The easiest answer is that it depends on buyers’ personal situations and preferences. But the truth is there’s no wrong answer in choosing to buy a new inventory home from ICI Homes or to build one with us.
We’ve built new custom Florida homes all over the state for 45 years, developing master-planned communities and serving as preferred builders in others, and we can vouch that built-to-sale inventory homes and from-scratch new builds work equally well.
The determining factor is buyer circumstances. And while only a buyer knows those, we’re happy to offer some guidance if you and yours are debating that very topic.
Here’s how to decide whether it’s better to buy a home or build a home.
Key takeaways
Both buying and building with ICI Homes are great options—the best choice depends on your timeline, needs, and preferences.
Buying a move-in-ready or quick move-in inventory home is ideal for those who need to relocate quickly or prefer a faster, simpler process.
Building allows for full customization—choose your floor plan, finishes, lot, and layout for a home that truly fits your lifestyle.
ICI Homes offers free or low-cost personalization to tailor our award-winning plans to your vision.
Compared to resale homes, new construction gives you modern materials, energy efficiency, fewer maintenance headaches, and that brand-new home feel.
Buying a home
This means choosing an ICI Homes inventory home — homes built to sell rather than for a specific customer.
They’re some of our most popular floor plans (perennial best sellers) constructed with neutral, timeless materials, colors, and interior and exterior designs. Because there’s demand, ICI Homes includes inventory homes in every master-planned community we develop and in those where we’re preferred builders.
And, they’re easy to find. Our website provides instant access to all inventory homes across our communities. They’re listed as move-in ready (finished), quick move-in (ready within 30 days) or ready soon (within 45-60 days).
An inventory home is a great solution for potential customers who can’t or don’t want to wait on a new build. Perhaps you’ve changed jobs and must move quickly, or you simply don’t want to wait the approximate eight months required for us to build one for you.
Building a home
Building a new custom Florida home takes more time, but you can customize it to your tastes.
We’re known as Florida’s Custom Home Builder and are glad to tweak our award-winning floor plans to fit your needs in any community where we’re active, usually at no or little cost. Building allows you choose your lot, paint colors, flooring, plumbing and electrical fixtures, cabinets, countertops and hardware — and more custom flourishes — to make it truly yours.
Eyeing that custom luxury home instead? Perhaps on your own lot? Our ICI Custom Homes division does nothing except bring dream homes of every size to life.
A word about resales
Many buyers, especially those seeking their first custom Florida home, wonder if it’s more cost-effective to buy an existing, or resale home.
It can be, in upfront dollars and cents. But consider added costs later, when you’re tired of living with the previous owner’s decor, or must replace a septic tank or roof. Resales are like used cars — they have mileage on them. And fixer-uppers can become money pits rather quickly, erasing any cost advantage at purchase.
You have none of those factors with a new inventory home or custom build. Everything’s new, ready to go, and most importantly, it’s truly yours.
Ready for your new custom Florida home? Talk to ICI Homes here.
We’ve built new custom Florida homes all over the state for 45 years, developing master-planned communities and serving as preferred builders in others, and we can vouch that built-to-sale inventory homes and from-scratch new builds work equally well.
