Q & A: Why Did You Decide to Build v. Buying Your First Home?

Happy morning friends! Can you believe it is already Thursday? This week has flown by which means the weekend is almost here. If I get a full cup of coffee in my system today I will be grateful. Yeah, the simple things are the best. Since it is Thursday and considering we haven't had a Q & A session in a while let's get to it. Today's question is not really a wedding topic but more of a life topic.

Q. Why did you decide to build a house v. buying one?

A. Well to be honest we hadn't even thought about building a house. We thought we would just find a nice little dated home and put our spin on it. We looked online forever and visited a dozen homes. We would visit a home but I never got a beyond excited feeling. We found one potential house but we still just couldn't commit.

After work one night we were driving around town looking at different neighborhoods. We came across a house for rent and stopped at the home because we thought it was for sale. There was a sign for Summit Oak Homes in front and a man approached our car. (Do you like how detailed this story is? Ha!) He told us about the company and we peeked in the house to see if we liked it. He told us to go to the model home and just listen to the sales lady. The term "sales" lady alone freaked me out. Rusty drove us over and we sat to listen to what Kim (the sales lady) had to say.

Rusty was ready to go after our first meeting. I, on the other hand, had no desire to build. I just thought it was too much. Being the kind husband that Rusty is we kept looking at houses. Of course we had no luck. A few weeks later he mentioned the idea of building again. We sat down and quickly realized that:

1. We could customize our first home.

2. We could build a brand new home for a tad bit more money than buying a home that was a couple years older. This was big to us. Knowing that our money could go a long way was very appealing.

3. The lot that was available was in a neighborhood we wanted to be in.

4. We are not handy so a newer home worked better for our personalities.

Everything seemed to be lining up. We scheduled to meet with Kim again and picked our floor plan. We were very fortunate to work with a company that made our little budget work so well. We were able to add nice upgrades like vaulted ceilings, large window ledges and a stone bar wall which added value to our home. Each time we had a meeting we felt important. The staff at Summit Oak (which is small in numbers making it even better) were building homes two times our price point but we were treated just the same. They were professional, kind and had so much experience.

During our walk through the builder let us touch every surface and point out any things we felt weren't correct. He was so nice and honest. It felt like we were working with the right people. There are pros and cons to building a home. They vary with each couple but these are some of the ones we have discovered.

{Pros}

1. It is your design.

2. You get to watch the entire project.

3. You can add, rearrange and remove details along the way.

{Cons}

1. You have to wait four+ months. Of course the bigger the home the longer the wait but it will be worth it.

2. You pick out all the details and hope they look good together. This made me nervous but everything turned out great! I was just nervous. I mean we even picked our grout color. It is serious stuff y'all.

If you are thinking about building a home then I suggest researching potential builders. Tour their homes. Look at their work. Meet with them. Ask a lot of questions. Rusty and I asked so many questions and they never got tired of answering them. Make sure the plot of land is where you want it located. The builder will more than likely have a few available to pick from. Just remember that land will affect the value of your home.

Being able to watch our house grow from a dirt pile to what it is today is incredible. I would highly recommend building. The market is really good for it. Now I can file this post under one of my 33 by 30 to-do's. Being a homeowner feels the same but it does make me feel like our house is our new baby. It is a lot of fun and responsibility! Happy Thursday!