New Build vs. Pre-Owned Home: Which Should You Buy?

Few purchases are as exciting (and important) as buying a home. Whether you’re in the market or just starting your research, get answers to your questions about when to buy and how to find the right home.

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[chriskredlo]

For first time buyers, go for the cheapest house in the most expensive neighborhood you can afford. Your efforts to update improve and renovate will add to your net worth overtime. DIY when you can.

[joannafoster]

You can change a house but not the land. Location location location.

[SteezyVon]

Imo the music is slightly to loud, but great video nonetheless

[jabow]

We have done it all. Rent 9 places, buy already built and redid into the current style (great bones) 3 houses, built with contractor (custom) 2 houses. The advantage to new custom build is you get exactly what you want. The old build is fun- but I’m just too old to live in the mess again 😂1600-2000. Sq feet is the perfect size for us!

[laurajean]

Rachel, this is a great video for first-time home buyers! Could you do another video for those first-time home buyers who bought in the 2% interest rate but now need to buy a different sized home. They have all this interest but have to double their mortgage rate for 1 more bedroom in their next house.

[tscoff]

My mortgage is currently 29% of my take home pay. Sadly when I bought my house my mortgage was under 25% of my take home pay. Homeowners insurance and property taxes have gone up that much faster than my salary has gone up!

[mattlimberg]

Ramsey solutions, please no more music in background, it is distracting. Best advise I can give is find a home with good structure you can use for cheap, renovate as you can, learn to do as much as you can yourself. I bought my home 3 years ago very cheap, put 50% of the selling price into immediate renovations with separate loans, paid those off and now can out those payments toward my mortgage and will have it paid off within 10 years of buying it, and it already has an estimated value of what I have put into it, without considering anything we have done inside or doing any curb appeal improvements, once that is considered and complete, it should be worth 50% more than I have put into it.

[kellster]

New or newer homes are built to updated building codes which in FL is safer during hurricanes and saves on home insurance.

[EricMoore]

I have two payments left on my refrigerator box.

[johnb]

25% of my take home pay? I make good money and 25% of my take home pay wouldn’t even get me a decent apartment.

[BeataWalczak-dm]

Wife and I are 33 with about $800k in investments, excluding home equity and rainy day funds. I've always strived to stay on top of my finances, hoping that being disciplined in my 20s would allow me/us to have more breathing room in our 40s+ but it gets hectic, should we get a partner?

[ClarisNdoroRealEstate]

The new build is better, and there are fewer headaches, with no repairs and a great location.

[zulemaserrato]

Not buying a house but I just wanted to say how good that jean jacket looks on you!😍

[rodrain]

It may have not been a bubble, but there are many areas where inventory levels are spiking and price cuts are happening. Giving this one answer fits all advice can be damaging. I know you have to parrot each other but this is probably a discussion your team should have.

[JHUM]

I love the Ramsey teachings but 15 year fixed plus “no more than 25% of your income” rules out about 95% of people lol my wife and I bring home about 6k a month combined. Our 30 year fixed is 1300. So 2000+ for a 15 year fixed lol

[kevinmejia]

My wife and I make 165k pre tax about 104k after taxes, benefits and 401k. We put 41% down on our first modest townhome in the northeast even with our income and big down payment our mortgage is still 30% on a 15 year. That doesn’t even count utilities and HOA monthly fees. 😭 I’m sorry 25% of your income on a 15 year is legit not possible unless you make New York money living in middle of nowhere small town/city America in a low cost of living state

[MaJieMao]

Built my home for 180k in 2017 now it is worth 340K.

[X.MillennialResponder.X]

You live in a home you’re not investing in the home. What I did instead was to save as much money as you can while renting look at your neighborhood a lot of the areas it might make sense to buy an existing home in other areas where existing homes are overvalued it may make sense to build. My wife and I took about five years to try to find an existing home and it just never happened. Eventually we just found some property bought the property cash and built on that property. Every different area is gonna be different. This happened to work for us. We weren’t going to buy a half $1 million property in our old neighborhood to just put another hundred to $200, 000 of work into the house. My own opinion on the matter is buy a forever home if you’re not gonna be in a location for more than 10 years or you think you’re gonna sell your property before then you’re better off renting and investing the money and other means. If this is gonna be your forever home, you should be considering what you want in that house not what you could update or change. If you can’t afford getting the house, you can’t afford getting the house so continue to save money until you can. I agree with that, but I don’t agree that a house is a investment unless you’re gonna go into actual real estate. Your primary home is your home.

[ZakieVisser]

Does DeleteMe work in Australia as well?

[shandilayne]

Has Ramsey solutions ever thought about hiring a military consultant for more wisdom in that area?