Thoughts on building a house?

[J.J.]

Okay, other than or along with the Usual Suspects (Brad) in regards to real estate questions.... I can use some help if anyone knows the answers.

If some people recall I am in the process of suing my builders for providing me with a lemon.

Well, things are progressing. The house is still shifting.  I have separation on one corner of the house where the foundation meets the ground that i can stick a tape measure down the separation 23 inches before it touches bottom.  

We are pushing for a buy back-- really pushing for a buy back. However, I doubt that will happen. I will likely just get them to fix the house and get "reduced value compensation"

______

Now to the question. I wonder what type of house I can get for say $150,000 on a piece of land I own.

I will not be able to sell this house for probably 5 years (my guess as to the max length it will take for the entire subdivision to be completed) because well why buy a house that had major foundation repairs, when they are building one next door.

I am thinking that whatever money I get from the perceived "reduced value" I should put towards a nice piece of land in a fancier neighborhood.   I see 1 acre lots in private communities for $30-50K around here.  (I know thats freaking expensive.)  I'm thinking about buying one of those lots and paying it off over the next 4 years, and then build a house.  I don't WANT or NEED a 200K custom House.   I want builder grade fixtures and carpet and linoleum.  The only things I want are nice cabinets and nice counter tops.  I want a SOLID house that looks nice on the outside that I can slowly customize and upgrade the interior.

The lemon I currently have we closed on for 170K.  Its 2200 square feet. 4 bed 2.5 bath 2 story, with limestone veneer on the first floor and hardiplank on the Second. It has tile in wet areas and kitchen, and a separate shower and tub in the master bath. It's a nice house. If a tract builder can do that,  can I on my own (150 instead of 170 of course.)?

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

you have any builder friends or relatives? its hard to do without contacts and experience

[J.J.]

Nope only person I know is my brothers friend but he got out of the general contractor business and now does custom cabinets for those 400,000+ houses so a bit out of my league and his contacts are too.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

i've seen homeowners gc for themselves  .  can be a disaster,  the times it worked it still took a long time and they spend a lot of the savings on the disasters that a gc can avoid.  at the risk of being non pc here.  hows your spanish? if i was building another jouse now i'd get some latino crews to help me. business is still slow so you might make some deals.  your biggest handicap is guys don't give you a good price because  a) they think they can get away with screwing you  and b) cause they don't get multiple jobs from you so you are a low priority

if you want to go diy i think you might wanna look at modular  they are nicer than you might imagine

[J.J.]

I was gonna get a G.C. cause my Spanish is pretty bad....

And I am sorry but I looked into a Modular home......turns out damned things still have wheels.  I was 3/4 of the way to getting one with my first house.  I toured a factory and finally the guys admited yeah they have axles and wheels.  I just don't trust the depreciation on a home that has wheels.

I was thinking of looking into frame kits.  I know that a lot of Tract homes do that now.
I guess I want a home built but not a "custom home" with art niches and curved walls and etc.  So that makes pricing a hard thing to figure out... What I want shouldn't be $100 a sq ft MIN.  However that's the cheapest i see advertised...I paid $77 a sq ft for my house.  That is with the lot in the price.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

look at more than one manufacturer they build em so that you can crane em off the wheels set em on a full basement or foundation.  i did one that was 8 boxes about 4000 sq foot with a brick facade that was a mcmansion  and i've done em for 100 k out the door. if you have a lot lined up go to a home show  buy a display home  save real big and get a house with all the upgrades as well  upgraded appliances and cabinets granite tops the works.  the banks finance em just like a regular house. and that speaks for how they hold up. plus you avoid a lot of inspection nonsense and can go as quick as 90 days from first shovel to move in

[RevDisk]

I was thinking of looking into frame kits.  I know that a lot of Tract homes do that now.
I guess I want a home built but not a "custom home" with art niches and curved walls and etc.  So that makes pricing a hard thing to figure out... What I want shouldn't be $100 a sq ft MIN.  However that's the cheapest i see advertised...I paid $77 a sq ft for my house.  That is with the lot in the price.

Shame you don't live around here.  There's quite a few outfits literally just down the road that offer those. 

For a couple years, I've drive past this design.   Some day, I want one of those or similar.  Wish I had the skills to do it myself.

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

i did one like that we bought at a home show for 80 k  3 boxes 2 full size and one to ad off the back for the huge kitchen. it came roughed in for the second floor with bath and wiring roughed in for 2 nice bedrooms plus a play/family room or an awesome master suite

depending what you can/want to do you can order em with more or less finish. save a lot that way.  most banks require a minimum level of finish for the financing.

[Hawkmoon]

And I am sorry but I looked into a Modular home......turns out damned things still have wheels.  I was 3/4 of the way to getting one with my first house.  I toured a factory and finally the guys admited yeah they have axles and wheels.  I just don't trust the depreciation on a home that has wheels.

No, they don't have wheels. You are confusing a "mobile home" with a "modular." Modulars arrive at the site on trailers (note the plural), in sections (again, note the plural). You have a foundation erected on the site prior to the trailers arriving. When the trucks come in, each section is picked by a crane off the trailer and dropped onto the foundation, or (for upper stories) onto the previously installed first story.

[Northwoods]

I see 1 acre lots in private communities for $30-50K around here.  (I know thats freaking expensive.)

Dude, that's cheap compared to the Puget Sound.  Even on the outskirts of a small town that's 30 minutes drive from one of the real cities those 1 acre lots in decent neighborhoods are $80-150k.  To get down to $50k for an acre you're waaayyy out in the hnterlands or buying a crap lot that nobody wants (flood plain, bad neighborhood, next to a pig farm, etc).  And that's after the bursting of the real estate bubble.  Maybe there's some acre lots going for cheaper around here, but not anywhere I've found.

FWIW. we had looked into building.  Not counting the land, or well, or septic, or electric hookups, or gas hookups, or clearing if wooded, and if it's pretty level at the building site custom homes START at $84/sf.  Put a few upgrades into the deal and it doesn't take much to get it north of $100/sf.  So out here, to build what you have now would cost $300-400k depending on the particulars.

Tract homes would be cheaper, but not massively.  And no-one is doing tract developments on acre lots out here right now that I know of.

We decided not to build becuase the costs were too high compared to what we could buy, even if only a couple years old.  We wanted something similar to what you have except a little larger (2500-3000sf).  To get that would have cost us at least $500k if we built it.  We can buy something that works just as well for $350-400k.

If my wife weren't dead set on staying in the PNW I'd move out of here in a heartbeat and get somewhere more reasonable.

[Brad Johnson]

Okay, other than or along with the Usual Suspects (Brad) in regards to real estate questions....

Hey Mom, look.. I'm FAMOUS!!!

Brad

[J.J.]

The last time I looked at modular homes it was 5 - 6 years ago and I was all for it.. until i figured out that it was a mobile home that they called modular.

But I am guessing that a stick built at less than 70 a sq ft is not something that can be done how I want unless your a tract builder?

[seeker_two]

No, they don't have wheels. You are confusing a "mobile home" with a "modular."

+1

Mobile, or manufactured, homes are the ones that have axles....single & double-wides. And don't knock them....they don't lose value nearly as bad as you think. And you can order them to whatever specs you want....even to the placement of windows, doors, and electrical & phone outlets. We even ordered ours with no carpet...wood-grain laminate in the whole house (don't let them tell you it can't be done...we did it.) And you can have it in place on your land in 90 days or less.

We like ours....and so does my contractor BIL....

[Jamisjockey]

A true modular home is stickbuilt and delivered in chunks that are prebuilt in a factory, then assembled on site. What you're really looking for in that regard is a "prefab" home.
http://www.maplehomes.com/
http://www.topsider.com/
What about steel prefab, also??

[J.J.]

that is one possibility i am looking into.  as i said i dunno if what i am thinking of is an option at under $100 a sq ft completed move in ready.  i cant afford a custom 250000 house  but i dont want another kb or lennar or etc. 

[Brad Johnson]

Rent before you go mobile/modular.  Anything that looks or feels like a mobile home, no matter how well attached to the foundation, will depreciate like a mobile home.  At least they do here in our market.  They depreciate at roughly the same rate as a premium automobile.  Also, getting financing on a double-wide is tough enough.  Financing on a single-wide?  Forget it unless you have 20% down and are willing to pay 10-15% interest.  A stick-built modular is treated just like any other home.

And you are right, $70 a sq ft is pretty much out of the question unless you go volume builder.  I know you have a bad taste in your mouth about volume builders, but there are thousands of others out there who've had satisfactory results.  I'd investigate a different builder before doing anything rash.

From your description it's less a structure problem than a soil prep problem.  In all honesty I'd be more concerned about geology and site prep than builder.

Brad

[Bogie]

Yeah, what about steel? Some folks have done nice things with 'em... Different construction techniques, but hey, if you have a nice big room, it doesn't matter what shape the interior walls run in...
 

[BMacklem]

I don't know what sort of specs you're interested in, but check into these, if I had the money, I'd build one of these in a heartbeat.


www.Deltechomes.com

They're quite interesting, energy efficient, and very spacious, as there is a guy near me who built one 17+ years ago, it's a very small house (800 sq. ish) but to be honest, you'd think it was more like 1200 sq. from how it was set up.

The prices are very reasonable from what I've seen so for a 4000 sq. (2 layers of 2000 sq. foot) I think it was about 70K or so for the shell, roof, and main floor. You'd still have to do all the interior work, but I'm told that putting one up is a snap, and generally much faster than a traditional home.

Seriously, check out the galleries, and download their pricing guide.

[Leatherneck]

Don't rule out being your own GC.
Don't rule out modular (factory-built, site-assembled) either.

Building on any site you own, you have to consider:
-site clearing
-septic & well installation, unless you're on city water
-excavation and foundation installation
-framing
-closing in and insulating
-wiring
-plumbing
-drywall hanging and finishing
-trimwork and doors, windows, etc

Being your own GC is complex, but it's not rocket science.

TC

[Boomhauer]

Got what you need right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-RLqLx1iYI

[roo_ster]

Some of those prefab steel homes rock.  If you know an architect, he can design you a custom steel home and the factory ill produce the bits and ship them to you.

A buddy did the latter and the material costs vs stick was a wash, because he had so little waste. 

I would not hesitate to run with one of the steel deals.