New Homes
The housing market, like the beauty business, is built on dreams. And the building industry knows your dreams. When was the last time you saw an ad in the weekend paper praising a new home's all-copper wiring or triple-glazed windows? Advertisers show us images of couples having coffee on the terrace, leaving the nuts and bolts information for the fine print.Although most prospective buyers go to developers for their homes, some of us hire our own building contractors, and others do some of the building ourselves. Whichever route to home ownership you choose, you'll depend on subcontractors and tradesmen — plumbers, electricians, painters and such — to get the actual work done.
This article, from the buyer's point of view, looks at the three basic routes to a brand new house: the developer, the contractor, and the owner-builder. What, then, are the pitfalls and the costs of the various routes? And what, indeed, is the difference between them?
The developer assembles a large parcel of land, divides it into lots, and has a number of houses built at the same time. The developer gives the instant neighborhood a name and a lifestyle advertisement, then sells you the key to a finished house and a mortgage. Or, you buy a picture of what the house will be like when it's built.
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December 4, 2008