All In A Days Work

When deciding to build a home you will be faced with a number of difficult decisions. One of these will be whether to build the property from brick or whether to opt for the more traditional wood frame house; which is clad in your choice of siding.

Before you make your final decision, it is a good idea to talk to a reputable professional such as Peter Bracey; this will allow you to visualize the final look of your property if you choose the cladding route.

The Benefits Of A Brick Home

You may be interested to know that 34% of people surveyed preferred brick as their exterior choice.

Brick is generally very low maintenance. It doesn’t usually lose color over time or degrade, in fact, brick houses can last for centuries. There is no need to worry about it rotting and, perhaps most importantly in Australia, termites will not be able to eat the supporting shell of your home.

Despite being one of the oldest used building materials, brick remains one of the most environmentally friendly. There is an abundance of clay and shale, which are used to make brick. Of course, some energy is used and there is an environmental impact connected to creating the building brick shape.

It is also good to know that brick is fire resistant and is surprisingly good at withstanding the impact of flying debris, an important consideration in some parts of the country.

In fact, the safety aspects associated with brick means that many insurance companies will actually lower your insurance premiums; that’s an ongoing saving.

Of course, building with brick is more expensive than the traditional timber frame with cladding.

The Benefits Of Siding

If you choose vinyl siding then there is no maintenance, except for the occasional pressure wash. Of course, applying cladding to a wooden framed house is a much cheaper option than building with brick. However, there will be ongoing maintenance issues with the wooden frame that you won’t have with a brick house.

It will be important to have access under your home to check the structural integrity of the building.

But, despite the extra maintenance that will be needed, it is worth noting that cladding allows you to create a unique home, in virtually any style and color.

The options with cladding are virtually unlimited; you can even change the look every ten or twenty years just for the fun of it. It is also possible to build and clad a house sustainably, by using recycled wood and composite cladding. This is an important consideration in an environmentally conscious world.

Is Brick better?

This is a difficult question to answer as the final decision will be personal. If you want low maintenance and live in an area prone to storms then brick could be the best option.

However, if cost is more of an issue and the weather less, a timber frame with cladding is a viable and attractive solution.

The decision will rest on your budget and where you are intending to build

These days it can be tough to make ends meet. While we all do our best to be frugal, 40% of Americans can’t cover a $400 emergency expense. But if you own your own home, you may be sitting on untapped potential income.

Photo by Sarah Jane from Pexels

Rent Out Room

Fewer homes are being built, relative to the US population, than at nearly any time in history largely due to the real estate market crash of the last decade. This has led to a lack of available housing in many US communities. If you have extra room in your home to create a rental suite, this could be a fantastic and reliable source of side income for your family.

If you live in an area that has a decent tourist population, or live close to a college or university, you might also have luck renting out extra rooms, or even your whole house on occasion, to visitors through sites like AirBnB. While possibly not as consistent as having a full time tenant, the per-night rate can be much higher and you’ll have more flexibility for how often you want to share your space.

Even if you don’t have space for anyone to reside in your house, you might consider leasing space on your property for off-season storage of large vehicles like RVs, boats, snowmobiles, or motorcycles. Depending on where you live, you may even be able to take advantage of opportunities to sell parking space during special events where overflow parking lots are in demand.

Leverage Your Equity

If you have owned your home for awhile and have accrued equity by paying down, or paying off, your mortgage, your house can be used as leverage for getting certain types of loans. A home equity loan is often a better option than higher interest credit cards or personal loans. Because your home is such a valuable asset, banks are willing to lend money at a much lower rate if you can offer your home as collateral.

Another option, available to those aged 62 and over, is working with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to obtain a reverse mortgage which allows you to access cash from the value of your home while still living in your home, rather than waiting until some distant date in the future when you sell the property. While reverse mortgages are insured by the government, the loan itself has to be obtained by a private company. That means if you live in Ohio, for example, you’ll want to find a local equity release originator who works with HUD.

Live Off the Land

If you’ve never tried vegetable gardening, you might find that it’s not only a relaxing and rewarding hobby, it’s a great way to save money on groceries. After a small initial investment in establishing your garden beds and purchasing seeds and other equipment, the benefits go up and up each year as seeds can be harvested and saved and used the next year while food scraps can be returned to the soil as nutrient rich compost.

But why stop at vegetables? If your community allows the keeping of animals, you might try raising chickens for fresh eggs and poultry. A prolific pair of rabbits takes up little space and can provide as much meat to a family as a single cow!

Or if you simply don’t have the itch to farm, but you would like to put your yard to use as arable land, open your front yard up to community gardening and share in the bounty of the harvest while meeting neighbors and enjoying having less lawn to manage. Just be sure to check that front yard vegetable gardening is allowed in your community first.

From starting a home business to upgrading your utilities to more efficient systems, there’s many more ways to tap into the money-making potential in your home. All it takes is a little creativity and patience to make the most of your property’s value.