What’s the best choice? It’s the age-old dilemma most home-owners face when thinking about making an important change. And every situation is unique. To help you narrow down your decision, we’ve put our 56 years of experience into outlining the most important things you should consider for each option.
Buy an established home
What’s good:
- Choose your location and pick from established homes on offer.
- Experience a smooth and faster-moving process with less inconvenience.
- Your new home is ready to work for you from day one.
What to look out for:
- Be prepared to compromise; some things will never be perfect.
- Older homes may need maintenance and things replaced.
- You may inherit hidden issues like termite damage, structural issues and building material headaches like asbestos or lead paint
- Be prepared to re-think how you live based on the home’s design.
- An older home may not hold as much value for the future.
Renovate your existing home
What’s good:
- Stay put in the home and suburb you know and love.
- If you own a character home, retain its features.
- If your home is well positioned on the block, extending works.
- In the right location, you can add value to your property.
What to look out for:
- Will your budget be able to afford the cost blowouts that very often occur?
- Can you be sure you won’t over-capitalise and affect a future sale price?
- Major structural problems may be impossible to detect in advance.
- Unwelcome surprises, like electrical issues, can quickly blow budgets.
- Rectifying unseen issues, like mould and rising damp, can add to costs.
- Previous work done on older homes may be costly to correct.
- Can your lifestyle cope with prolonged disruptions?
- You’ll have to make some design compromises.
Build a brand new home
What’s good:
- Get exactly what you want; start with an exciting, clean slate.
- The very latest in design materials and style
- Enjoy a wide range of design choices from contemporary to modern to traditional styling (one, two or three storeys) that are all customised to make for better living.
- Control your budget with fixed, agreed costs and timings upfront.
- Customise your home with your personal style, from colours to fixtures and fittings.
- Brand new appliances mean excellent performance, quality guarantees, and no replacement costs for some time.
What to look out for:
- Will you get the first, most important step right: choosing a builder you can trust?
- Will your chosen builder deliver excellence and quality that matters?
- Will your builder get the design right so your home’s liveability and value are not diminished?
- Not all builders’ specifications are equal, so it can be difficult to know which inclusions add real value to a home.
- Selecting the wrong interior fixtures and colour combinations can hugely affect a future sales price, so you need professional advice, which can be costly.
- Unless your builder offers a dedicated liaison person for your build, it’s time-consuming and stressful to constantly check that things are being done according to plan.
- If your builder does not understand council regulations well, you could be left with costly problems and fixes.
At Stannard Homes, we’ve been helping clients create their dream homes for 56 years. So we’d love to answer all your questions in a friendly, obligation-free chat.
Love where you live and have equity in your home? Demolish and rebuilding could also be the answer. Talk to one of our experienced design consultants or visit our display homes, and let’s help you achieve your dream, custom-designed home in the place you love.
