New Construction or Pre-Owned – The Pros and Cons

Pros

• Energy efficient – Let me tell you how amazed I was when we moved from our 900 square foot duplex into our 1969 square foot new construction home, back in 2003. I was amazed! Amazed that our energy bill went DOWN! It went down in a bigger house AND we were even heating with a wood stove in that 900-square-foot duplex. Okay, you’re amazed now too, right?
• No one has lived there – No need to change those locks or worry about strangers coming to visit. You are the original!
• Smells – There’s nothing but new house smells here!
• We will be the first to use that toilet – I don’t know, there’s just something about using someone else’s toilet, at least at first.
• Appliances are new – They should last at least a few years!
• Everything is new – No need to spend the big bucks updating because it’s already updated!
• Make it your own – You can make your own footprint!

Cons

• More expensive per square foot – Well, I suppose if new construction wasn’t more expensive than pre-owned, it would be hard to sell pre-owned.
• NO window coverings – There’s nothing like staying the first night in your new home, with blankets taped over the windows.
• NO window screens – You would think they would come standard with windows, wouldn’t ya? It isn’t a given.
• Landscaping – There may be a builder out there that will landscape the whole yard. It has been my experience that the norm is to landscape the front and leave the back, for you. We negotiated for the whole shebang back in 2003, which means the builder planted grass in the backyard. We took our time to landscape with plants and trees.
• No fence – In a new construction home, you will more than likely have the added expense of installing a fence. There may even be regulations regarding when and what kind of fence you install if you purchase in an HOA.
• NO garage door opener – These things just don’t come standard!
• Construction zone – Purchasing a new construction home may mean you are living in a construction zone for quite a while since other homes, nearby, are being built.

Pros

• Less expensive – Purchasing a pre-owned home will most likely be less expensive than a new construction home, with the same footprint.
• Fence – A pre-owned home may quite possibly have fencing installed.
• Window coverings – A pre-owned home will most likely have window coverings, at least where it matters most!
• Landscaping – Most pre-owned homes will have landscaping in place.
• Garage door opener – When we purchased our new construction home 13 years ago, it did not come with a garage door opener. The cool thing was, that the realtor we worked with commonly gave garage door openers to her clients as a thank you!
• Location – Many times the best views and conveniences will be found in a pre-owned home.

Cons

• Smells. Oh, the smells! – Pet smells, cooking smells, people smells, smoke smells, so many smells to be smelled. Within five minutes, Steve could tell if a pet lived in the house. For that matter, I could tell by his breathing. We didn’t even have to ask.
• Someone has lived there before – Seriously! Recently, in our neck of the woods, a drunk teenager walked right into a home, in the middle of the night! Turns out, he used to live there and thought he still did.
• I wasn’t the first one in that tub – Let’s just not think about that!
• Updates will likely need to be made – Gold door knobs and bathroom fixtures, blue walls, wallpaper, light fixtures that were meant for grandma’s house, and that hole in the wall. Perhaps gold is your thing! If not, you may be looking at a lot of updates, when purchasing a pre-owned home.
• Appliances may need to be replaced – When you purchase a pre-owned home, the appliances will likely be pre-owned as well. We all know the days of appliances lasting 20 years are pretty much gone. Where’s my avocado refrigerator when I need it?
• Quirky stuff
  • There’s a reason that television cable is taped to the floor in front of the bathroom door. Mmmmhmmm! They wanted the television front and center and didn’t want to pay someone to wire it.
  • Perhaps the master bathroom door is made of glass and you’re not about that.
  • Maybe they have foliage growing all around their home, touching the siding, and you know that’s just an invitation to insects.
  • Really! It is quite amazing what you’ll find when touring homes. Do you want to fix someone else’s quirks?

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