North Georgia - Buying Vacant Land to Build Modular Home (Gainesville: real estate, apartment)

[spazzyfry123]

Hello all.

I'm doing a copy/paste from the Real Estate forum on here so that I can get some local input. Link can be found North Georgia - Buying Vacant Land to Build Modular Home

So about a year or so ago I finished the renovation of my home, sold it, and realized that I didn't really like anything on the market in my price range. In lieu of rushing into something that didn't check all of the boxes, we picked up an apartment to check out a new area and to save some more cash. We're in the "pragmatic stage" of figuring out just exactly what it is we want to do. After who knows how much searching and thinking and number crunching and and and...I think we've decided that we would like to go the route as the title suggests: Buy a decent piece of property and toss a relatively "minimalist" modular home on it. Neither of us are really homebodies, so we see no real reason to hop on the McMansion trend and eat up otherwise disposable income.

The goal:

• Buy acreage in a somewhat developing area. We are considering up I-985 (Gainesville and a little further north; Hall county), up I-85 (Braselton and a little further north; Barrow, Jackson, Banks, and extremely northeast Gwinnett counties), or west side of Lake Lanier (central/north Forsyth county). We don't have any real acreage number in mind, we just know that we want some space and the potential for a decent increase in value later on down the road should we want to sell it off as an investment (read many years from now) to split up for neighborhood, commercial, who knows. We'd like an area that has a decent school system. North Hall looks to be on the up-and-up, so this currently tops our list.
• Drop a small modular home (probably about 1,000 sq ft) on the property. The Russian "Dubldom DD65" is pretty much exactly what we have in mind (ДД 65). A decent open common/kitchen area with a couple bedrooms and a bathroom.
• I'm a car guy, so I will definitely be in need of a garage. A standalone multi-bay setup with a lift, tooling, and small apartment/loft above is the thought. May even look into having this area heated if the need vs want ratio is met financially. I think this will be done after the modular home and things are settled.
• Of course we will need a septic system put in place along with driveway, electricity, public/well water, etc.
• Keep it cheap.

The questions:

1. What hoops are we going to have to jump through to make this happen? I have to imagine that local zoning and permits is going to be the big question.
2. Will having the modular home be built as a crawl space vs on a slab/basement affect what we're trying to do (short of cost of course)?
3. We've got some cash set aside, but I'd like to keep as much of it in our pocket as possible. What is the best way to approach getting a loan for the whole kit? My biggest initial fear is financing for land + building/assembling a modular home. With the knowledge that a garage is wanted, would we be better off building a massive garage that has living space above so that it can be financed "normally" as a stick/site built? I have my doubts once the word "modular" is put into the equation.
4. What tips and suggestions do you have for this situation?
5. Locals to the general area, what other areas other than the ones I have mentioned would be a reasonable area to look in for a couple that works in Suwanee and Lawrenceville?

Thanks a bunch!
-Tyler

[OneDawg]

BEFORE YOU BUY:

* First off you should find out what the county and the town has to say about modular homes.
* What are the requirements for acreage.

KNOW: The distinction btwn the two housing units. A lot of small towns don't know that modulars are crane set on a permanent foundation. That would include SIPS like the DelTec homes.
Not mobiles on blocks with wheels and tongue removed