Should I Buy Or Build A New Home? Pros And Cons For Either Choice
Those who seek to move into a house on the ground, as we say colloquially, have to choose between two options: either build or buy a home. Of course, some inherit a house, but they are not the topic of our discussion today. We have tried to find out from a specialist the pros and cons of each of the options mentioned above so we can draw a final conclusion and make a clear choice. Our interlocutor is Alexandru Chivaran, developing manager with Casebinefacute.ro
Since, statistically, most of the Romanians prefer to build their house and not buy one ready-made, we will examine this option first. “The first pro of building a home rather than buying it is the price. The cost of such a building is inferior compared to a ready-made house since the latter comes with extra value. Namely, this house sells for a price that is set by the market which is high. In return, a house that I build will lie in the position I choose and, more important, I get to choose the configuration of the interiors so that my comfort is maximum”.
But are there any cons for building a home? “That depends on how it’s built: if you choose to do it yourself or if you hire a specialized company. Building it yourself by hiring a team of builders take more time and hence increased costs. The second aspect comes down to choosing the right building company. I give you an example: I made an offer to a potential customer, namely building his house for 64,000 Euros. He turned it down. I met him again about a year later and he told me the final costs for his house rose to 73,000 Euros. Why? Because he hired a team of builders and bought the materials himself. But a specialized company has first of all more experience, a budget and solid know-how, knows where to buy building materials and how to organize them. As far as this gentleman was concerned, he just had to keep buying whatever the hired team asked for and he bought the materials from the nearest shop which is not always the cheapest. So all this to and fro takes time and costs money”.
Should I buy or build a new home – stress, time and money, key arguments
But where does this reticence in hiring a specialized company comes from, I asked Alexandru Chivaran. “It comes down to mentality. The Romanian says to himself: why paying this guy his profit when I ca keep that to myself? But in the end it is the other way around. And let’s not forget the stress the customer goes through all over the building process, from the beginning till the very end. By hiring a building company, this process is easy to supervise”.
What about buying a home, from the same perspective of pros and cons? “The main advantage is a customer gets to move in it right away. Secondly, you get rid of the stressful process mentioned earlier. As far as cons are concerned, I have said it already, the high price, set by the market. For instance, if you buy a land near Bucharest and pay 15-20,000 Euros for it and then build a house for 50,000 Euros, the final prices rises to about 70,000 Euros. But if you buy it from a developer, then you pay more than 100,000 Euros for the same house and same land plot. So I pay the market price which is about 20-30 per cent higher that what building it yourself involves”.
Another con is that, if a buy a ready-made house, you may not like the interior finishes, tiles, floors and so forth. This is I recommend those seeking to buy a house to get one without these finishes in place so they can decorate it themselves to suit their liking”.
