205 Doral Drive, Hampstead

Most new construction homes ask you to compromise somewhere. Maybe the lot is tiny. Maybe there's an HOA with opinions about your boat, RV, trailer, or project truck. This one took a different approach. Scheduled for completion in mid-July, this new construction home has 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths in Hampstead's Greenway Plantation community. Everything is brand new, which means your weekends can be spent doing what you enjoy instead of wondering what the previous owner was thinking. The real story here is the land. Three lots convey for a total of nearly 1.4 acres. That's a lot of room for a new construction home in Hampstead, especially one without an HOA. The house sits on Lot 5, while the additional land provides room for the things that don't fit on a typical subdivision lot. Maybe it's a detached garage. Maybe it's a workshop. Maybe it's a pool. Maybe it's simply a place to park the boat or RV without having to explain yourself to a committee. The trees do a nice job of reminding you that not every new construction home has to feel like it was dropped into the middle of a former soybean field last Tuesday. The home is also located outside of a Special Flood Hazard Area. In coastal North Carolina, that's never a bad thing. Kiwanis Park is just up the road, Topsail schools are nearby, Wilmington is an easy commute, and Topsail Island is close enough that ''let's run to the beach for a few hours'' can actually happen. The builder is providing a one-year warranty, and the seller is offering $5,000 in concessions with an acceptable offer. In other words, a little help toward the part of buying a house that nobody puts in the listing photos. Plenty of builders can give you a new house. Not many can give you a new house, nearly 1.4 acres, and enough room to make bad financial decisions at the boat show. Take a look before someone else decides they'd rather have land than rules.