Can you picture your dream home? It’s a secret most people have, and it often has little in common with their current abode. People’s dream homes are often in the perfect location, with just the right number of bedrooms, bathrooms, and amenities such as fireplaces or swimming pools or both. The unfortunate, yet accurate, truth of dream homes is that it they are almost always outside of our price range.
So what can you do? No one wants to be stuck in a rental, or in a house that doesn’t suit their needs. Homes’ locations matter more than you might suspect; for example, those near a highway on-ramp are down right convenient. The school district a house is in can also be either a boon or a bust.
There’s quite a lot of information to take in when looking into new homes. Locations, school districts, property taxes, home inspections, etc. can become anxiety-inducing if you focus too much on finding the “perfect” option. Take a step back. Breathe. And then look into production homebuilders.
If the term is unfamiliar to you, don’t worry. The production home building process has been around since the housing boom of WWII. Essentially, a contractor buys a large tract of land, and builds houses to fill up the land. People can purchase a home before it is built, and perhaps have a say in some of the minor features, or they might purchase a home after most of the production is built. The contractor knows that the homes will all eventually be sold.
As you may have guessed, these are the types of houses associated with suburbia. The home design of each house is very similar. As mentioned above, if a prospective home buyer gets in before a home is finished they can choose some or all of the finishings.
Some of the home designs in production homes have more luxurious options, such as ensuite baths or upgraded energy efficient kitchen appliances. Of course, these options usually add a bit more to the final price, but about 49% of new home buyers are willing to pay for that master bath, and 69% would gladly pay more for upgraded kitchen appliances.
There is a pervading dream that you can find a nice fix-it upper home. And then fix-it, on time and under budget. That is a fallacy. While any home can be renovated, it is often costly and time consuming. Production homes have prevailed for over half a century because while they may not be your specific dream home, they are a brand new, customized home just for you.