Torn Between Buying New Real Estate And Building A New Custom Home?

By Kevin Harris


You've painstakingly saved up enough money to venture into home ownership. You're now faced with an all-too-familiar dilemma: build a new house from scratch, or buy one that's already on the Bang Saray real estate market. While there are pros and cons to each option, popular opinion suggests that you're better off choosing the latter.

But guess what? It's only by building your own home that you can transform your ideal living arrangements into reality. This is especially true when it comes to efficiency-- it will allow you to leverage today's technologies to the maximum. The same can't necessarily be said of an already built house.

Of course, building a custom green home doesn't mean that you have to conform to the strictest requirements. Rather, it's about investing the bulk of your resources in the most important areas. Although specifics will vary, you want to make sure you:

Consider the Location: The rule of thumb here is to buy land in a well-developed area, and therefore avoid the headaches of building your own infrastructure. A close examination of the site will help you take advantage of its natural characteristics when designing the house. In particular, you want the longest sides to face north or south in order to keep them shaded. Also consider any negative impact construction might have on the surroundings.

Size Your Needs: The bigger a house is, the more it costs to build and maintain. Now, that's not to say that you should keep square footage to a minimum. What really matters is to keep your lifestyle in mind when sizing your home -- this will help you avoid paying for space that ends up sitting unused.

Use Sustainable Materials: Such include natural linoleum, reclaimed lumber and recycled plastic -- these will greatly minimize the impact of construction on the environment. You'll also find them to be cheaper (and longer lasting) compared to their conventional alternatives. It would however help to purchase products from the closest source available in order to save on transport costs.

Go Solar: It wouldn't be enough to talk about green building without mentioning solar -- it's after all the most cost-effective energy source. Speaking of which, there now are panels that can harness enough to cater for all the energy needs of your home. They're also cheaper and better-looking compared to their predecessors. Don't think that is an enough incentive? Well, how about the chance to qualify for tax breaks?

Invest in Insulation: This starts right during the design phase -- you want to create a layout that minimizes heat loss while optimizing the circulation of air inside. Common sense dictates that a multi-story house will perform better in that regard. For the insulation itself, you can't go wrong by choosing closed-cell spray foam. You'll also want to seal all potential pathways for heat loss and air leakage (windows, vents, doors, etc).

Like every other construction undertaking, your custom home build will involve a handful of elements. Even so, these points should be enough to help you prepare the framework. And while the project won't be as easy as buying a property off the shelf, it won't have you endure the headaches of renovating to suit your ideals.




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