Cheap homes on the range

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Sounds to good to be true. I will have to keep that site in my favorites just in case.
 
Hmmm… do you have to live there? Sounds like it. OH well… be nice to have camping property ( Travel Trailer ).
 
A town about 25 miles west of us (a big city for Iowa) had a similar program offering a free lot adjacent to the new golf course for anyone who was willing to build in town. Its booming now.

Many people don’t mind a 20 - 30 minute commute to work. And, of course, the crime rate will be much lower. Plus small towns will still allow you to burn leaves in the fall, rather than bagging them!
 
Yea but… do you have to live there now… or could you like retire there or build a getaway ( vacation home ) there?
Guar Fan:
A town about 25 miles west of us (a big city for Iowa) had a similar program offering a free lot adjacent to the new golf course for anyone who was willing to build in town. Its booming now.

Many people don’t mind a 20 - 30 minute commute to work. And, of course, the crime rate will be much lower. Plus small towns will still allow you to burn leaves in the fall, rather than bagging them!
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It looks like the catch is that you have to have the money to build a new house. For those of us who can never afford new houses, and can only buy old ones, that could be a problem!

But I see that if you build in Winnipeg, you get free passes to the curling club. Hmmmm… 😛

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I have my eye on 3,200 acres in Wolf Creek, MT if I win the lottery. The lot is $4.8 million.

PF
 
Instead of a conventional stick built house, one can buy a pre-engineered metal building for around $10 per square foot… about 1/10th the price of a conventional house. Add another $10 for interior walls, insulation, etc. And shazam a really big house for very little money.
 
Al Masetti:
Instead of a conventional stick built house, one can buy a pre-engineered metal building for around $10 per square foot… about 1/10th the price of a conventional house. Add another $10 for interior walls, insulation, etc. And shazam a really big house for very little money.
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Does that include the labor to put it all together, plus wiring, plumbing, etc.? (I’m just curious, since some of us aren’t physically able to do that sort of work).

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CarolAnnSFO:
Does that include the labor to put it all together, plus wiring, plumbing, etc.? (I’m just curious, since some of us aren’t physically able to do that sort of work).

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It’s a ball park estimate; you’d need to contact some of the building manufacturers to get an idea of the erection costs. But given the popularity of them for commercial use, the cost of steel erection and interior finish should be very affordable.

Lots of these companies advertise in the back of magazines such as Popular Mechanics. Some advertise on radio. I used to keep a big file on them from the internet and PM, etc for my “dream house”.

Generally, they are not DIY projects because the steel requires a crane and a crew; the stuff is very heavy. But a crew can erect and install the roof, siding, doors, etc in a couple of days. Minor cost. You want a contractor who is experienced to make sure the alignment is right, the anchor bolts are right, and the bolts are torqued properly. There are even free magazines for architects and owners so they can pick features for their buildings… “Metal Architecture Magazine” is the name of one:

contractorpower.freetrademagazinesource.com/EnterEmailAndRegion.aspx

click on that for a free subscription as an owner.

Google lists tons of these manufacturers… just search for “metal buildings”

Once you have your site and your file of sketches and ideas, you’d need to find an architect to do the drawings and such, although the manufacturers often offer that service.
 
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CarolAnnSFO:
It looks like the catch is that you have to have the money to build a new house. For those of us who can never afford new houses, and can only buy old ones, that could be a problem!
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New, old, what’s the difference? It’s not always the age of the house that drives the cost up. Construction loans can actually be easy if the house you are building is going to be worth more than the cost to build.
 
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wabrams:
New, old, what’s the difference? It’s not always the age of the house that drives the cost up. Construction loans can actually be easy if the house you are building is going to be worth more than the cost to build.
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I’m just going by my own experience – when I was house-shopping (a few years ago), new houses were totally out of my price range – it doesn’t matter whether I get the loan if the monthly payments are going to be more than I can afford (the condo I sold wasn’t even close in price to even the cheapest houses). As a matter of fact, every even remotely suitable house I found in my price range was at least 50 years old (and the one I bought is a lot older than that 😉 ).

Maybe it’s because where I live, both land and housing are extremely expensive.

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Jeffrey:
Yea but… do you have to live there now… or could you like retire there or build a getaway ( vacation home ) there?
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That’s a good question! I don’t know.

It seems like most of the small towns which have been recruiting folks prefer young couples with young kids - but I can’t imagine them turning down anyone who wants to invest in the community.
 
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CarolAnnSFO:
I’m just going by my own experience – when I was house-shopping (a few years ago), new houses were totally out of my price range – it doesn’t matter whether I get the loan if the monthly payments are going to be more than I can afford (the condo I sold wasn’t even close in price to even the cheapest houses). As a matter of fact, every even remotely suitable house I found in my price range was at least 50 years old (and the one I bought is a lot older than that 😉 ).

Maybe it’s because where I live, both land and housing are extremely expensive.

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CarolAnnSFO:

It gets a lot cheaper when the land is free, and when you’re doing the steel construction some of the brothers are suggesting here.

There’s a contractor that erects steel buildings (everything including the foundation, windows - double sealed, doors, insulation, elect., plumbing, HVAC, fire suppression etc.). They’re still less than 1/2 the cost of comparable steel buildings, and they go up in about 1/2 the time.

They’re sturdy usable buildings. I don’t know how usable they are for homes, but they’re definitely sturdy and cheap.

But, even if you pay to build a conventional stick building, getting the land for free takes away 1/2 the overall cost. As long as you design and contract a reasonable home, I don’t see banks turning down the loan, esp. since the land you’re getting for free is worth real money.

In your case, there’s the problem of American citizenship… That might be the rub.

In Christ, Michael
 
Another alternative would be a modular home, sort of like a double wide without the steel frame under it. I think these are selling for about $50 a foot now, which is about half the cost of conventional construction. A simple ranch may be a little cheaper, a two story a little more.
 
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geezerbob:
Another alternative would be a modular home, sort of like a double wide without the steel frame under it. I think these are selling for about $50 a foot now, which is about half the cost of conventional construction. A simple ranch may be a little cheaper, a two story a little more.
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And the funny thing is that a modular is better built than a lot of new homes in your cookie cutter neighborhoods and after the initial purchase are classified as stick built.
 
Wow–I could probably move to Iowa…lots of place to run around like a crazy person (my favorite past time).

I know here in Indiana new houses are a lot cheaper than already established homes–too many new subdivisions going up all over constantly—
our new home was under 100k, whereas to get a nicely kept pre-existing home in town would be around the same amount if not more–and could be 20 yrs older…
 
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Dubervilles:
our new home was under 100k
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That’s amazing! Here, even an old (and not entirely modernized) house will go for twice that, and a new house, for three to four times that much. Where I work, it’s even worse (six to eight times that amount for “new”). :bigyikes:

I guess a lot depends on where you live! 🙂

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