Housing conundrum....

[TheSilverBuick]

I just can't decide if I want to move, or I guess more to the point pony up the cash and effort to buy a new place.

Lately I've been weighing the cost of building a shop verses simply moving. The on going internal debate is if I build the shop at my current house (I really really like the location), it would promptly put what I have into the house/lot above the realistic selling price of the subdivision I'm in. So assuming I spend X dollars on building a shop, I've been looking at what other local properties are around with bigger houses, etc. that might support a higher re-sale value. Right now I'm sitting between $10,000-$20,000 below what I believe I could sell my house for (vs. what I bought it for). Good news is I will have zero trouble renting my current house out if I move. The rental demand is high.

There is one that has a house, a modular, common to this area, on it that's roughly three times the square footage of my house (and much nicer inside) and sits on a flat 4 acres (as opposed to my 60'x200' lot). Unfortunately there is no garage, etc. and I'm not sure about concrete footprint. So I would almost instantly have to pony up for a good garage, IMO, which would bring my cost upwards $175,000-$200,000 in the property (after building a shop/garage that I'd want). But I think the local area the property is at could appraise for that, but will be on the fringe. There are also a few old cars and a yellow bus sitting on the lot, that I'm wondering if they could be used for negotiating a lower price if they are left behind Funny enough, I was just looking for the ad I was looking at yesterday (and drove by it after work) and the ad seems to be gone... This place is roughly an 8 minute longer drive to work. It's essentially a house on a flat lot.

This picture doesn't show the lot, probably because you can barely see the cars poking around the house on the left and the bus is just outside of view on the right


The second place is $50,000 more and is actually a double wide trailer pretending to be a house. It looks pretty nice for a trailer though. But it sits on 10 acres and has a HUGE shop on it. You know my priorities. The price just dropped last month and if I could chip away at that $50,000 extra I think I would be happy there. This place is roughly a 15 minute longer drive to work.

[Monk]

Man I like the place #2.
The out buildings are awesome.

[Grumpy]

I lilke #2 better also, and what is the smaller Red building that we see in the background? The large building would be a monster to heat but the smaller one looks like it has a garage door? I'm guessing well water and propane for heat, tell them they can discount the price and keep the double wide then bring in your own Modular home, LOL! What about just starting from scratch, buy a couple of acres and bring in your own modular and have your building put up and have it built so you could add on later if you wanted, I'm thinking you don't need a building with 14' tall doors and 16' sidewalls unless the owner is going to leave you his 5th wheel RV that's sitting in the big building?

[TheSilverBuick]

Last I checked, acreage around the town was around $10,000 per acre and sold in 4-5 acre lots. So figuring $20,000 for land, then $80,000 for any kind of decent modular, then having to drill a water well, likely bring in power and dig a septic system for lots of cash, combined $50,000? I'm up to $150,000 without a shop. If I'm off base on one of those costs let me know, last I priced this stuff was around 6 years ago when I bought the house I'm living in now.

**Actually looked up the price on land.

[BBR]

I would probably advise against building a shop where you are at. Reason? it will probably put your resale value so high you can never move the property (without losing big money) if you so desire.

Are there any developers actively building new homes out there? Typically (around here anyway) if they build you a house, they discount the land price so you end up saving a little. When we built a house in 1998, the lot price was 20K but since we used the developer to build the house, the lot cost was only 10k.

If you are game to build, look around for undeveloped lots that the owner has been sitting on paying taxes for years. Many times they will sell just to be free of it. Better yet, watch the courthouse for auctions on tax delinquent properties.

Good luck dude.

[TheSilverBuick]

The new building market is not strong. There is only one active building development going on that I'm aware of, and it's the same one that was going on when I moved here over six years ago. The new houses are priced right at the top of the market and sell slowly. Even the mine two years ago started offering a discount on building modulars as the mine was actively building a development near the mine, and the offer was an employee could have a modular built on their own property at the bulk discount price the mine was getting for them. That's where I got the $80,000 number on the modular. The problem with the land here is lack of utilities. A well pretty much has to be drilled, and in most cases electricity brought in, and both are pricey ventures when I last got quotes.

[TheSilverBuick]

I drove by and took a better picture of place number 1. There is a covair, a mid-80's(?) BMW and VW Beetle out behind the house too.




I'm going to check with the HR department on monday to see what they have for Modular home deals. I'm starting to think this could be a decision between building a shop and building a home (pre-fab, I'm no Bob Vila).

[JOES66FURY]

My thoughts, I have seen guys purchase placed like photo number 2 and either build their own custom home or replace the current trailer/modular with a newer nice one with great sucess...that would be the route I would go if I were a young single guy.

[Beagle]

Place number 2 - building new stuff is frustrating, time consuming, and expensive... and that garage has room to grow. That "mobile home" is a big mother. They're suprisingly well built. I'd have zero issues with living in one.

[dieselgeek]

no worries about modular or mobile homes depreciating super fast? Where I live they lose value quickly, but maybe out there not so much?

[Grumpy]

I'm guessing in your area that there are no "Bank owned" homes that they are trying to get off the books? I like #2, maybe keep what looks like the 2 smaller garages and rent the large part out for storage, not a shop but just storage, around here it would rent quickly! Then maybe sell off 5 of the 10 acres?

[SuperBuickGuy]

Randal, one of my first jobs as a lawyer was selling repossessed manufactured homes. You really need to look at those before you even consider a new one. Seriously. For example, we sold one (not on a lot) for $18,000 that was sold less than a year before new for $122,000. We had one we couldn't give away - but it was literally full of rabbit poo so caveat emptor

That said, there's no way you're building that #2 house/shop for the asking price. IMO Best would buy the place at a discount because of the trailer, then put a slightly used manufactured home on the property.

[TheSilverBuick]

no worries about modular or mobile homes depreciating super fast? Where I live they lose value quickly, but maybe out there not so much?

Not at all. There are houses built god knows when, early 1900's to the 1930's, then the housing track I live in which was built in 1955, there is another housing track I think is mid-70's, and then the last round in the 1980's. And all the houses built in the 1980's are knocking on $200,000 with lots around the size of mine. And when I mentioned in my previous posts about building development, they are ALL modular homes and near as I can tell, the modular homes are holding value just fine. Heck the next town over (15 miles), the houses there are super old and have no foundations under them, but they all sell sub $90,000.

Aaron, that brings of a great point of looking for purchased then cancelled orders. I got the same advice when look to build a shop, find a place with one on discount because the order was cancelled after the pieces were made. I'm going to at least get a price on the modulars the mine was offering if they are still offering that deal. For the cost of concrete, steel and labor it'd be tough to beat that shop on #2.

[SuperBuickGuy]

key to keeping value in modular or manufactured is to put in on a parameter foundation and cancel the title - then it's just a house. It also makes getting a loan a lot easier (because you're buying a permanent dwelling, not a mobile one).

seriously - repos - cancelled orders you get 25% off, repos cost 25%

[Scott Liggett]

My uncle built a few modular homes. They are nearly mobile homes only they sit on a foundation instead a set of tires.

To build a modular home, you need to build the foundation just like a regular house. You will also paying for the trucking of the over size sections of the house. Then there is the crane cost to put the sections in place. Yes, all of this is still usually cheaper than a stick and wall build.

BTW, house #2's double wide looks to be double the size of your current digs.