(CHEROKEE LAKE REALTY WRITES A WEEKLY COLUMN FOR THE GRAINGER COUNTY JOURNAL NEWSPAPER. THIS WAS A RECENT QUESTION ASKED BY A READER.)
Well, welcome. This is a great area to live in. I have been here for thirty plus years, and I would not live anywhere else. A lot of folks agree with us, since most national surveys indicate this is the number one spot where people are relocating to from all over the country. Four full seasons, with the heat and cold not being as extreme as other states. As I am writing this, I have just seen the weather reports from up north. Extreme cold, lots of bad weather, and lots of accidents. Here, the past few days the temperature was in the 60’s. This area also does not see the destructive tornadoes that create havoc or the hurricanes that hit the coastal states.
Answering your question is not easy as every family’s situation is different. So, let me answer your question from a generic standpoint.
When you buy a pre-owned home, it was either built to match another person’s tastes or designed by the builder to attract a broad range of potential buyers. Therefore, when you buy a home that reflects another person’s ideal, you should expect to make compromises. Will their vision match up with yours? Not likely. You may have wanted bigger bedrooms, or more land, or a fireplace, or a swimming pool, the list goes on. If you cannot find a home that checks all your boxes, and you are set on having your perfect home “today” then building is the way to go.
Now, let me flip that coin.
Building costs do not typically go down, so building the same home today that was built five years ago is going to cost you more. Sometimes much more. Other considerations, do you need a place to move to now? Building from scratch can take six months, weather permitting. Will you be present to supervise the building phase? If so, where will you live? If you must rent, factor that cost into your building budget, as well as storing your furniture somewhere, and then, moving it out again when the house is ready to move to. I have sold homes that once upon a time were built by the owners and considered perfect for their needs. A swimming pool, an RV garage, lots of land, a private dock, and after several years – the RV is gone, the swimming pool requires too much maintenance, there is too much land to mow, and the boat was sold. So, what happened? Life changed. Sometimes quicker than we expect.
So, what to do? As I mentioned earlier, every family’s need for purchasing and selecting a home is different. There is no perfect home if you buy an existing one today or the home you decide to build today may not be your perfect home tomorrow. There is no perfect home forever. Home needs change as our situations change. This is what keeps us realtors in business. Folks are constantly buying and reselling their homes.
