I've had experiences in getting house built and buying preexisting house.

Bring some one with you who loves to nit pick everything during inspections when buying a preexisting house. This will counter act the excitement and eagerness to buy a home. When you say "I love this house" and that person will say "but did you see that cracks on the ceiling, how about the smell coming from underneath the sink, did you see that timber - looks like termite got to it".

When we bought our preexisting home we loved it, it has defects and all but nothing we couldn't fix ourselves. It is more than 10 years old and the things that started playing up was the piping and our water heater.

But the only problem is, after 3 years living in that house my missus and my kid saw something, something that scared them both. I have not seen it so it was okay for me but they will not stay there on their own. It was not a regular accurence that's why I said to the missus probably just a visitor who used to live there once.

That is the thing about buying a preexisting home - the previous occupants.

Another option is house and land packages. More work and more headaches and more time involve but at the end it is your design it is your selection and you know it is all brand new.