The average cost to build a new home is around $428,000. But the average cost of an existing home sits around $291,000.
Buying an existing home has serious advantages, the main one being price. But, there are many other great reasons to buy a fixer-upper, all without sacrificing the home of your dreams.
Before you start financing a fixer-upper, keep reading to discover the reasons to buy this kind of home.
1. Allows You to Easily Customize the Home
The main draw of fixing up a house is the ease of customizing it. While an existing home doesn’t offer a completely blank canvas like a new construction home, there’s still a lot of freedom involved.
When there’s not much existing within the home, this makes demolition of the interior easier. Once the inside is cleaned up, you can create whatever you want within the space.
You can completely change the footprint of the home by moving a few walls. Or, keep the footprint the same and just update the features of the room, such as new countertops and cabinets in a kitchen. The choice is completely up to you.
2. The Home Comes with History, Character
Have you ever driven through a newly-constructed neighborhood and noticed how similar all the homes look? Contractors have developed a sense of style that they believe appeals to the majority of people. This means that if you purchase a new home, you may find that all of your neighbors have an eerily similar home as well.
But, with a fixer-upper, you’re purchasing a home with history and its own character. For example, you may purchase a Victorian home with a grand staircase or a Tudor home with a steeply pitched gable roof.
The choice is then yours to keep the characteristics of the home or upgrade it modernly. The easiest way to decide is to see if the feature still performs its original intention. While you may love the original windows in the home, here’s 10 reasons to replace them.
3. DIY Gives You a Sense of Pride
Still asking yourself, “should I buy a fixer-upper?” If so, stop and consider the sense of pride and ownership you’ll have in this type of home.
When you dedicate time and money to do DIY home improvement projects, you feel a sense of pride and attachment to the home.
Whenever you look at your master bathroom, you’ll remember how hard it was to get your bathtub through your front door. Or you’ll admire your living room in a new way after you spend weeks hunting for the perfect shade of paint.
Now to Work on Financing a Fixer-Upper
Know that you know all the best reasons to buy one, it’s time to concentrate on financing a fixer-upper.
We’ve already discussed that a fixer-upper will be significantly cheaper than a move-in ready home. But that doesn’t necessarily mean your mortgage will be cheaper. First, you must decide if you want to finance only the purchase price or get a loan that will also fund the repairs and upgrades on the home.
To help you decide your overall financing amount, head to the Calculators section of this site. This tool helps calculate how much your home improvement projects will actually cost.