What is a Spec Home, a Semi-Custom Home & a Full Custom Home in Falls Church, VA?

New construction homes in Falls Church, VA 2

If you’re thinking about buying a new home in Falls Church, you need to understand the 3 types of New Home Projects to consider…

Spec-Homes: A Spec-Home is when a builder purchases a tear-down/donor property based on it’s lot characteristics like size, set-backs, topography, zoning, school district and how it’s situated (interior lot vs corner lot).  Then they build a New Home they “speculate” the market wants based on the most recent sales trends in the immediate area. Many builders wait to finish the home before they list it on the open market. Why? Well, it’s easier to sell a new Spec Home in Falls Church when it’s finished, staged and ready for potential buyers to see the final product. The nice thing about buying a finished Spec home is that you can usually move in right away since it’s finished. Just need to make sure the County has issued a Certificate of Occupancy (CO). If you are financing, your lender will need that CO before you can close on the loan. In my opinion, the only downside buying a finished Spec Home in Falls Church is that since the house is finished, there’s not much customizing you can do.

Semi-Custom Homes: Semi-custom is when we seek out New Homes in Falls Church that are not complete yet. We do this once we determine that our clients want some customization options. We look for houses that are about 50% complete because at that point, our clients will still have time to customize/upgrade items like flooring, paint, lighting packages, appliances and cabinetry. Floorplans and layout typically can’t be altered. Keep in mind, some of these customizations/upgrades could affect the finish date of the house. For example, the custom kitchen cabinets used in higher end new homes tend to have a VERY LONG lead time so our builder friends order these MONTHS in advance. The downside of buying a Semi-Custom Home is that there’s not much inventory on the open market. Why? Because most builders would rather finish the house and then sell it. Most builders don’t want to deal with client customizations and change orders because it can drag out the process. That being said,  most times a Semi-Custom Home is the way to go because you can customize some items and not have to wait too long for the house to be complete.  You won’t find much inventory on the market but luckily we have access to a lot of Private Home Inventory in Falls Church, VA that we will discuss on the next article!

Full Custom Homes: Full custom is when you hire a builder to build you a house that you want. Your preferred architectural style, floor-plan, size and finishes. You’re in complete control so long as the house meets building code, zoning and set-back requirements. There is one potential downside when going full custom and that is the question of where you’re going to have your house built? If you already have a lot to build on then great! Going full custom will take a month or so to design the house, 3 to 4 months for permits and then 8 to 12 months to build depending where you are building, how big and who the builder is. Now, if you don’t have a lot and you need us to find you one, that could add a lot of time to your custom home build. We have had clients hire us to find them a lot off-market to build on. I have sourced lots off-market in as little as a month and then I have see some clients wait 2 to 3 years to find the right lot.  Going full custom just depends on how patient you want to be and how much you want to customize.

To explore these options in more detail feel free to contact me for a Free New Home Consultation.

Elliott R. Oliva | The Oliva Home Group

703-344-8153 direct | [email protected]

 

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