So it’s time to buy a home. You’ve been hitting the streets now for weeks looking at home after home, only to be disappointed with all of them. It looks like you’re never going to find your dream home and you start to think that you should just build the thing yourself. So, should you? Here are four things to take into consideration when it’s time to make the call.
Layout
Do you like open concept? Would you be able to live in a home that had it, even if you don’t like it? Or do you absolutely need one bedroom in the basement and two bathrooms on the upper floor – even if you can’t find them on the market? When you buy an existing home, the chances that the layout are going to be exactly what you want are slim. The finishes might not be what you want, and there might be walls where you’d rather there not be. Yes, you can borrow against your home equity (now or in the future) to do remodels and renovations; just be sure that’s something you’ll want to do. With an existing home, you need to be a little bit flexible in the way the home itself is set up or be prepared to pay to make the changes.
You’re Own Building Skills
Are you good with a hammer? Have you taken on renovation and remodeling projects before? With an existing home, you might want to make several changes, and it could be very costly to hire a contractor every time for the job. To save yourself some money (and not eat up all of that secured line of credit you’re using to get the job done) you might want to do it, or at least some of it, yourself. It could be cheaper in the long run, and you’ll have a real sense of pride in your home. But first, you need to have some basic workmanship skills.
Home vs. Work
You also need to take into consideration the area you currently live in, where your work is, and how close you want to live to work. If you live in a big city such as Toronto and you work right downtown, you might not want to move to the outskirts of the city, an area that will require at least an hour to get to work every morning (and then an hour every night to get home.) But, this is what you’ll have to do if you want to build that home yourself. In any major city in Canada there is very, very little room in the major urban centres and downtown cores. And there’s certainly not enough room to build a house! If you really want to build and you’re okay with the commute though, living in the outskirts could be perfect for you.
Cost
So which is cheaper – to build or buy? That depends. It depends on the features in an existing home, and it depends on the features you choose for your newly built home. Building a home will probably cost at least $200,000, not much more than many of the existing homes on the market. But, you probably won’t be able to build one for $100,000, one of the lowest prices you can find on the market today for existing homes. Remember though if you’re building, that you will probably also have to buy the lot of land that the home is being built on.
