Make sure you go to the building codes department before you start purchasing a modular or manufactured trailer. Make a list of questions to ask and make sure it is okay to put a modular or manufactured home on the property first. Ask them about all the costs you will need to pay to them for a building permits and miscellaneous costs.
Go on-line and find a punch list if your contracting the building of your own home. This can be very time consuming and a headache so do some research and if you have no education about building a home it may be easier to hire a contractor. This saved us money but we did incur some difficult times even though my husband had built homes for a living. This also came in handy as we were able to add on our own addition.
Adding on an addition has its own set of problems. You must get an engineers stamp when you change the original modular home plans and this can be very expensive. Another important factor to look at is contracts that your subcontractors give you. Read them very carefully and don't take for granted that a good company will always treat you right or a lender will remember everything.
We had a lean out on our home as the company that did our foundation as they forgot to pay the concrete company. We had to pay for the concrete twice before we could close on our home. This did not come up until just before closing on our loan. When trying to find the builder to collect our money back he had went bankrupt and was no where to be found.
This could have been prevented if the lender would have made him sign a mechanics lean releasing us of any responsibility after the job was done. This error cost us more than money. A mechanics lean means the contractor must pay for all the materials or you get what we had here a failure to communicate which equals a extra expense not needed.
As I say you have to dot all your I's and cross all your T's if you know what I mean. They may have been a good company and did a great job but it was not worth the extra cost we were not expecting especially when we wanted to move in. This created a lot of leg work and unwanted stress by this time of building our home. To be continued ...
Showing posts with label contracts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label contracts. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Friday, November 4, 2011
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..
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..
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