Buying Or Building A House; What You Need To Know To Decide

Want to choose between buying or building a house? This is a common real estate riddle. People are always torn between these two trying to figure out what works best for them and which is more expensive. 

Building a brand new house custom-made for you is great but you may have to deal with higher price and longer delivery time. Although sometimes building a house is less expensive than buying one. Purchasing a home too is great but you might have to deal with upgrade costs and maintenance.

So which option works for you? Well each path has its advantages and disadvantages. Here’s a look at both sides; Buying or building a house.

Building A House

Some of the pros of building your own house include; 

Newness: When you build your own house, you get to start fresh as the first owner of your home and enjoy brand-spanking-new systems, finishes and fixtures. Unlike buying a house where it may have already been in use by the previous owner. 

Design to taste: When you build your own house there is no reason to worry about remodeling or redecorating. This is because you would have already customized the details of the property to suit your taste both structurally and design wise. From the layout, cabinets and flooring to the sinks, lighting, paint colors and doorknobs, it is customized just for you. 

No repairs: With everything new, you don’t have to worry about repairs like roof leakages and so on. An existing home can come with major issues that will need you to spend extra money fixing.

Less Expensive: Although it depends on a number of factors, building a home might be less expensive than buying one. Building a house afresh is most likely going to cost you less especially if well managed while buying one from an agent/real estate person will cost more because those that build also expect huge returns for their project.

[READ MORE: 5 Construction Companies In Nigeria That Have proven To Be Competent]

Cons of Building a House

The cons of building your own house includes;

Longer wait time: Unlike when you purchase a house and can move in almost immediately, building a house from scratch takes time. It takes an average of seven months to construct a new house minus the planning and approval stages.

Harder to negotiate price: Home buyers can easily negotiate prices with real estate agents but it’s different if you are building a house. You would be buying everything from scratch so it’s harder to negotiate pricing. This is even more crazy knowing the price of building materials in Nigeria is not stable and this will definitely affect the cost of erecting a building.

Stress: When you build a house, you’ll have to purchase land, decide on a home design, pick out flooring, fixtures, cabinets, countertops, interior trim, exterior trim, and on and on it goes. The stress is enormous. If you are not the type that can cope with the rigours of building projects, you should consider just buying an already built house. It saves you the stress of monitoring your building project the entire period and developing a high blood pressure.

Omo Oniles’: You would also have to cope with omo onile’s (land grabbers) who would cost you money and disturb your construction site. 

Buying A House 

Since we are looking at both sides, buying or building a house. Let’s also take a look at the Pros of buying an already existing house. It includes;

Established Neighborhood: With an existing house you are sure of what you are getting and it comes with an established neighborhood. You already have everything you want waiting for you. 

Close to the City: In a city like Lagos for instance, before you find virgin land it’s most likely in rural areas so you are not close to the city per say. But if you buy an existing house you are sure it’s in an urban area where it would be easier to do business or commute to work or school. 

Fast process: Everything is faster with an existing home or you literally have to do is sign the paperwork and move in unlike building a house that takes up time. 

Can be negotiated: It is easier to negotiate when buying a property opposed to building one where you can’t really predict how much you’ll spend on construction as the building market in Nigeria is not stable.

Cons of Buying a House 

Buying a house also comes with its own disadvantages, some of which include;

Upgrade costs: When you move into an existing home you would most likely need to do upgrades. These upgrades cost time and money. 

Decoration: Just like you would upgrade some things in the house you would also need to decorate to give the house the feel you want it to have so that it suits your taste. Decoration could be you removing wallpaper, changing paint colours or updating flooring and these costs money as well.

There are also other pros and cons of both Buying or building a house but this article has highlighted the basics. It is important that you do your research as well before deciding on which path to take.

After analyzing both options, Which would you likely go for between buying or building a house?