You’re ready to move. You’re ready to retire. You want to downsize. You want to upsize. You want to relocate. You want a timber frame home, have always wanted a timber frame, have spent hours looking at timber frame homes on the Internet. You start looking for just the right plan and start talking to timber frame companies, but there is still that nagging thought that maybe, just maybe, you should buy a new home instead of build one.
Aside from the fact that there are few, if any, timber frame homes on the market in any given area, you may still wonder if it’s an option. Though the dynamic is changing rapidly, for the past few years, it’s been less expensive to buy than to build a new home. Land and home prices were down and there seemed a glut of homes available. Timber frames have always been a small part of a very large market, so while there were a few post and beam homes available, they never quite came down in price like stick-built homes did.
So, let’s think about the differences.
Pros to buying an existing home:
- You won’t have the aggravation of planning and building your own home.
- You may save money and time.
- The site will probably be developed and landscaped.
Pros for designing and building a new home.
- You’ll plan and build your own home exactly as you want it.
- You can choose the area, land, and neighborhood that suits you.
- You can sometimes build smaller since you are designing to fit your own lifestyle.
Sounds like a toss up, doesn’t it? If you can find the right home in the right place, it’s probably a good bet that you’ll save money buying it instead of building. But if you find a less than perfect house or the right house in the wrong area and you buy it, you’ll never be quite as happy with it as you’d think. And the money you saved might not make up for the difference.
Building a home is not for everyone. It can be tedious and scary. It can be exciting and rewarding. Some people enjoy it so much they want to build another one and others are pleased when the project is completed. So, don’t rule out buying a timber frame home…and don’t buy if in your heart you really want to build. Just go forward boldly and live well in a timber frame.
Yes, we built our timber frame home and would do it again if it weren’t just what we wanted.
That said, I’ll sign off for now. Thanks for letting me share my thoughts, Bonnie Pickartz.