When you think of buying a house, you probably picture having to take out a loan and get approved for better interest rates than if you were to buy land. The truth is that there are many reasons why you should consider buying land instead of a house. There are more benefits to buying land over houses like more flexibility in designs, less expensive taxes, and using the money saved on construction costs for landscaping projects.
Flexibility of Design
When you buy estate properties, you’re able to do what you want with the plots of land you bought. Land is not restricted to the building codes that houses are under. You can choose how many stories your new home will have and the materials that it’s made out of. While you may still be limited in some ways by zoning laws, there are far fewer restrictions on purchase land than with a house.
Less Expensive Taxes
Another reason that you might want to consider buying land instead of a house is that land purchases are far less expensive than buying a home. While the interest rate on loans for purchasing homes might be lower, you’ll probably see an increase in property taxes when buying a house. This means that annual home tax payments could very well exceed the cost of borrowing money for your purchase.
Using Money Saved on Construction Costs for Landscaping Projects
When you buy land rather than constructing a new home, you not only save money on borrowing funds for construction but also get to use any cash saved from building materials and labor costs towards landscaping your yard. Depending on where you choose to build your new home, there may be significant costs in clearing land or finding land that’s already cleared. While it’s possible to build on land with dense vegetation, having this work done for you when buying land can be very beneficial.
More Storage Options
There are more storage options when you purchase land than there are with houses. When you buy land, there is no need to worry about adding cabinets and other storage features to utilize unused space. You also won’t have to worry about the finished look of your floors competing with custom built-ins or shoe racks that stretch across longer spaces in homes that were built with specific purposes in mind rather than aesthetics.
Fewer Home Improvement Restrictions
When purchasing land instead of building a home, there are fewer restrictions on what you can and cannot do with the land itself. This is not to say that there aren’t any regulations, but rather that it’s easier to make your land more aesthetically appealing. There are also no restrictions on how far out from the road the land should be and what types of landscaping materials that may or may not be used.
Flexibility in Lifestyle Choices
One other benefit to land purchases instead of home construction is flexibility in lifestyle choices. Whether you want to live off-grid, take extended trips outside the United States, or simply move around a lot for business reasons, land ownership provides much more flexibility than purchasing a house ever would. While homes need to have utility hookups and other amenities to qualify for home insurance, land doesn’t require these.
Right to Build a Structure on Land
Another benefit of land ownership is that it gives you the right to build a structure of any kind onto land. This means that you could have a tiny house built with land instead of starting from scratch building your own tiny home. That being said, land doesn’t afford you the same protection as having legal ownership over an entire piece of property does. It’s important to remember this distinction when buying land where someone else has already built something on it without owning the land itself or getting proper permits for construction.
Ability to Sell Your Land
If you build a house on land that you purchase, selling the land later may become very difficult. Even if it’s possible to resell land with an existing structure, specific rules about what can or cannot be done to the land during construction are often specific to the area where the land is located. Since there are no restrictions when buying land itself, it can be much easier to sell your land should you ever need or want to do so in the future.
Land is a great investment because land prices tend to go up over time. If you think land might be for you, it’s important that you understand the difference between land and property before making your purchase. Land without buildings on it doesn’t come with many of the same protections as owning an entire piece of property does so make sure to do some research first!
