Building your own home-Part 2

The best way to build a home that saves you money is to use a either a kit purchased from Home Depot or Lowes or to purchase a modular home, not manufactured. There is a great deal of difference between modular and manufactured.

When you look at a manufactured home you are impressed with what you see for the amount of money you pay but in the long run this is like purchasing a glorified trailer. Manufactured homes cannot be refinanced but modular homes can. Of course if you cannot afford to spend the money on a modular home then the manufactured will be better than paying rent on an apartment.

Make sure you look at a lot of the designs as this is going to be something you will be paying on for a long time. The layout of the home can be changed and before you make the purchase is the time to decide this. After you have made the choice do not purchase the home until you go to the county and find out the requirements.

The county did a perk test which determined what type of system we needed. Of course it ended up being the most expensive kind. We had to spend $13,000 on a septic system as our land was not developed. This came to us as a big surprise and then the upkeep of the septic required renewing a contract of $500 after the second year. Another surprise not known until after 2 years.

We also had many other costs that we had not thought about until we already started the process. A new water meter in our county was $4,500 and that did not count the water line from the road to our home. Go to the county and talk with them and try to be nice as they are the ones that determine when you can actually live in the home.

Before they could decide whether there was enough pressure in the line we were on pins and needles awaiting the results of having city water or having to dig a well. Thank God we got to have city water and this expense was worth it or should I say we had to pay the price since the other option would have been no water. Our great adventure of building our home had just began so stay tuned for the rest of the story..