Before deciding on buying an existing home or building a home it is important to consider future costs of maintenance, what it means to have a home designed around your personal preferences, what impact the home will have on the environment and the long-term health of your family.
Older homes require retrofitting in order to use energy efficient fixtures. By building a home with the latest technology, such as high-performance windows, you end up saving money by reducing the cost of energy. By planning out the energy use in a newly built home, it is easier to save money and limit your environmental footprint compared to an existing home that was not designed around modern efficiency standards and will require extra work and cost to get up-to-date.
When buying an existing home, the future maintenance costs are unknown. An aged water heater, roof, or countertop could yield extreme unforeseen costs for homeowners. Newly built homes often offer warranties for appliances and other products, helping you avoid replacements for years.
Older homes may fail to meet current building standards, leaving them insulated by hazardous materials, such as asbestos. Older homes with antiquated HVAC and ventilation systems could also develop moisture or mold problems that could cause severe allergies or other health-related issues. Newly built homes are required to meet new energy standards and codes. New ventilation and air filtration performance standards mean higher indoor air quality for you and your family.
Features applied to newly-constructed homes are often not only better for the environment, but are crucial in keeping occupants safe for years to come. Such features include: Modern circuit breakers, garage doors with infrared sensors to prevent injury, environmentally friendly furnaces, air conditioners with non-toxic coolants, non-volatile compounds in cabinets, carpets and paints.
By customizing your own home it is easier to understand how it works and what it is made of. A customized home will be designed to meet future needs for growing families and fit the owner?s taste. It can also offer luxuries like integration with new home entertainment systems. New home builders can even customize color palettes to better accommodate the homeowner styles.
