New homes versus resale homes: which is best for you? As always, personal needs and desires determine the particular home that is right for you and your family. Physical demands, space requirements, schools, time frames, locations, and architectural desires will all influence decisions in purchasing a new place to live. Each family will have a different set of needs and desires to be satisfied and compromised in finding the “perfect” home.
New construction offers many options to the buying public. The ability to make decisions on floor plans, decorating, front elevation, building styles and site locations are just a few of the elements that give purchasers the opportunity to put their mark on the house and neighborhood.
There are basically three ways people have new homes built. Some people will start from scratch and make all the decisions as necessary; others will find a home that has been started by a reputable building and customize the finishing stages of the construction–decorating, etc–and some people will find a house being built and have the builder take that floor plan, massage it a little bit and construct it on another lot.
A professional and reputable builder can help insure that the home is built well and nothing is left out. Many a marriage has been tested during the building of a new home. Most make it. Some do not. Almost everyone who has built a home will have some horror stories from the process, but when all is said and done, their new home is really great and will give them many years of enjoyment.
Of course, the other option in finding a new place to live is a resale home. The resale home market in Middle Georgia has much to offer, also. Some particular requirements can only be met by resale homes. One obvious one would be an historic home. Macon is blessed with some very unique and beautiful pre-Civil War homes that can be purchased today. Thank goodness Sherman took a left at the Ocmulgee River and headed to Savannah. Also, there are turn-of-the-century homes and Neil Reid designed homes of the early 1900s available. In terms of both materials and labor, reproducing these homes would be cost prohibitive.
A resale home usually will offer more square footage for the money than its new construction counterpart because the home was built with yesterday’s price of materials, labor and land. Location is another factor that will cause a resale to be the only option. Many neighborhoods are “built-out” and the only way to buy in them is to buy a resale.
Additionally, most re-sale homes will have an established yard, which eliminates the very expensive and time-consuming job of landscaping from scratch, as is the case new construction. There are also a greater variety of products in the resale market. Prices will range from $10,000 to $1,000,000 plus, whereas the new construction market tends to “bunch” up around certain price ranges.
Both new construction and the resale market are viable alternatives in the Middle Georgia area. Individual needs and desires will determine exactly what suits you best.
There are plenty of products to choose from and still a lot of good buys out there for the prudent shopper. Whatever you choose, I hope you have many years of enjoyment in your new home.
