Build Them When you Can

The first house that I ever bought had already been lived in. The biggest bonus with that is simply that your landscape has had time to grow and the front yard and back yard are not completely bare. Another bonus is If the house additions and layout is exactly how you want it no extra work is necessary. When looking for a house to buy the layout is important. In the back of our minds, we realize that we can change anything we want. With that image in my head, I also realize that all additional changes will cost money.

How much money is available? How much money do we want to pay for improvements? Normally, we prioritize our improvements. If it is a major project, we will find some service professionals and get estimates. If we have the money to go forward, we make it happen. All that happens after that is that we start saving for the next project in line. We have only had one move where we actually had funds to go right into projects. This was after the move from Indiana to California.

This was a rough move as it took a long time to sell the house. We went from new construction to new construction. The nice things about new home building is that you do get to pick a lot of different options. We get to pick our lot and location. We get to pick our entire interior design including carpet, tile,appliances,colors,kitchen design etc. This is nice. On my part, I only care about where the electronics and televisions are going to be set up. The downside with the new home is the outside is completely bare. Most building companies put in front yard sprinkler system and put in sod. You might get a small tree and empty backyard.

As this is downside with the yard, it is an upside for the creative mind. It is nice to be able to create your own dream landscape. If you put in a pool, you can completely create the landscape that surrounds it early on. Going back, we had funds for projects when we got to California. We had sold some items that gave us about $12k to work with. Of course, then you get the quotes on the projects you would like to add. We got a few pool quotes. Our low quote was $40k, so there was no pool. Then, we went to the general landscaping side of the backyard. We were looking at palm trees, a waterfall, new sod, sprinkler system and some other plants. I know this doesn’t look like much. When we were done, the $12k was down to zero. I can say that the backyard looked pretty decent when it was all done. Anyone looking could tell it was a new home as there were growing gaps between the plants. Overall, it was a very nice design.

I don’t know if there is a preference between building a new home or purchasing an existing home. There are times when purchase price completely impacts that decision. If I cannot afford to build a new home, we are obviously not building one. Right now, we cannot get an existing home so we are in the waiting mode. My preference is to build. I like to pick the options and have the home look like we want it to look upon moving in. Plus, once we pick the new home and go into contract, it is ours. When we bid on the perfect existing home, there is a good chance that we won’t get it.