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Why Consider A Custom Home Build When You Could Easily Buy Ready-made Real Estate?

By Kevin Harris


You've painstakingly saved up enough money to venture into home ownership. You're now faced with an all-too-familiar dilemma: build a new house from scratch, or buy one that's already on the Bang Saray real estate market. While there are pros and cons to each option, popular opinion suggests that you're better off choosing the latter.

But here's the deal -- you'll be hard-pressed to find a ready-made house that can fully accommodate your needs. A fresh build, on the other hand, gives you the freedom to design your home around them. More crucially, it will allow you to make the most of today's green technologies.

Keep in mind, however, that you don't have to go all the way in with regards to sustainability. Instead, you want to focus more on the areas that'll make the biggest difference. With that in mind, you'll want to:

Consider the Location: The rule of thumb here is to buy land in a well-developed area, and therefore avoid the headaches of building your own infrastructure. A close examination of the site will help you take advantage of its natural characteristics when designing the house. In particular, you want the longest sides to face north or south in order to keep them shaded. Also consider any negative impact construction might have on the surroundings.

Size Your Needs: The bigger a house is, the more it costs to build and maintain. Now, that's not to say that you should keep square footage to a minimum. What really matters is to keep your lifestyle in mind when sizing your home -- this will help you avoid paying for space that ends up sitting unused.

Use Sustainable Materials: Such include natural linoleum, reclaimed lumber and recycled plastic -- these will greatly minimize the impact of construction on the environment. You'll also find them to be cheaper (and longer lasting) compared to their conventional alternatives. It would however help to purchase products from the closest source available in order to save on transport costs.

Go Solar: It wouldn't be enough to talk about green building without mentioning solar -- it's after all the most cost-effective energy source. Speaking of which, there now are panels that can harness enough to cater for all the energy needs of your home. They're also cheaper and better-looking compared to their predecessors. Don't think that is an enough incentive? Well, how about the chance to qualify for tax breaks?

Build it Tight: Insulation is arguably the most important aspect of green home design, given that heating and cooling account for 50 percent of a household's energy consumption. Keeping the layout of your house compact (read vertical) will go a long way, but be sure to invest in the right materials as well. For the latter, spray foam comes across as a more worthwhile choice compared to fiberglass. Also pay attention to other passages that air could escape through.

Although there'll be more elements involved in your custom home build, keeping these points in mind should help you create a solid framework for the project. Just note that it will involve more headaches compared to purchasing an existing property. Even so, it'll be a whole less stressful than renovating the latter to match your ideals.




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