Nine Reasons to Choose a New Home

Triad New Home Guide - Summer 2014

US News and World Report recently canvassed a handful of housing experts regarding the potential benefits of buying a new home, even in face of a market full of foreclosed houses.

Acknowledging that new homes usually sell higher per square foot then resale homes, the experts agreed on nine reasons to choose a new home over a resale home.

1. Customization:  Many homebuilders allow buyers to help design the property, which helps create a living space tailored to the consumer’s tastes. New-home buyers, for example, can often decide where their bathroom might go, choose their favorite flooring or pick the exterior paint color. Buyers moving into a subdivision might even pick the lot they like best.

2. Building envelope:  Building codes have mandated higher energy-efficiency standards since they began to address the issue in the late 1970s, says Kevin Morrow, senior program manager for the National Association of Home Builders’ green-building programs. The most recent International Energy Conservation Code, which came out in 2009, required about 17 percent more efficiency than three years earlier so just to meet code, homes are going to be more efficient.
Newly constructed homes use energy more efficiently in two ways. They tend to have a tighter-sealed building envelope, like higher-efficiency insulation, doors and windows, which helps prevent conditioned air from escaping.

3. Green appliances:  New homes often include green systems and appliances, such as high-efficiency stoves, refrigerators, washing machines, water heaters, furnaces or air conditioning units, than homes built years ago. Owners of existing homes can retrofit their property or buy higher-efficiency appliances, but doing so can be expensive.

4. Fewer repairs:  The features of new homes should also hold up better than those of existing homes, which may have experienced years of wear and tear. Previously owned houses may need a new HVAC system or have the carpet replaced and the flooring repaired.

5. Less maintenance:  New homes are engineered specifically to minimize maintenance requirements; for example, by using composite products for a home’s exterior trim instead of wood, which could rot or need repainting.

6. Warranty:  In addition, builders often agree to take care of the necessary repair work in a new home for at least the first year. New homes are generally fully warrantied by the builder for a minimum of a year, and most of all the other components are warrantied for extended periods. If your roof starts leaking or the heater breaks during the warranty period, the builder will pick up
the tab for the repairs.

7. Fire safety:  New homes often include fire-safety features, such as fire retardant in the carpeting and insulation, that was not in properties years ago. All new homes are required to include hard-wired smoke detectors which provide better protection than battery-operated smoke detectors which can fail if their battery runs out.

8. Concessions:  Especially in today’s sluggish housing market, buyers can squeeze more concessions out of a homebuilding company than an individual seller because individual sellers often have an emotional attachment to their property that can blind them to its true value. Builders also often have greater financial wherewithal to absorb a loss on a sale than individuals.

9. Financing:  New-home buyers can take advantage of mortgage-financing perks available through their builder. New-home builders often have their own mortgage companies, or they will offer paying points or closing costs and buy down certain rates for the homebuyer. The seller of a resale home is generally not going to do that for the buyer.

Photos courtesy of Micciche Photography, Inc. - www.mikemicciche.com