New Homes Being Built in Denver: What to Know Before Committing Should You Buy a Custom-Built or Production-Built House? 1

New Homes Being Built in Denver: What to Know Before Committing Should You Buy a Custom-Built or Production-Built House?

It is an interesting time to be looking into buying or building a new home, especially if you live in the Denver area. If you’ve been paying attention to the housing market, you know that mortgage interest rates are increasing to offset inflation. However, home prices continue to rise with no end, especially in certain markets. The median price for homes increased every month of the year up until August 2022.

What does this mean? It means that it is more challenging than ever to find a new home that is both affordable and meets the needs of your family. Variables such as school district, work commute, neighborhood, or other critical factors may turn a viable home into a dealbreaker. It’s also worth noting that the average home price in Denver is currently well over $600,000. For the average Denver resident, this makes purchasing a new home financially impossible, especially when factoring in rising interest rates.

A select few homebuyers have been able to find ways of making this painful process a little easier. Some of the most popular methods include getting a VA or a USDA loan for a no-down-payment mortgage; however, only certain folks qualify for those. Some buyers with not-so-great credit have completed their home purchase using an FHA loan, which knocks the down payment percentage to around 3 – 3.5 percent. Even with a low down payment, 3 percent on $600,000 comes out to $18,000, and some families don’t have that kind of money.

New Homes Being Built in Denver: What to Know Before Committing Should You Buy a Custom-Built or Production-Built House? 2

Do high-quality new build homes in Denver that are affordable even exist? Indeed, they do. This leads us to our next topic of discussion – production-built homes.

Production-Built Homes vs. Custom-Built Homes

A custom-built home typically uses an original blueprint to meet the buyer’s needs while staying within the special parameters of the lot upwhich it is built. The advantage of this is the buyer has total control over every aspect of the home, right down to the bathroom tile and kitchen countertop materials.

The core disadvantage is that custom-built homes are notoriously expensive. Additionally, the buyer never gets to see a sample of the house before it’s complete. They must trust the plans and builders and hope it meets their expectations.

Finally, building a custom home can take between 8 and 24 months. Much of that depends on the general contractor’s efficiency, how quickly they can get the proper permits, how well inspections go, and other factors.

On the other hand, production-built homes typically follow around five standardized blueprints from which the home buyer gets to choose, depending on the home builder. Although this means that the home that’s built isn’t wholly original, it also means that the builders have a ton of experience constructing this type of home.

Production-Built Home Advantages

The following are some of the core advantages of going with a production-built home.

  • Since the builders have prior experience building the home, their process is more streamlined and less susceptible to error. This results in a much quicker turnaround time. Some production-built homes are built as much as 75 percent faster than custom-built homes.
  • Going with a production-built home means that the builders have a better idea about the materials they need. Production-built homes generate the least amount of construction waste, and those savings are passed to the buyer.
  • Production-built homes are typically made within planned communities. This means the home buyer doesn’t have to worry about land purchases or securing permits. Cutting out these administrative tasks further reduces the timeline.
  • Production-built homes are significantly less expensive than custom-built homes. Some production-built homes in Denver start for as little as $300,000. Additionally, all of them are made with energy efficiency in mind, so home buyers don’t have to worry about costly energy bills.
  • Many companies that build production-built homes have an inside track with financial institutions where prospective buyers can get help financing or improving their credit health.

Finding Production-Built Homes in the Denver Area

If you’ve been searching for new homes for sale in the Denver area through Zillow and the other usual avenues, likely, you have not come across a production-built home.

The best way to get in touch with builders offering this type of home is to reach out to them directly. You can start your search by Googling the phrase “production-built homes in Denver.”

Although your production-built home won’t be an original, this is one of the only ways to get into a new home in Denver for under the current median sale price – and you can always choose interior finishes that will make it special to you your family. That should bring up a few results in your direct vicinity. From there, check out floor plans, get pricing, and see images of past work. That should bring up a few results in your direct vicinity. From there, check out floor plans, get pricing, and see images of past work.

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I am a writer, financial consultant, husband, father, and avid surfer. I am also a long-time entrepreneur, investor, and trader. For almost two decades, I have worked in the financial sector, and now I focus on making money through investing in stock trading.