Building an Inexpensive Home

chakra · Tar Sands Joined: May 15, 2006 Posts: 78

I've recently started to look at vacant land in my area and have found some relatively good deals. There's a 17 acre lot only 15 minutes from my work for only 33k.

After my mind stopped racing about room for a garden and trees, the question of building a home on that land set in. I called a couple construction companies in the area to get a quick feel for what they think a modest home would cost. I told them a simple home with no extras, around 1000 square feet with just 4 corners.

The answers I got so far have crushed the idea of buying land. I think these people must have these fancy new buildings and excentrically detailed homes on their minds when they quote me a minimum of 200 dollars a square foot. They're basically telling me that it will cost 200k to put up 4 walls and a roof.

I searched google for a while, trying to find designs or ideas for building a half decent home without having to borrow a quarter of a million dollars. So far I haven't really found any good sites on the subject.

If anyone here has any experience or suggestions on building a home that won't break the bank, could you please let me know. I'd like to build a nice home for my family for less then 100k not including land if possible. A basic but nice home that would be suitable for 2 adults with 2 children. Any help is appreciated.

Hawkcreek · Expert Joined: Aug 15, 2004 Posts: 1000

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eastbay · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:07 am Post subject: Re: Building an Inexpensive Home

Consider a yurt. I'm pretty sure you can build one for quite a bit less than $200/sq ft.

Many companies throughout the west produce plans, kits, etc, and will ship the parts just about anywhere. Check building codes and all that first, of course you already know that....
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FoolYap · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 9:33 am Post subject: Re: Building an Inexpensive Home

dunewalker · Last edited by dunewalker on Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:21 pm; edited 1 time in total

Now is not the time to be taking out mortgages to build American-style houses. That era has ended, forever hopefully. If I were you, I'd still consider buying the property though, even if the price is too high, but you can do it with cash. But only if you assess that it would be a viable location post-crash. Is there water on the land? is it reasonably defensible, at least from itinerant wanderers? Wood for fuel nearby? Good neighbors? Away from a major transport route? Soon, those astronomical construction costs will be a laughable memory--the contractors just don't know it yet. For background, read some chapters from Thoreau's Walden. He wrote in depth about his own experience with economical procurement of decent shelter. It is more relevant now than ever.
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Cashmere · Light Sweet Crude Joined: Mar 27, 2008 Posts: 1971

1. Where are you? How much will you need to heat?

2. The 200 a SF is a crock of crap that is being quoted to you by builders who got used to being vastly overpaid during 7 years of housing bubble inflation - have no doubt, every day that goes by the price of a house goes down in labor costs. Of course, materials cost is going the other way. In any case, 200 a SF is the going rate in most midsize city suburbs. Given the land cost, I've gotta believe that you're out far from any city.

3. You can dramatically reduce the cost if you can do things yourself.

4. Keep it simple. Don't get caught up in non-necessities. Don't let the wife talk you into bigger kitchen, bigger counters, more cabinets, whatever.

5. My friend has a modular home - 1,200 sf, really nice, built in a week on site. Cost less than 100k. Just make sure to get 2x6 walls and good insulation all the way around.

6. Without commenting on whether it makes sense to be taking on debt right now, my best advice on the house is this . . . Keep it small. The smaller it is, the easier it is to heat, if you need to heat. 1,000 square feet is plenty of space - don't get caught up in the SF race - there was another post on this site with a guy having a 2500 SF McMansion that he is wondering how he will heat. The answer - he won't, at least not reasonably.

A 32x32 square home with 2x6 walls, a trussed, simple roof, and an 8 foot basement, to me, would make a lot of sense.

I'm sure I could be the general on that, do most of the interior work, and build it for less than 80,000.

Good luck, and remember, after it's built, the tough part is going to be the . . . . energy.
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Ludi · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 10:53 am Post subject: Re: Building an Inexpensive Home

Our shop is one of these:

http://www.tuffshed.com/

which seemed reasonably priced at the time, though you can build your own much cheaper.

You have to finish the interior, but with a couple porches added, one of the large sheds could be a perfectly fine small house.

But I recommend building your own if you can possibly manage it.

We bought our house from a catalog

http://www.jimwalterhomes.com/

and we're not completely happy with it. But it was what we could manage at the time, not even living in the state yet at that point. It needs a lot of work to get it to be what we really want. But that's what we sort of expected - a box we could add onto and improve over time, that would keep the weather out somewhat.
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lionstones · Tar Sands Joined: Apr 03, 2008 Posts: 36

http://tinyurl.com/4rjpg9

dinopello · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:26 am Post subject: Re: Building an Inexpensive Home

http://www.katrinacottages.com/index.html

You can buy plans, get delivery of pre-built or build on site. Not sure how it works though.

Some of the most valuable homes in my neighborhood were Sears houses that were delivered in parts by train and assembled on site.

TommyJefferson · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 3:03 pm Post subject: Re: Building an Inexpensive Home

flash · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 3:23 pm Post subject: Re: Building an Inexpensive Home

Another thought to facilitate quick relocation would be to buy a used RV (trailer or 5th wheel) for temporary (1-5 years) shelter. This would depend on your location (mild climate is obviously the best.) RV's are not selling at all right now due to cost of gas/diesel, so you would be in a strong position to negotiate.

Once you are on the land, you can start planting, getting to know the property, and building your long-term shelter. Oh, and you would get an idea how little space you really need!

bobaloo · Heavy Crude Joined: Oct 14, 2004 Posts: 484

The way I did it involved two things.

First, build in an area that doesn't require building permits. It lets you be creative and adapt your construction to the material and manpower available. For example, we built our first house "pole-barn" style, using 24' 6x6 treated posts on 12' centers, then hung all the walls between the poles. This allowed me to build it myself and never had to deal with a piece of wood longer than 12' except for the ridge beam.

Second, scavenge. We spent two years gathering materials by going to farm auctions, recycle centers and finally had the opportunity to disassemble a neighbors old house they wanted to get rid of when they built a new one.

By doing it this way we built about 1250 square feet, 24' x 24' and two stories, for a total cost of about $3500 in 1980, say $10-$12K today. That's wired, plumbed and ready to move in, a total of about $10 per square foot in today's cost.

Building isn't rocket science, there's really only a handful of different parts in a house, there's just lots of each of them. In addition, almost anything that goes together will come apart again if needed. There were times where we disassembled what we'd done and rebuilt it once we saw what we were doing wrong. Lost a little time but little or no money. When you're done it's YOUR house, with some of your blood in the boards, it makes it even more enjoyable on a cold winter night with the wood stove going.

alokin · Intermediate Crude Joined: Aug 24, 2007 Posts: 872

First question: where are you? If you need heating you need to insulate and that costs - at least if you choose a reasonable standard (Swedish Swiss or German) this is certainly not included in the price you've got.
Second: if you don't want to build yourself you should really look for all details, materials etc. they must be specified written, that you can insist. And (I don't know how is the rule in the US) you must have access to the building site whenever you want, without warning (I guess with the boom builders forgot to built like here in Australia)
Third: Quality costs. Get always the best quality, rather hardwood than softwood etc, stay away from fancy stuff.

Fourth: Maybe you wait, the real estate crisis is not over, the builders will struggle and the more they struggle the more possibilities you get for getting real workmanship quality. Life in a tent caravan, meanwhile.

Fifth: keep it simple, fancy details, strange roof forms etc. are often not more expensive but the fancy details are more prone to building mistakes or leeks.

Sixth: Build traditional, this is no time for trials, use LONG proven techniques and think how you will replace things in 20 years.
(Like a house on poles in a hot climate)

Seventh: Keep it small, less maintenance, less heating and you won't have time to clean a lot. Our house has around 70 sqm an we're 4 of us. And you won't have time to sit around in the house as well.

hardtootell · Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 11:54 pm Post subject: Re: Building an Inexpensive Home

I know there is a social stigma against what I suggest here, but a used late model mobile home can be had awfully cheap and the savings could go a long way towards other necessitys for the future. I have seen habitable ones almost given away. It might cost you ca couple K to move it and a few more to fix/outfit it but its hard to beat on value.

hardtootell · Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 12:00 am Post subject: Re: Building an Inexpensive Home

I know there is a social stigma against what I suggest here, but a used late model mobile home can be had awfully cheap and the savings could go a long way towards other necessitys for the future. I have seen habitable ones almost given away. It might cost you ca couple K to move it and a few more to fix/outfit it but its hard to beat on value.