My husband and I are trying to decide whether we want to build our next place or buy something existing. I was hoping to get some insight from those who have done it before what the pros and cons of each are.
BTW if a thread like this already exists I'd love some links, I couldn't get the right combo of search terms to find anything
From what I can see, for building-
Pros
- design is how you want it (within reason and constrained by budget obviously)
- having a new place is nice
Cons
- variability of cost/budget blowout (I imagine even with fixed price contracts there are additional costs etc)
- can take a while
- takes a bit of work in chasing up builders and tradies, choosing all the details and fixtures
For existing
Pros
- can see exactly what you're getting
- can move in basically as soon as settlement happens
- assuming you've done your building inspections etc, no major unexpected costs. Or, at least an idea of what additional costs you might incur.
Cons
- have to live with a design that may be less than ideal, or with choices that you would have made differently
Costs between building new (especially house and land packages) and existing in my area is not dramatically different.
Thoughts?