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..
Showing posts with label manufactured home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label manufactured home. Show all posts
Friday, November 4, 2011
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Building a home and saving money
We married at age 16 and 17 and have been happily married for 35 years. Working hard all of our lives we could not wait until we could build a
new home of our own, After 30 years we finally had the opportunity to
build a home on 2 acres of land that we inherited from my husbands parents. In
2007, life had finally given us the break we needed to complete our
American Dream, a new home.
The bills were paid off and our credit was great. We both had jobs and my husbands company went from hardly getting by to making a good living. We would do the work of a contractor to save money allowing us to get the extra things we wanted for our new home. Here is the beginning of our story and all the good and bad times that occurred when building our own home. We saved money and I hope to detour you from making the same mistakes we did.
We decided to buy a modular home then add on a room to make it unique. The difference between a manufactured home and a modular home is like the difference between a trailer and a stick built home. The walls of our home were not put together with staples but had sheet rock walls with nails. After several months of looking we finally found the layout we liked and we were ready to move forward. A big difference between a modular home and a manufactured one is we can get refinanced and manufactured homes cannot.
Our land was 20 minutes from the suburbs of Kansas City. We lived in a rural area and it being only 20 minutes to the city we could enjoy the best of both worlds. Being a artist and having the ability to draw out the scaled plans would allow us to save money on an architect. We were off and going and the first goal was to get a permit from the county. This was the beginning of learning the hard lessons of rules and regulations that made having a home seem miles away in the beginning.
Kelly Says, "Stay tuned for the rest of the story of building a home in 2008. I will tell you all the trials and tribulations we experienced as we made the effort to make our American Dream of owning our own home a reality.
The bills were paid off and our credit was great. We both had jobs and my husbands company went from hardly getting by to making a good living. We would do the work of a contractor to save money allowing us to get the extra things we wanted for our new home. Here is the beginning of our story and all the good and bad times that occurred when building our own home. We saved money and I hope to detour you from making the same mistakes we did.
We decided to buy a modular home then add on a room to make it unique. The difference between a manufactured home and a modular home is like the difference between a trailer and a stick built home. The walls of our home were not put together with staples but had sheet rock walls with nails. After several months of looking we finally found the layout we liked and we were ready to move forward. A big difference between a modular home and a manufactured one is we can get refinanced and manufactured homes cannot.
Our land was 20 minutes from the suburbs of Kansas City. We lived in a rural area and it being only 20 minutes to the city we could enjoy the best of both worlds. Being a artist and having the ability to draw out the scaled plans would allow us to save money on an architect. We were off and going and the first goal was to get a permit from the county. This was the beginning of learning the hard lessons of rules and regulations that made having a home seem miles away in the beginning.
Kelly Says, "Stay tuned for the rest of the story of building a home in 2008. I will tell you all the trials and tribulations we experienced as we made the effort to make our American Dream of owning our own home a reality.
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