Looking at Pahoa (Fern Forest: lease, appliances, loan)

[hotzcatz]

Nanawale has regulations about the size of house you have to build and I think it's somewhere around 880 square feet so your 10' x 12' isn't gonna work in Nanawale. There is a website for Nanawale which should have these sorts of things mentioned. Nanawale Community Association, Inc

You should definitely visit before deciding where to live and definitely visit before deciding to buy.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Originally Posted by HiloDiver

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEK OP hasn't even visited yet...buying property or a home without having feet on the ground here for several months is very foolish. I always say that property is NOT a liquid investment...a bad purchase could break them financially.

I am not going to disagree about the suggestion to rent for awhile before buying, but there is a good selection of lots in Nanwale for about $3,500. That should not destroy a family's finances if they have to walk away from it.

I don't remember the minimum square footage required by the HOA in Nanawale, but it is at least 600 square feet and might be as much as 800 sq ft.

There are little cottages scattered around Puna for sale for less than the cost of building them, so that is something to look into. Some of them are cute and have all the water catchment in and the driveways graveled. Some even have a small solar electric system.

But for Pete sake. At least go and walk around the lot and check out the neighborhood. There are occasionally residents that are not the best of neighbors and you don't want to buy right next door to them.

[hotzcatz]

Or become one of them.

[fromthefigtree]

Obviously I am going there first before buying. We are not moving there tomorrow, and prob not even next year. But when we are ready to move, I would like it to be ready for us. If this means buying a small house already built and ready, then that's great, but since there is land, and my husband has already planned and built full sized homes before, it may be to our best interest to have him build a small home for us. There is something Sacred about having a passion for something, and if it all falls apart, or we hate it, then at least we went forward with our passion and we learned from it. We will always be blessed and we will always do well. Thanks everyone for their input!

[fromthefigtree]

Rent per year I imagine is around $1000 a month for what we want, so if we lived there a year that's 12,000, if we just bought a place, wouldnt that be a better deal? at least we have something to show for the money spent, even if we chose to move out of there after a year or so. I know there is land maintenance and fees and taxes are there, so how is renting a better idea? Just curious :P

[HiloDiver]

Renting is a better idea because if you have to move and cannot sell, you don't have to keep paying on an empty house.

Don't forget all of the other costs of home ownership that don't pay down the principal or go toward equity...it's not like owning is free vs. renting.

Renting is not cheaper in the long run...but it is much cheaper for the first year of living in a new area because if you decide to leave, you're not stuck with something you can't sell. That's why I always say to brand new forum members that it's really foolish to buy anything the first year. Give yourself time to get to know the areas and neighborhoods so that you aren't stuck.

Regulars are sick of me saying this, here I go again: "real estate is not a liquid investment."

[whtviper1]

Most people don't care that a house is a "liquid investment" - and they already know that. If you have $300,000 in the bank (or "liquid") and put $30,000 down on a $300K house - it doesn't matter if it is liquid or not. That barely dents your savings. A stock might be "liquid" but that doesn't necessarily make it better. If you have a stock that free falls 30% - sure you can sell it and stop the bleeding - but real estate rarely has that kind of free fall unless you buy in pockets of places like Las Vegas or Detroit.

If you live in the house for the first 2 years - you have until year 5 to sell the house 100% tax free on any gain. You don't have to apply that gain to another home. There is no limit to how many times you can take advantage of that tax gain in your lifetime. When you live in the house, the mortgage interest tax deduction is like found money - in the 25% tax bracket - on $2,000 in interest per month, you get $500 per month back from Uncle Sam. Since you are now itemizing, you now deduct state income taxes - and all the other things. Closing costs are deductable.

If you decide to leave in 2 years (like most people do) - you aren't paying on an empty house - you rent it out. Since you are off of Hawaii - you have to get a property mgmt company by law so that takes the bulk of stress out as a landlord. The tax deductions available to a landlord are also huge - including things like your mgmt fees.

If you can't afford to lose the money you put down on a house - or any investment - then you should rethink your tolerance to investing.

A 300K house with 10% down is going to have a payment less than $1,500 a month - even a 750K house on Oahu is going to have a payment less than $3,500/month - less than renting similar houses

[HiloDiver]

All very obvious statements, which have absolutely nothing to do with OP's situation. But whatever.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by HiloDiver

All very obvious statements, which have absolutely nothing to do with OP's situation. But whatever.

OP is looking for inexpensive land, costing less than $5,000, on which to build an inexpensive, minimalist "tiny house," over time.

As far as I can tell on a quick search, less than 5% of the US population has $300K in liquid assets, so no, I don't see the relevance to this thread, either.

The problem with buying undeveloped land on the Big island, especially in Puna or HOVE, is that there is very little market for it currently. If you dig into the listings you'll find that many of those lots have been on offer for 5 years or more, and the ones that have moved recently often were sold at dramatically reduced prices. So if you put your money in, be aware that it can be very difficult to get your money out if you change your plans.

And of course you can't turn around and rent undeveloped land very easily.

Which is why you must, must, must get your boots on the ground and look at properties in person. Some lots are impractical to build on at all. Some have other impediments to what you have in mind, which may not be obvious at first. Please do yourself a favor and use the Advanced Search function here to dig into the archives of previous discussions on this.

[HiloDiver]

OD "gets it".

Here's hoping that the OP will heed the advice. I suspect they cannot afford to lose $5K on a piece of property that is unusable and unsellable, perhaps in a neighborhood that would frighten them out of their slippahs.