Many new buyers are intrigued by new or newer (say built since 1995) construction. Looking at older homes depresses them because they often need updating or don’t have more modern layouts with open floor plans and family rooms. Some buyers don’t want to take the time or have the money to put in updates immediately, so they lean towards newer construction in their search. I’ve even come across a few buyers that believe older homes are unsafe, simply because they are “old.”
When showing newer houses, something I always try to understand is the quality of the construction. With older homes, they’ve been standing for 70, 80, 90 years or more so you could argue that they’re time tested. While the house might have a Harvest Gold kitchen and Pepto Bismol colored bathroom, it’s probably pretty sturdy and not going anywhere. Sometimes with newer construction I find myself wondering about the longevity of the house I’m standing in. Based on the quality of the construction, do I think it will be here 70, 80, or 90 years from now? Unfortunately in a lot of cases I’d have to say no.
No matter when a house was built, in the early 1900s or yesterday, the quality of the home lies with what the original builder used for materials and whether or not they cut corners during their construction process. There are many builders in the local Hartford area whose work I respect. Thought obviously goes into the design of the property and quality materials and labor are used to build the home. However, I’ve also seen lots of new and newer construction that just leaves me scratching my head. I can’t understand why buyers disregard older homes when we look at some of this, excuse my language, crap.
For example, last weekend I showed a home that was constructed in 1998. It was a colonial, had a fairly maintenance free exterior and somewhat of a modern floor plan- the kitchen was open to the dining room, the living room had cathedral ceilings and there was a family room in the walkout basement. Now, this is where the niceties ended. If you looked around, the joint tape on many of the ceiling joins had worked its way free and was sticking out from the popcorn ceilings. There were nail pops all over the walls from where the nails wiggled free from their joint compound in the sheetrock as the house settled. There were large stains on the ceilings in one of the upper bedrooms indicating that the roof was leaking. There was a large stain on the living room ceiling indicating that the plumbing in the hall bath above was leaking. No offense, but a house that’s 12 years old probably shouldn’t have a leaking roof at this point seeing as roofing material when the house was built had a life span of 25+ years. So my assessment of this house? Shoddy construction. My clients also came to this conclusion on their own after noticing all of these issues as well.
Shiny and new can be exciting. I know. It’s really tempting to just want to go with a home where you don’t have to do any work. Just be careful when you look at newer construction that you check it out thoroughly. Try to find other homes or developments that the builder constructed. If you can, go see how they’re standing up a few years after people have been living in them. Will you enjoy the new home you’re going to buy or will it become a maintenance nightmare as you need to fix all of the places where the builder cut corners?