Buying a home is one of the most exciting experiences of adulthood – and it’s also one of the most stressful. As well as being the biggest financial outlay of your life, it’s where you’re going to spend the rest of your days, where your children will grow up and quite possibly where you will grow old.
No wonder house-hunting can be such a long and arduous process!
There is another solution to deciding the houses that are on the market – custom building your own home. Here, we explore some of the benefits and drawbacks of this option.
Time
It can take a while for a regular sale to go through, between the bidding process, negotiations and the legal process – but once all that’s done they keys are yours and you can start furnishing and moving in straight away.
With a custom build, once you secure your financing, you’ve still got a long way to go and a lot of decisions to make. Be sure to talk to your contractor about timelines and check in regularly to make sure you’re on track.
Creativity and freedom
If you’re walking into a ready-made home, your options for changing around the layout of the house are fairly limited – so make sure you’re happy with it as it is, and you can put your own stamp on it when you’re decorating.
With a custom build, you have much more freedom and the opportunity to really create the space you want; if you’re a foodie you can opt for a larger kitchen, fashion fiends can design their dream walk-in wardrobe, lovers of a lie-in can find the perfect mattress and create the comfy bedroom of their dreams, and sun-worshippers can make sure they have plenty of light coming in through east-facing windows.
It’s possible to make your dreams come true, with a house designed just for you.
Budget
Is it cheaper to build or buy? That depends on many factors, not least the area you want to live in. Generally, though, it’s considered cheaper to build your own home rather than buying, and this is especially true if you’re considering building on family land and don’t have to buy a site.
You’ll need to work closely with a company like FC Developments who will help you to understand the potential costs of building, and the potential opportunities and challenges that come with it.
With a turn-key home, all you need to do is furnish and decorate which makes life really easy, and fairly straightforward to budget for; when you’re building from scratch you need to think about a lot more – the cost of materials, transport, labour, and so on. Delays can happen and they can add to the cost – so be sure to have a cushion in case you go over budget.
When it comes to buying or building your home, the time involved, money and creative freedom are likely to be your biggest considerations – don’t rush the decision – your perfect home is waiting for you in the very near future.
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