Build or Buy?

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Ever wonder if building your dream home from scratch is worth the hassle, or if finding that perfect existing property makes more sense? We tackle this crucial homebuying crossroads with hard-earned wisdom and practical insights.

The housing market in Ohio mirrors challenges seen nationwide – inventory shortages, construction delays, and shifting buyer-seller dynamics create a complex landscape for decision-makers. We explore how timeline considerations often become the deciding factor: can you wait 6-12 months for a custom build, or do you need to move within 60-90 days? The immediacy of an existing home provides convenience but sacrifices customization options that only new construction can offer.

Surprising revelations about modern appliance lifespans (a mere 8-9 years compared to decades for older models) highlight the maintenance realities all homeowners face regardless of choice. Energy efficiency differences between older homes with minimal insulation versus custom builds with six-inch R-19 walls demonstrate long-term cost implications beyond the initial purchase price. We share our personal experience working with a small builder who focused exclusively on our project, contrasting this with cautionary tales about large developers who might literally sell your nearly-complete home to a higher bidder just before closing.

Whether weighing cost per square foot, quality control, or the ability to shape every aspect of your living space, understanding the true advantages and limitations of each path empowers you to make the right choice for your situation. What matters most is aligning your decision with your priorities – speed, customization, energy efficiency, or quality control – while protecting yourself with thorough contract reviews and never waiving inspection rights. Ready to make your most informed housing decision? Listen now and gain the perspective you need before taking your next step toward homeownership.

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To learn more about Habitation Investigation, the Three-time Winner of the Best Home Inspection Company in the Midwest Plus the Winner of Consumer Choice Award for Columbus Ohio visit Home Inspection Columbus Ohio - Habitation Investigation (homeinspectionsinohio.com)

NBC4 news segments: The importance of home inspections, and what to look for | NBC4 WCMH-TV

Advice from experts: Don’t skip the home inspection | NBC4 WCMH-TV

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How to save money by winterizing your home | NBC4 WCMH-TV

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, laura, jim , today adventure in home buying
yes, the decision to buy ahouse that's existing, or to
build one.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
To build or not to build?
That is the question.

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Yes, so here in Ohio for the last couple of years
there's been a shortage ofhouses.
There's nothing made on themarket and there really should
be a lot more available.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
There's been a building crisis because they've
not been building like theyneeded to either, to even just
keep up with demand not, youknow, including the new
companies and people that arecoming in yeah, so a lot more
people coming into ohio.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
It's probably good, depending where you live in the
country, but more people comingin, fewer construction, uh
workers available, so less workis being done.
And just you had a whole covetthing which kind of people
couldn't buy and also you couldbuy and everybody was swamped
and that drained the supply, itseemed, and now it's slowly

(00:59):
going back up, but buyers arenot caving in to seller's
demands like they did years ago,which is a good thing.
You want a balanced system.
You don't want to be reallyahead of it.
An advantage over another groupA dramatic advantage over other
people.
So build or buy an existinghome.

(01:21):
So I had a comparison up herethat I'm going to be looking
over.
So I guess the big advantagethat I can see immediately for
buying an existing home so I hadcomparison up here that I'll be
looking over.
So I guess the big advantage Ican see immediately for buying
an existing home is it's moreimmediate.
It's there, it's built, it'sdone, you just move in you, yes,
yes, so you could be just a few, you know.
Start your search not 60, 90days in you're moving into.

(01:42):
Now you've got to deal withyour current living situation.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Right, but you would with anything.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
Correct Whether you're building or buying.
So yeah, are you.
Did you have a lease?
Did you need to get out of that, or do you have to completely
sell your house, which isanother issue?
But you can do things prettysimultaneously is what you could
do, so the timeline is fasterfor buying an existing home.
Yes, much faster you can'treally customize an existing

(02:12):
home no, it's already there.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
I mean, there are a couple of things that you could
potentially do, like if the wallisn't um load-bearing, you can
maybe take out some walls or putsome things in and kind of
tweak some things that way, butthat's pretty much as far as
you're going.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Yes, yes, Building a house.
Yeah, you can structure ithowever you want.
For the most part.
Of course you have to have thebuilder or engineer have to look
at it and go yeah we can'treally do that, or we could, but
it's going to cost you an extra$10,000 to do that wall that
way, but definitely morecustomizable.
And way, but definitely morecustomizable.
If you're not going crazy onthe house you're designing, yeah

(02:47):
, you can do.
A lot is exactly what you wantnow if you're buying an existing
home habitation investigationis the way to go for a home
inspection in ohio.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
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Speaker 1 (03:19):
The appliances, the HVAC system, the roof.
Some of those may be a littleold or getting there.
Hopefully they replaced them orkept up on those things, but
those may be an issue that youneed to deal with.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
So you may need to save money back because if
they're getting older, those mayneed replaced.
And we have recently learnedfrom talking to a tech that was
doing work on our washingmachine that they are saying
that washing machines andappliances, dishwashers, things
like that only good for eight tonine years.
That's it, that's how they'rebuilding them now.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Which sucks, because I've done inspections on houses
that were built in the 50s.
They still have the originalappliances in there because they
were built last.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Well, those weren't planned.
Obsolescence back at that timeeither.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Correct.
Wow, yeah, didn't use as manyelectronics that go bad.
They used many plastic parts,everything was definitely more
rigid.
Yeah, made well, so that isgoing to have, unless you're
buying a house from the 50s thatstill has original appliances.

Speaker 2 (04:24):
You're probably going to need new appliances.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
You're going to need new appliances eventually.
So kind of even out, becauseyou're going to buy new
appliances anyway, and if youbuy a brand new house?
You need 10, 15 years down theroad, it's going to be time for
some new appliances.
So that's every house.
But if you're for, if it's yourfirst purchase or right up
front, you're not going to haveany too many issues.

(04:46):
The first 10.
First year ease, the first yearmaybe up to the first 10 years
unless it's a new house all in aGE all-in-one.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Don't buy those.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
You have to look at reviews.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
You have to look at reviews.
I forget things about them, butwho knows, we've been having
problems with ours.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
So energy efficiency your older house probably not
built up to modern standards forenergy efficiency.
The insulation is going to benot that thick.
In the attic the walls may be alittle bit narrower because our
house, we build it six inchwalls and that's all insulation.
So we got r of like 19 in ourwalls.
Most builds I'm seeing now theyare two, but four framed walls.

(05:29):
So your r factor is 11.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
So not that much insulation compared to what you
can do if you customize it right, I was going to say but because
we customized and we had acustom builder, we could make
those changes.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
And actually he said that was how he builds anyway he
was gonna do it that, yes yeah,so you custom builders are
really good but older, not goingto be as efficient typically
Right.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Now that having been said also, though, because the
way the laws changed for energyefficiency, like in the 70s and
80s, you almost want an olderhouse like that, so that you've
got the airflow and it gives yourecycled air, so it's not as
contaminated by, like VOCs ormold or things like that.

(06:13):
It gets that airflow, whichwill be another podcast.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Yes, that could be a podcast Like what would a
homeless, if a homeless vector,were to design a house for
himself, what would he do?
And we know exactly what we did.
So that's that's how that wasgoing to go.
It's just how we did things andthe timing and how just how we
did things.
Some of the what just how wedid things and the timing and
how just how we did things.
Some of the what I'm doing forthis outdoor sauna also is help

(06:38):
helpful air quality.
So another thing we.

Speaker 2 (06:41):
so we bought land.
It was something we'd alwayswanted to do.
We actually were on a waitinglist with our builder for a year
and a half, like we had askedaround and everybody to a man
gave the same name for thebuilder.
So we were on his waiting listfor a year and a half.
So if this is something thatyou think you may want to do,

(07:01):
you should start looking forland and be able to know where
you want to build and have allof that stuff set up, because
then you can slowly go throughthe process.
So, for example, in VintonCounty the only permits that
were required were for septicand well drilling.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
Yes, well, we can get into that.

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Definitely.
So that goes into the timelineover here.
That can go into anothertimeline down the road here.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
On this thing here.
The speed of it.

Speaker 2 (07:26):
Right.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
This is saying like six to 12 months for
construction permits, and allthat Depending upon how your
land is.
You may have to figure out howyou're going to get water on
there.
Electricity Is there a driveway, Do you?
have to create that, yes, sowe're a community.
That's what I've been takingcare of, right, so you have a
whole lot more things you'replanning to do if you're

(07:47):
building your own place.
So yeah, definitely things youneed to figure in Location.
If you're building a placethat's in a established
community or is gonna beestablished, you got your
neighborhoods, you got youramenities probably a grocery
store not that far away, gasstation, coffee shop.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
Could have an HOA, depending on where you're at and
what community it is.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Could have a caring association yes, they could have
an HOA, depending on whereyou're at and what community it
is.
Could have a Karen associationyes, they could have.
That risks you.
The thing I'm looking at saysthere could be possible delays.
There can be delays on anything, really, but if you're building
a house with a large builder ina community, you have a lot

(08:36):
less control over the quality ofthe build.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
And we mean a lot less control.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
You also have less leverage because if you decide
or threaten to go, I'm going tobuy this house because you guys
aren't taking care of this.
Less control.
You also have less leveragebecause if you decide or
threaten to go ahead, I'm gonnabuy this kind of buy this house
because you guys aren't takingcare of this.
They may go, I I don't carewe'll sell it to somebody else.
You buy this house or we'llsell to somebody else.

Speaker 2 (08:54):
It doesn't matter to us we actually know a client
this has been a couple yearsthat were building a new house
and it was with a larger builderand maybe within a week of
closing the house got sold outfrom underneath them to somebody
who came up and said, hey, Iwant that house, here's x number
of dollars, and it was morethan what they were buying for

(09:17):
and the builder just said, okay,fine, and they were out of the
house yeah, that builder had aclause in agreement they could
sell to somebody else whooffered more so be careful.
What you're're signing is thelong and the short of that.
Don't sign away inspections.
You definitely do not want todo that, especially with a
larger builder.
Do not sign away the fact thatthey can get a higher price for

(09:37):
that.
Make sure that clause isn't inthere and just read over it.
You need to read this contract.
Maybe have an attorney look itover for you and and explain
some of those that they don't,you know, make sense to you.
You need to make sure youunderstand that contract and
that you're not signing awayright yeah, don't be pressured
to sign an agreement and ifyou're being pressured, walk,
walk walk.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
Yeah, that's a good deal today it'll be a good deal
tomorrow if it's like legit.
So yeah, look at the total costfor everything.
The cost per square foot ischeaper to buy an existing older
home.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Well, yeah, that makes sense, because it's
already done.

Speaker 1 (10:20):
But if you have your own land, you get to control the
build, the style.
You can definitely follow up onevery single weekend yourself
if you want, we did.
You have a lot more control,you're probably likely a better
quality build in the end.

(10:42):
Yes, because you can keep aneye on them what they're doing.
But I would use a small builder, one that's not going to like
the builder we use.
He would only do one house at atime.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
Yep, he and his son work together and they just
pulled in people as they needed,so like to put the trusses up
for the roof, or there wassomething else that they called
in people to help them with.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
Well, they subcontracted out a HVAC company
.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
HVAC, that was it.

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Which there was no markup for that.

Speaker 2 (11:08):
There wasn't.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
No price markup.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
We just got directly the bill from the HVAC company
and we paid that In fact, mostof our bills came either
directly from the supplier orfrom the company that provided
whatever service or appliance orwhatever, and we just paid them
directly.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Yeah, this is how our builder did it.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
We paid him for the labor Set fee every month.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
And we just took care of the expenses that he had.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
And ours was just four months, wasn't it or?

Speaker 1 (11:35):
five.
No, it was wow.
We can talk about timelinelater on, but they started
working it in the wintertime sowe had freezing temperature with
delayed pouring concrete.
So we had those issues.
Like I said you can have delays.
No matter where you're buildingat, you can have delays.

(11:56):
Now new build often will comearound with warranties for their
new build.

Speaker 3 (12:04):
If somebody did a good job.
You really don't think ours hadone specifically.
If somebody did a good job, youreally don't need to worry
about that.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
You do not.
Plus, you can always buy a homewarranty if you want, but you
should be all right with that.

Speaker 2 (12:14):
Yeah, and I think if we were to call our builder and
go hey, we've got a questionabout this, he'd just pop in
because he has.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
So the big decision if you're going to buy an
existing home versus a new buildis really timeline, right, do
you have?
The time to go to that countywhere you're going to build in
and find out what you need, getthe permits, find the builder to
do it get on that list.
Yes, get on the well yeah listor, either way, they have a list

(12:43):
of who they're going to takecare of next.
Do you have the timeline forthat?
I'm glad we built our own house.
I am too.
I like that because ourlocation is a huge factor there,
but it's the speed of it.
Do you have the time to waitfor somebody to build the house

(13:03):
and deal with all that stuff?
We did.
You have the time to wait forsomebody to build the house and
you have the infrastructure anddeal with all that stuff and we
did.

Speaker 2 (13:09):
We knew we had owned our land for a couple of years,
decided we're tired of leaving,we just want to stay here, and
so that's when we startedlooking around into stuff and it
took us time.
We slowly did stuff.
We had people come out and dothings and then when our builder
came out and started, we werealready good to go, like we were

(13:30):
up and running because we'dgotten everything cleared away
beforehand.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
Yep.
So I think that's about it forthis one.
Decision to buy an existing orhave one built kind of depends
on your timeline that you reallyneed to follow.
You have definitely morecontrol if you're building line
that you really need to follow.

Speaker 2 (13:46):
You have devon war control if you're building less
likelihood of issues like someof the other new builds we've
seen, where there's a lot ofmold so we're gonna stay, stay
tuned.
We've got some other reasonsthat will break down more for
you and a few other ones.

Speaker 3 (13:59):
Thank you everybody.
Bye guys.