Are you contemplating buying a new home or maybe purchasing an existing one? It’s a really tough decision to make, so let me lay out some pros and cons for you so you can make an informed decision.
Hey there my name is Marcie Billen and I’m a real estate agent here in Norman, Oklahoma. I also work with my husband Hansom. So I often get clients who are back and forth between buying an existing home and purchasing a new home. This video is not made to sway you either direction; everyone is different and everyone has different needs and ultimately, I want you to get what you want.
Pros
First we’re going to cover the pros of buying a new construction home. And some of the older home information will filter in, and you’ll see the differences as we go through these.
1. Customization
The first pro is of course, more customization. And this all depends on how far along in the process you get in purchasing a new home. What I mean by that is, you can purchase new homes that are halfway through the process and you may be able to choose some things, or you can of course, start from the ground up and choose all the things in your home. This is always the most fun part of purchasing a new home, is that you get to pick what you want.
2. You’re #1
Okay, pro number two: you’re not living in someone else’s mess. Meaning that you’re the only person who has lived in this home, you’re not gonna find someone else’s toenails in the carpet or their gross stains in the bathtub. This is gonna be yours and yours alone because you’re going to be the first person to live in it. Warranties are another reason that people choose to purchase a new home. So usually, there’s a builder’s warranty on a brand new home and it totally depends on the builder how long that warranty is going to be and what it covers. So typically this warranty is at least a year, meaning that if something goes wrong in the home, then you can contact the builder or their customer care service and they will have one of their crew or someone that they have in their employ, to come out and fix the issue that you’re having.
3. Don’t break the code!
Another great pro is of course, new builds are already up to code and safety guidelines. New builds are going to be built up to code for the year that they’re built in. You know, latest and greatest building material that’s up to code, the latest safety measures that are up to code, and perhaps even the best building measures that are up to code for the year that you’re building in.
4. Efficiency
The last pro I’m going to cover is energy efficiency. Energy efficiency is definitely a pro when we’re thinking about new builds. A lot of new homes in the Norman area are going to have a HERS score. It’s an efficiency score to help you run the house on a more efficient level and to help the environment. Speaking from experience on pulling utility bills for newer homes and older homes, I can tell you that your new home is probably going to be a little bit less expensive to run, in terms of utilities. If you are thinking about relocating to Norman, Oklahoma I do have a Norman, Oklahoma Relocation Guide for you to check out.
Cons
1. Time Frame
Well the first con I can think of is definitely time frame. Sometimes it’s really hard to find a new home to move into if you’re in a hurry. So if you need to get into something in the next month and a half, what if the house that you’re interested in that fits your needs, is not going to be ready for another six months? So that’s definitely one of the issues that I see come up.
2. Location
The next con that I see is gonna be location. If you want to be in a specific location, they may not be building new homes in that specific area or they may be out of your budget. Let’s say you are thinking about moving to Norman you want to live on the west side of Norman, and you want a new home, and you want to stay under $300,000. Well they’re not building any homes that are brand new under $300,000 on the west side of Norman right now. You’re gonna have to compromise by picking another location or possibly buying a little bit older of a home. Now there are some neighborhoods that have newer builds that aren’t brand new, that you could choose from. To start a search for a new home check out our app! Do you have questions about buying or selling? Drop your info below and we’ll be in touch!
3. Budget
Next is budget. And we already kind of touched on this; new homes are expensive. You may have noticed that if you’ve been looking around already. So I’m going to illustrate this by using two homes that are in one zip code. One of the zip codes in Norman is 73069. We have four different zip codes, but that’s the one I’m gonna be using, it’s more like center of Norman, right? So for instance, recently a home sold in Norman; it was 1,790 square feet and it was a three bed, two bath, and a three-car garage. It was in a nice neighborhood with an HOA, pool, clubhouse everything like that. It just sold for $202,800. It was cute, it was updated, looked nice.
In contrast, a home that was brand new, recently sold in one of the newer neighborhoods in Norman in 73069. It was a three bed, two bath, two car garage and it was 1,769 square feet, and this house just sold for $261,450. Quite a big difference there. So the first house that I talked about, the older one, was built in 1997 and then the second one was built in 2020. Another con that people see all the time, especially if you’re moving to the Norman area, is space. A lot of times, these newer homes are going to be on a smaller lot, where some of the older homes are going to be on bigger lots. You can fix this issue by moving outside of Norman. If you want a lot more space and a new home, I see that my buyers will choose to live outside of Norman in perhaps another area.
In other areas around Norman, you will find homes that are new that are maybe built on one acre instead of less than a quarter acre. This is a choice that my buyers frequently make; they choose to live within the vicinity of Norman, which is a big city, to move to the outlying cities just to get a little bit more space. Usually about an acre for their property. If you have any more pros and cons that you can think of for buying a new home versus used home, would you be willing to share?
Send me an email or text at [email protected] or call 918.691.8982.
