Are you thinking of buying a new construction home in Austin? Well, I’m going to help you break down the pros and cons of buying an existing inventory home versus building one from scratch.
So let’s discuss inventory homes first. Now, the big pro of the inventory homes is that it’s almost built, usually you can get a home that’s already been framed sheet rock, some of them might only be two months or so away from completion. So the good thing is that you can actually see the product that you’re gonna get, you can walk into it, feel the space, touch things, look at the title and stuff up close to make sure that you really love it. Also, you don’t have to wait so long to get into the home. The other thing is that you have more bargaining power as a buyer, because whatever the price is of that total home, it’s similar to a resale home, you can make an offer on it and see if you can negotiate a little bit down on that price with the builder or if not ask them for some extra discounts or incentives and credits towards the closing cost.
Now the con is you can’t change anything in that home. So if you love everything about it, but you hate the backsplash that they picked in the kitchen, it’s too little too late, you just have to deal with it, you might be able to rip it out and pick something different once it’s yours. But you can’t change or pick anything that you like, once it’s done, it’s done. And that’s the final price of it.
Now if you’re building from scratch, the pros are that you get to pick whatever you like you get to choose everything from choosy your lot and location in the neighborhood, you get to pick your own floorplan and designs, you can customize it. And then you get the fun part of going through the design center, choosing your floors, lighting, everything you want. So you get a house that is perfectly customized just for you.
Now the con is depending on where you’re building and the size of the home, it could take eight months, it could take a year. If it’s a truly custom build luxury home, it could be 18 months by the time it’s all done. But normally for masterplan communities where you have a model home and a builder that’s cranking out houses expect anywhere from eight to 12 months or so on average. So if you can wait and be patient building is fun, but for those that are on a budget, or maybe they’re renting and tired of renting, inventory might be a great way to go. Now you don’t get to discount the floorplan price on the new build. But you can still ask the builder for Design Center credits. So maybe when you go to the design room, you get a credit back to give you more buying power and purchasing power there. You can also ask for lender credits or builder incentives towards the closing cost to help bring that overall cost down. But in general, you probably pay a little more when you’re building it completely new from scratch than when you pick one of the builders existing inventory home.
