping. Features that create this envelope include higher-efficiency insulation, doors, and windows.
New homes often include green systems and appliances—like high efficiency stoves, refrigerators, washing machines, water heaters, furnaces, or air conditioning units—that homes built years ago might not. Existing homeowners can always retrofit their property or buy higher-efficiency appliances, but doing so requires a potentially significant expense.
The features of newly constructed homes should also hold up better than those of existing homes, which may have experienced years of wear and tear. People will buy previously-owned houses and then the carpet needs to be replaced or it needs to be repainted, or it needs new appliances, or the flooring is shot. When they buy a new home, it really is new.
Today’s new homes are engineered specifically to minimize maintenance requirements. When you buy a used house, you don’t know what you’re getting, you might have to do a lot of maintenance. Try to look down the road and make things as easy as possible for yourself, so you can enjoy living there and not have to be saddled with maintenance.
In addition, a new home is generally fully warrantied by the builder for a minimum of a year and most of all the other components are warrantied for extended periods. When you buy a resale home, even if you have a home inspection done, it still does not turn up hidden defects that you don’t find out about a lot of times for two to five years.
One final advantage, new home buyers may be able to take advantage of mortgage financing perks made available through their builder. And, in many cases, a new home builder has the ability to offer even more perks to help you buy a new construction home, you just need to ask a sales associate about any available specials offered in that neighborhood. The seller of a resale home is not going to do that for the buyer.
Long Lake Ltd. has been helping first-time homebuyers become happy homeowners since 1997! We’ll walk you through the loan qualification process, help you find the perfect home for your family, and be right there with you every-step-of-the-way.
Contact one of our sales associates today to find out how we can help YOU realize your dream of owning a new home!
