Building a New Custom Home VS Remodeling

Choosing to remodel an existing home or building a custom home. While both of these allow you to achieve the home of your dreams, how do you decide which is the right path for you?

When it comes to deciding whether to build new or remodel, you have to take location into account carefully. You have to take a close look at what’s going on in the neighborhood – what are the comps, are other homes or have other homes undergone renovations of the same type you’re planning.

New luxury home neighborhoods provide a constant and reliable indicator of value because all of the homes are of the same quality, and will value higher for future resale.

If you’re planning a renovation, you really need to feel comfortable about where you build because depending on the level of renovation needed or planned, you could risk over-valuing your home for the neighborhood if it’s not built consistent with other homes, and that will definitely hurt your opportunity for future resale. If your home’s appraisal is out of line with your neighbors, they’re not going to be very happy with you.

We also want to add that it’s important to consider the interior and exterior constraints when renovating as well as researching any permitting issues, for example is it possible to renovate it the way you want on the existing lot or will you have to practically tear the whole place down. Remember, you’re working with someone else’s raw materials when you renovate. You should always consider the shelf life of everything in an existing home and factor in the cost of having to replace it.

A good home inspection can assess the condition of an existing home’s key features, such as HVAC, the roof and windows, insulation and electrical amperage. These items combined with tear-down costs and various architectural and design changes, from a kitchen or bath re-do to fixtures and lighting and flooring, should always be considered prior to purchase and can provide an overall assessment of out-of-pocket expenses that will be added to the purchase price of the home.

In a new custom home, these customizations can be rolled into the overall home mortgage and could possibly cost less than the out-of-pocket costs for remodeling and existing home.

And, you should always consider the fact that when you renovate, you are now in charge of hiring a reputable general contractor and other necessary experts, such as an architect, interior designer and landscaper, but by building new, all of those roles are handled in-house by the custom home builder. That takes some of the pressure off and, more important, saves our clients valuable time.

At the end of it all, it’s really all about the quality of life you’re seeking. In a new custom home, you only have to focus on personalizing your home instead of always fixing it. Do you want a constant to-do list or a just-have-fun decorating list?