I blame it on HGTV, people are used to seeing all these stunning homes on HGTV with all the modern updates and they want them for themselves. Old is out, new is in.
Here are 12 reasons I tell my clients why they should buy a new construction home.
They must be convincing because 75% of my buyers do end up building a home rather than buying a resale.
#1 It’s Your House & Your Design
You decide what lot to build on, what floor plan works best for you, you go to the builder's design center and you get to pick out every last detail of the house.
You choose your cabinets, your counters, your floors, whether you get a tub or a shower, tile or hardwoods. You can decide whether to add a porch and what color your house is.
Whatever is your personal taste, you get to pick it out and it's all done the day you move in.
#2 They Are The Most Modern Houses On The Market
I'm guessing you want:
An open floor plan with ten-foot ceilings, a gourmet kitchen with a gas range and an island so big you could sleep on it.
For the bedroom, you want an oversize master suite with multiple walk-in closets, a huge master bathroom with dual vanities, and a large walk-in shower?
Sound right? You'll find that in any house being built today.
Even houses built in 2010 are looking outdated unless you love dark cherry cabinets and Corian countertops.
Those 1950s adorable bungalows ? Today’s master bathrooms are bigger than their living rooms. Which would you prefer ?
#3 Upgrades Are The New Standard
All these big builders have folks back in their head office researching the latest trends, what is most popular and what is selling these days.
Builders are constantly adding features based on this research. Builders want to sell quickly and they make sure they have what people are looking for.
The items that are standard features now used to be pricey upgrades. Tile, granite, gas, cement siding etc. These all used to cost extra, now they’re all (usually) included in the base price.
#4 Get A free car every ten years
These new homes are so energy efficient that your monthly bills will be a lot lower than if you buy a home that's 10/20/30 years old.
There has been so much development in building technology in the last ten years and buyers have been demanding energy efficiency, that you really see the difference in your monthly bill.
If you walk through a house that is being built, you'll see all the spray foam at the outlets that prevent costly air leakage. You'll see the shiny reflective insulation panels on the inside of the roof that keeps the attic temperature low.
You'll see the tankless water heater that only heats on demand. Your bulbs will be CFL, your HVAC will be a high SEER system.
Even compared to a house built ten years ago, the savings are very significant over the time you own your house.
If your bill on a new house averages $150 over 12 months. It's probably going to be $300 for a similar house built ten years ago. So if you own your house for 10 years, that's an $18,000 savings.
Another way of looking at that is, you can buy a mid-size car for yourself every ten years that you own the house with the energy savings.
#5 Reclaim your weekends
Since everything is new, you're not going to spend your free time fixing any leaks, doing any maintenance or remodeling a room.
It's all under bumper to bumper warranty for a year and the mechanicals (HVAC) are generally covered for two years, your roof should haven't any issues for 20+ years.
Spend your weekends at the beach, not Lowes.
#6 Easier to Sell
When it's time to sell this house, newer houses usually sell quicker for the reasons in the above points.
Sure those cute older homes look charming from the outside, but when buyers step inside, they see the tight cramped space & the renovations needed to make it look good, they quickly lose their charm.
When they walk into your open, clean, and upgraded house, they’ll be ready to write up offers.
I've shown more than 1,000 houses and I always show them in order of Oldest to Newest, because by the time the buyers have seen the old houses, they fall in love with the new houses that have the desired layouts and features that folks these days want.
#7 You Don't Have To Panic Buy
Compare these two scenarios :
Buying a resale:
If you have to sell your current house in order to buy the next house, you have to get a contract on your own house before you can submit an offer on another house.
This is because no (smart) seller will accept your offer on their house if you don’t already have a contract on your own house.
So you have to wait until your house gets a contract before you can submit any offers on a resale.
Once your house gets a contract from a buyer, they usually want to close in 30 days, so that means you have to rush out and find a house to buy immediately.
Panic Stations !
Inventory is low at the moment, so pickings will be slim and you may have to settle for a house you don't love, but that you can move into within 30 days.
Buying a New Construction:
Before you even list your house, you can take your time looking around the new neighborhoods. When you find a house you like, the builder will (typically) allow you to sign a contract to buy their house, even if you haven't listed your own house yet.
They'll give you enough reasonable time to put your house on the market and find a buyer.
No rush, no panic buys, no buyers remorse.
It’s a much more relaxed way of doing things.
#8 Make Money While Your House Is Being Built
Builders increase the price of their houses after every 2 or 3 sales, so they are always driving the prices of the neighborhood up for you.
When you sign a contract with a builder, the house probably won't be ready for 6-9 months.
In that timeframe, the builder may sell another 30 or 40 houses. Every time the builder sells a couple of houses, they (usually) increase the price. That means that by the time your house is ready, they may have increased prices in the neighborhood by $20-$50,000.
The day you get the keys to your house, your house is worth more than you paid for it Who doesn't love instant equity?
I've done this so many times over the last twenty years, I see a sign go up for a new neighborhood. I go in and buy the very first house they have for sale.
They always offer special incentives for the first houses. Then in 9 months when it's built, I turn around and sell the house for a quick $20 or 30k profit. I've only owned the house for a very short amount of time and usually only had to put down $10K, so it's a 200-300% return. Not bad!
Disclaimer: There's no guarantee of this, economies go up and down. You can lose money doing this too.
#9 Buy An Inventory Home and Save Big
Builders build "inventory homes". They build these homes without having a buyer and sell them as a "quick move in" houses. This is because not everyone can wait months for their house to be built.
You can get a fantastic deal if you buy an inventory home that hasn't sold.
If a builder has built a house and it's just sitting there, they have hundreds of thousands of dollars tied up in that house and every day it sits there empty, it's costing them money.
You can get a fantastic deal on one of these homes because builders can be open to negotiation on them. I just helped a buyer save $25,000 off an inventory home because the builder was so eager to sell it.
You don't get to pick out the designs, because they are already built, but they're still beautiful homes that have had their selections picked out by the builder's own professional interior designers.
#10 Financial End of Year = Fire Sale
Find out when the builder's end of the financial year is (if you picked a good real estate agent, they'll know when this is).
Builders get in fire sale mode around their end of their year because their bonuses depend on how many houses they've sold in that year. It all depends on the builder, but their financial year isn't always Jan-Dec. Sometimes they are in May or other times of the year.
It's a fabulous time to get a discount on a house, especially if you double it up with buying an inventory home
#11 Closing Costs Are Paid For
If you use the builder's preferred lender and attorney, they'll pay your closing costs. This can be anywhere from $3-10k. You can shop around the lenders' rate and make sure they are competitive, they usually are, so that's thousands in closing costs you can save.
#12 No Cliques On the Block
Move into an older neighborhood and you'll be the new guys. The cliques have already been established and are hard to break into. The neighbor will wave and smile, but already have their own group of friends.
With a newly built neighborhood, everyone is brand new and eager to make friends. The new neighborhoods are always the most social, I see this all the time. As houses are built, the moving trucks arrive and it's so easy to chat with the also new neighbors.
Someone will start a neighborhood Facebook group (it's usually me in the places I buy a house) and from there, the parties are arranged, the Halloween party. When football season starts, the viewing party rotates around the different houses.
I can promise you that the most social places are the new ones.
Don’t go it alone
AKA, my shameless plug : If you go to a model home, the builder’s agents offer you water and are all very friendly, they give you pretty brochure and will even price out the options. They are very nice people indeed.
Remember one thing though :
They work for the builder. They represent the builder’s best interests.
The good news is that you can have your own realtor represent you when you buy a new construction home and best of all, it doesn’t cost you a penny. The builder pays the realtor representing the buyer.
It’s a common myth that if you don’t use your own realtor, then you can get a discount of that commission. It doesn’t happen.
If you don’t use your own realtor, then the builder just makes more money.
Builders want realtors, they’re always inviting us to lunches and launches. They’re not going to burn their relationship with agents by discounting houses to people who don’t use a realtor.
Think about it, I can bring them 10 buyers, you’re only buying one house.
So there’s no reason not to have your own agent represent you and only you when the inevitable issues come up during your build.
Would you go to court and rely on the prosecution’s attorney to represent you too ? No, you wouldn’t.