Buying land and Building a house

Whatever you do make sure you can get to your house in the worst weather. I have a neighbor who rents out his 2 houses above me up an 8 percent grade, the tenants have to walk up sometimes for 2 weeks at a time cause the landlord lives in FL. And does nothing to maintain the road past my house.

But you should have fun doing the work and living W.F.O. Way Far Out .
Good Luck

 

Modular as in a prefab home not a mobile home. Its built on a foundation the same as any other home, just all the walls are prebuilt in a factory.
[/QUOTE]

I would think that is a better choice, but the same caveats might apply.

IMO the best alternative is to build it yourself if at all possible.

 

Modular aren't built on a foundation, they are placed on one. Easiest way to check is a house is manufactured or modular is to look underneath. A manufactured is built onto a metal frame axles are attached. The transport mechanism is also part of the house. A modular is built on wood framing (usually) and the entire house is moved by trailer. No transport mechanism remains once the house is placed.

A HUD manufactured can be built every bit as well as a good frame house, and a cheap modular cane built every bit as bad as a cheap mobile home. 1 does not preclude the other.

Iirc there are some "prefab" houses that are basically built off site and just assembled on site, but they are the rarity.

 

Any luck on your plans to build out there. Did you end up buying the land and doing stuff to it. Interested because I would love to do something like this way down the road. Hate dealing with city people and even some suburb people so I feel like living WTFO is the only solution lol. Land would be nice to do my own thing as well.

 

I like that a lot
My wife and I want to sell and move to N. NH and do exactly that

 

Seams like you’ve made up your mind, but if you didn’t I would recommend a basement. Not sure if anyone did the same or otherwise.
You could add a pellet stove to your basement and keep your plumbing warm and warm your first floor floors.
Eventually I will add that to my house and I already have a wood stove.
Pellets are fairly inexpensive at like $250 per ton

 

We had financing lined up but the debt (costs plus interest rates) would've been crazy. Plus we found out that there were some regulations regarding what we could do there. Decided to play it safe for now and bought a house in the burbs for now. We will slowly build equity where we are and then take on the project on down the line. 5-15 years before this gets reconsidered. Also depends on if I decide to start my own fab shop making custom yota parts

In the meantime, you can check out what I'm doing over here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/slashs-first-home-build-and-questions.580236/

 

We bought 2 acres out in the boonies 5 years before retirement, built a nice home in 7 months, using saved up vacation time, weekends, holidays. Dollar for dollar, our best investment by far, 25 years and counting.

Do it while you're young enough to withstand the trauma. In order to complete it, you must focus on it every waking minute. Wife did what she could, encouragement, pulling wire, stapling up insulation, picking out cabinets, fixtures, paint colors, running parts, helping move, and 1000 other things.

It can be done, albeit most are not willing to do what it takes. Failures have made banks reluctant to make construction loans unless you are on their list of approved GC's... but talk to them. You'll be surprised, even if you have limited knowledge, experience. A face to face makes you a real person, not just a number. I also know a couple that built a house on credit cards and cash advances. When it was done, they got a home equity loan, which is basically a first mortgage, and paid all the credit cards. I don't recommend it, but after 20 years they are debt free. We did the traditional construction loan/15 year mortgage. Best thing we ever did.

 

We were gonna 100% finance the land, then have a loan with a modular home company then roll both into a mortgage. It was a lot of money to start and we just didn't feel comfortable diving in without knowing 100% that we could get it done. Took the safe route and are now in a cul-de-sac. Compromises were made, but at the end of the day the mortgage is affordable and we are away from the big city enough to not be in a high crime area.
If I was making big money, then I would've been more comfortable going through with it, but not even having enough to make a down payment over 5% or even buy the land outright, financially it wasn't a responsible plan. We will think about it again in 5-10 yrs after we've built some equity into this house and can sell it for more than we paid.

 

It is a big decision and I think you’re doing the right thing, being patient. You’re in a home and that’s the first step.
My parents were gracious enough to allow us to move in with them while we saved up, bought the land and built the house. A 4 year process.
Good luck.

 

Problem is out here land is scarce since I work in a large city that keeps growing beyond it's borders.
Hopefully I can see in the next 5 years whether I'm gonna branch out and start my own Fab shop or not. I want to have a good solid business plan and several product designs before I make my stake in this market. I want to bring out more options for Toyota owners while adding some more unique items that may change the game. Or maybe I'll just partner up with another business. Who knows. The Midwest is really under represented in parts availability and shipping on some of this stuff really turns a lot of people off. Gonna try to do my best to keep costs down and pass savings off to the consumers without sinking my own ship in the process. But I know I'm gonna be probably like some of the smaller companies where I only sell in stock product. I don't want to put myself in a situation like PB where I'm taking orders I can't deliver on. I'll be taking some business management classes next year to help prepare myself.

 

Just remember, when hearing about PB, you can read their published statement but take that with a grain of salt. No one but those at PB knows the TRUTH. If you do right by your family and business, it will work.

 

I agree, I don't know their side, but the media blackout was unprofessional. I understand we are all human and make mistakes, but as a company with people's money on the line, a simple email would've sufficed.

 

Agreed

 

Snow melt systems are great. Just not cheap to heat the outdoors unless you can do a wood fired boiler or solar.

 

No thanks. That's a lot of unnecessary money. I'll just salt and plow.

 

Maybe if I was in town and my driveway was less than 50'...

 

Which lender was offering you a loan to finance even 100% of the land? That's just buying he land for you and you'll have zero skin in the game.

 

https://spurrmortgage.com Depends on credit score and what not. It was a high APR but we would've rolled it into the home loan for a lower rate.

 

@inesshell