Choosing every detail of your new home can be both time consuming but also an exciting prospect. You'll have choices in everything from room uses offered by the builder to detailed selections in the types of faucets and light fixtures for the bathrooms. Of course, you'll try to make sure you have thought of everything that reflects your own tastes and preferences along the way.

But what about that completed new house in the same neighborhood that's available in your chosen floor plan for immediate move-in?

Maybe it doesn't have the color countertops you would have ordered or the exact carpet you've always dreamed of, but it's obvious that the builder is willing to stand on its head and eat a bug to sell it, which means that you'll probably get a bargain in the process.

Buying an already completed home can have its advantages. Just because the house doesn't reflect every option you would have selected doesn't mean that it's not the house for you. Consider the following:

• You see what you are getting: An already-completed new home is usually spiffed up for the scrutiny of dozens of would-be homebuyers for regular inspection. Any anomalies in paint, trim, and installations may already have been remedied by the builder at this point for that reason. Damage caused by lookers would no doubt be fixed before move-in and can be a condition of your acceptance.

• Houses surrounding it may already be complete: There is something to be said for having most of the homes around you occupied at move-in. Having a house built from scratch can translate into months of messy construction going on next to or across the way from your new home; an unpleasant prospect at best. An inventory home may remove that scenario from the buying equation.

• Upgrades may be a bargain: New homebuilders usually don't cheap-out (use only standard stuff) a "spec" or inventory home. On the contrary -- they will usually add some attractive upgrades, like more expensive cabinetry or higher levels of carpeting and tile just to ensure the home is attractive enough to sell before too long. This often means the builder will add the upgrades at cost and not charge you the retail price of every installation.

• Builders hate nothing more than having an "albatross" on their hands, forcing them into costly mortgage payments while the masses reject it. The deal that falls through because a would-be buyer lost a job can be good news for you, saving perhaps thousands of dollars.

• The market changed. It may be that the market was hot so the builder put up homes figuring that they would sell instantly. But if the market changes, whoops. Good news for you.

• Incentives offered by builders to eliminate inventory: Homebuilders see lots of things as trade-offs. The cost of "carrying" an inventory home is tantamount to a full mortgage payment for them, including taxes and insurance. Builders are usually willing to wheel and deal with inventory units, offering financing costs, starter backyard landscaping, or a reduction in sales price to have a sure buyer for the property. To a homebuilder, time is definitely money, so the sooner you can take possession, the more motivated they may be to negotiate.

Some inventory homes are those left behind by buyers who ordered the units from scratch, but then failed to perform and close escrow due to reasons unknown. Builders usually understand that some of these completed homes may not contain what most buyers would choose for themselves, also motivating them to "make a deal" when an interested buyer appears.

For instance, just because the original buyer on a new home wanted expensive white laminate cabinetry throughout the house does not mean a subsequent buyer will fall in love with that option. In that case, negotiations might find the builder throwing in the cabinets instead of charging the upgrade cost for them in the sales price -- or accepting a discounted price rather than a market requirement to put in new cabinets.

So look around that new-home subdivision and ask the salesperson a few questions about units which have been built but are unsold. You just may find an already-built new home that's truly a diamond in the rough.

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