When you’re looking for a home, there are many decisions you have to make before you can narrow down your options. One of the biggest decisions you will face is deciding whether to buy a used home or a new home. 

Unfortunately for most people, this choice is usually determined by price rather than the supporting facts, which can be a big mistake. 

The quality of your home will remain long after the price is forgotten.

Just like people as we get older, older homes also show their age and need repairs, replacements, and upgrades. On the other hand, new homes should be worry-free for several years. A brand-new home, means a brand new hot water heater, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system, and roof. Which all but ensure no major expenses will be needed for at least eight to ten years. If you enjoy a life with fewer hassles, or don’t have money in reserve for emergency repairs and unexpected expenses, a new home may be the way to go. 

At Emerald Park Homes, we try to provide the most affordable high performance homes with low maintenance and energy efficient products inside and out.

If you go ahead and purchase an older home, it’s especially important to have a thorough home inspection. This should help you negotiate a fair price and give you an idea of problems that will need to be fixed so you can budget for repairs and upgrades. An older home comes with more risk and insurance companies are not willing to foot the bill for those unseen circumstances. There is no guarantee that an older home will not continue to have new issues or surprises after you move in. You will need to make sure that you are personally and financially able to cope with these issues. 

If you need to sell your used home, those same old issues will no doubt pop up again during the next home inspection thus reducing your listing price if you don’t take care of them before worse problems occur.

When you buy or build with Emerald Park Homes, your new home will include low maintenance products so you can spend more time enjoying what you love to do. It will be built in a developing upscale neighborhood without the stress, worry and costs of upgrades and repairs needed in used homes.

Our custom designed homes are built with more advanced building products than required under the current building code. Our heating and cooling systems are custom designed to ensure the highest air quality and comfort levels throughout the entire home.  If you have to sell your new Holmes Approved Home, you will have had three inspections and can provide documentation and photos to possible customers and their realtors to validate the way it was built.

A common question we get asked. It’s what you don’t see behind the walls that makes our homes special.  Aside from our homes being primarily custom designed by our customers, our homes are built with higher grade materials and better building practices to ensure they are built to last. When extreme fluctuations in temperatures and moisture occur, non-structural homes can shift and allow cracks and moisture into the home. Structural slabs and foundations are needed when the home is built in the City of Regina. Sales people may tell you that it is not necessary to incur these extra costs during construction but once the envelope of your home is compromised, the elements like wind, rain and snow will dictate the type of damage that is possible.  We depend on the professional opinions of qualified engineers to design our foundations to make sure it is done right the first time.