Green REALTORS - East Manatee County - Waterlefe Golf & River Club-Real Estate

One of the most common debates a buyer may have internally, or actually debate over with a spouse, is whether to buy New Construction or Resale. Purchasing a home is a gigantic commitment, so lets weigh the pros and cons of BOTH. There is no correct answer here, only things that should be considered.

New Construction Pros

New Construction will charm you with its newness and readily maintained associations. It can be exciting to pick your floor plan (or have blue prints drawn for a custom built home).You are also able to choose your building materials and flooring. Modern floor plans better suite today's lifestyle of gathering in the kitchen area, and having a formal and non formal living space. A newly built home will have BRAND NEW EVERYTHING, be built to withstand mother nature, have larger rooms and offer luxury. A newly built home in most cases comes with a builder's home warranty and has up to date wiring ready to suite modern technologies.

New Construction Cons

When purchasing new construction, you can be limited geographically. If you are looking to live in a certain area, or in a specific school district then it may not be an option! Today's home lots are often much smaller than the lot of a resale home. When buying a newly constructed home, you may have to purchase appliances and window treatments because they might not be included in the price of the build-out. Many new home communities do not have mature landscaping yet and the associations are in their infancy, so the condition of the area in years to come will be left up to speculation. Let's not forget to mention that building can create budget and time restraints, which can cause stress until you get to the closing table.

Residential Resale Pros

Finding a house that fits all of your wants and needs in a specific school district or metro area may be easier with a resale home. Older resale homes can have charm, distinction and character that cannot be purchased or recreated in a new home. Often a resale home has existing window furnishings, mature landscaping, appliances and finished upgrades or fencing that would otherwise have to be purchased with New Construction. When looking at resale residential homes for sale, you can see immediately the kind of neighborhood you will be moving into and whether or not the association is actively involved in deed restriction. Another pro to purchasing resale is timing. If you don't have time to build - a resale is waiting for you to move into! Potential 'Sweat Equity' is also a great reason to purchase resale. You may have an opportunity to upgrade or modernize an existing home to increase its equity much quicker than you could increase the equity of a newly constructed home.

Residential Resale Cons

Now that we've discussed all of the 'charm' you can experience with a resale, lets talk about the 'not so charming' realities of resale. Resales can be out-dated, so money will have to be set aside in your budget for up-dating. Older homes can have issues with mold, older wiring and plumbing or need a roof replacement soon. A thorough inspection will outline these concerns for you with respect to the home. Dated floor plans and smaller rooms can really turn a buyer off from an older home as well. Often the most valuable part of a resale home is going to be in its location, location, location.

What does it all mean?

Whether you decide to buy new, or existing, you need representation. A mistake we see too often is a prospective buyer decides they want a NEW home, so they go straight to the builder. Remember, the community sales office represents the BUILDER not you the buyer. Home inspections should be completed on a new or existing home as well.

Posted by Jamie Bullock

The Burish and Serena Team

www.USA-FloridaHomes.net

Earth day is approaching, and most of us are too busy trying to sell the inventory of homes we carry to pay any mind to it!

If you stop and think about it though, we really need to take the time. So why not incorporate Earth Day into our busy work day?

Some suggestions -

Talk to your neighbors about Earth Day, or neighboring homes where you have listings.

Door knock. Ask each resident if they are recycling. If not, provide them with a hand out, explaining to them how they can receive free recycle bins, what is recyclable, and even what day their recycling is picked up! Be sure to include your contact information, and open the conversation up by letting them know it is Earth Day!

If you don't like the idea of door knocking, set up an information table in your driveway or in the driveway of one of your listings.

Emphasize green features of the homes you are selling - in the name of Earth Day. Example: Were there new windows installed? ENERGY EFFICIENT HOME - SAVING YOU MONEY AND THE PLANET!

Get involved in community events in your area. This is a great way to get out and meet new people, with like minded interests, and a way to create a genuine warm connection! You can even shamelessly promote your team or brokerage by wearing your name tag or company t-shirt!

Celebrate the Earth and educate your community.

Jamie Bullock

The Burish & Serena Team

www.USA-FloridaHomes.net

This time of year is tough. The clock is running down on season, and the hot summer months are approaching.

Traditionally, April allows us only 3 weeks for Open Houses for couple reasons.

The first: We ourselves have designated this weekend to family, telling ourselves, and our clients with vacant homes, "It's Easter weekend. No one is looking at Open Houses."

The second: No matter our religion or beliefs, we respect and recognize the holy day, and possibly think it's in bad taste to try to sell a home on Easter.

I myself can't help but wonder if Easter Sunday isn't possibly the best day to hold an Open House?

Christmas and Easter are the most heavily attended church sermons of the year. People are gathering with their family, traveling and getting out of the house together.

For young couples, seasonal buyers, and investors alike, if they are out with the family - a Sunday drive might bring them right to you?

I'm not suggesting we all run out and work an Open House instead of attending Church or enjoying Easter Dinner with our family.......

I am merely pondering whether or not- if we put a sign in the yard on Easter, would they come?