Ready Made VS Custom

What are the perks of a ready made home verses customizing it yourself? If you are leaning towards customizing, you might consider these few things that you might not have thought about!

1. The total cost of a renovated home vs renovating a home:

Renovating a home can get expensive really fast! If you find a home that needs a little TLC and looks like it would be great for a DIY project, make sure you know the house inside and out. It's important to know where all the electrical, plumbing, and load bearing walls are before you start daydreaming of what the room could be. Purchasing a home that's already updated to your style could easily be cheaper in the long run and avoid the stress of working through the process.

via stylemepretty

2. Customizing can be cheap if you do it right:

Buying a renovated home doesn't mean you can't customize it in other ways! A change in paint color can make a huge difference in a room and chances are high once you move in you can easily make it feel like the home you always wanted with your own decor. Even if there is one thing that you'd rather change, the cost of changing one item like counter tops as opposed to an entire kitchen is much easier to handle and can be done in a reasonable amount of time.

via homestories

3. Better materials at a better price:

Renovators usually get great discounts on items that you would pick out yourself at a much higher cost. Hardwood floors, granite counter tops, stainless steel appliances may seem easy enough for you to put into a home but you'd be surprised at how much it can add up. Because most renovators get a great discount on these materials, it ends up costing you a lot less in the total price!

via hometalk

4. Labor costs you didn't expect:

If you decide that one of the items you wanted to customize in your home is something that you can't do on your own, you may find the costs of labor to be astronomical! When a renovator is working on the home, the cost of labor tends to be smaller because they are doing multiple items at once and get a great packaged deal. For the cost of labor to come in and work on one small project could cost just as much as renovating an entire home to make it worth their time.

via flickr

5. Working with codes isn't as easy as you think:

Making sure you get the best quality and that everything is to code is something that might be a huge stress when customizing your own home. A renovator can't get around these when working on a home so you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that everything is done correctly and at a great quality. Not to mention having to work with inspectors to ensure it's right might not be a cost you planned for.

via countryliving