For many people, buying a new home is one of the big “milestones” or benchmarks in your life. While having a place to call your own certainly does have an appeal to it, there’s quite a considerable cost that comes with it. While many people would love nothing more than to build their own homes, they often feel the price is just out of their range, so the settle on buying an existing home instead, thinking that they’ll end up saving more money in the long run.
However, through a culmination of data collected nationwide through housing surveys, you might be surprised to found out that this isn’t always the case. In fact, there are a number of reasons why building your own custom home is actually more cost effective than buying a resale home.
Maintenance
Did you know that you should be estimating at least 4% of your home’s value for maintenance costs annually? Most people don’t, which ends up causing problems in the long run. The older your home is, the higher that percentage climbs, and having that extra amount budgeted is necessary to ensure you have the ability to afford the repairs.
While do it yourselfers might be able to save a little in this regard, there’s still a need for materials, which can be costly. Fortunately, by building your own custom home, you can cut down on the annual maintenance costs drastically, in most cases, bringing the monthly repair costs from $100 down to $25, assuming that the resale home is in relatively decent shape, as otherwise, the amount you save could be even higher.
Utility
This is another big one that most people don’t take into account as thoroughly as they should. Utility costs are a huge expense for homeowners, falling just under the monthly mortgage in terms of expense. Between heating, cooling, and electricity, there’s a lot that can quickly rack up the energy bills on a month to month basis, especially when you’re living in an older home.
On average, people who build a custom home over buying a pre existing one save about 13 cents a square foot, solely in monthly electricity costs. While that might not seem like a whole lot, take that number, multiply it by the square footage of your home, then multiply that by 12 for the months in the year.
Take it a step further and multiply that by the number of years you live in your home and you can see how those 13 cents can quickly add up, and that’s only for electricity costs. Take into account energy efficient heating and cooling systems, new appliances, and programmable thermostats and you can see that building a new home ends up being cheaper in the long run by a considerable amount.
Built the Way You Like It
This is a second hand means of saving but it bears mentioning nonetheless. The issue with buying a prebuilt home is you’re stuck with it. The lay out, the exterior, and everything else.
If you want to change it to suit your own tastes, your stuck with the time and money costs of remodeling, which is often times fairly expensive. When you build your own custom home, on the other hand, it’s just that: custom. You get to pick everything about your home, from the flooring to the color of the exterior, meaning it’s just the way you want it when it’s time to move in. You get to save time, money, and energy and have a place that’s all your own.
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+Ken Uhrich likes houses. In fact he lives in one. You can drop him a line at the Custom Home Group “granite and quartz countertops” website.