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Back in WA state, there were several low cost home builders, that only had 10 home plans, but they built the homes for about $38 per sqft, there were a couple of things that you had to do yourself, like paint. Overall they were not bad and better than a double wide at any rate.
Are there any low cost builders in the tricities area? Is $42 per sqft, not including the land a feasibility? Double wides are in the $42 per sqft range, but I live in one now and would rather build a low cost home than buy another dbl wide due to resale value.
Any ideas or is there no way this will work? What's the lowest cost you've been quoted for new construction?
Tony in TN
p.s. I had my first LPN interview on friday (no results yet) and the wife has an interview at the VA on tuesday (really hope she gets the job) Wish us luck, if I can find a decent job, I just may be able to stay in JC for the long haul.
Hey Tony good luck with your LPN interview and your wife's interview at the VA. What type of job is she going for there?
I don't know if you can beat the price per sq. foot of a mobile home unless maybe you build it yourself. Up in Maryland we have a larger number of fine Modular Home builders which, of course, are different than mobile homes although some folks, even realtors, down here do not know the distinction. I found one modular home builder down here Atlantic builders I believe is the name. They are doing a neighborhood in Kingsport, a condo development in Pigeon Forge and they did the Pointe 24 condos on Boone Lake. The thing with most modular homes is that they are built indoor in good conditions and with woodworking equipment and work tables/**** that ensure everything is square etc. so good quality but it still costs about as much as stick/site built.
Don't know how to find a cheap homebuilder. I have worked for builders and modular home companies and subscribe to all types of architecture magazines so I am very interested in building. For a bang for your buck the trailer/ double wide is it. You can find a real run down home or a small home that you can build on to to build equity. There was an intriguing article in Dwell magazine a few months back about some design firms rehabbing old mobile homes by increasing the outer insulation and roofs etc. and improving them to increase their lifespan. There are a number of companies that are looking to 're-invent' the mobile home to raise it from its poor housing status to level where folks who could build other options would be enticed to consider it for its affordability and portability. A home worth keeping and moving to another site someday. There coming up with some neat things, real contemporary designs that aren't the standard mobile home everybody knows. Problem is I don't know of any mobile home builders in the area looking into it.
Hey Tony good luck with your LPN interview and your wife's interview at the VA. What type of job is she going for there?
I don't know if you can beat the price per sq. foot of a mobile home unless maybe you build it yourself. Up in Maryland we have a larger number of fine Modular Home builders which, of course, are different than mobile homes although some folks, even realtors, down here do not know the distinction. I found one modular home builder down here Atlantic builders I believe is the name. They are doing a neighborhood in Kingsport, a condo development in Pigeon Forge and they did the Pointe 24 condos on Boone Lake. The thing with most modular homes is that they are built indoor in good conditions and with woodworking equipment and work tables/**** that ensure everything is square etc. so good quality but it still costs about as much as stick/site built.
Don't know how to find a cheap homebuilder. I have worked for builders and modular home companies and subscribe to all types of architecture magazines so I am very interested in building. For a bang for your buck the trailer/ double wide is it. You can find a real run down home or a small home that you can build on to to build equity. There was an intriguing article in Dwell magazine a few months back about some design firms rehabbing old mobile homes by increasing the outer insulation and roofs etc. and improving them to increase their lifespan. There are a number of companies that are looking to 're-invent' the mobile home to raise it from its poor housing status to level where folks who could build other options would be enticed to consider it for its affordability and portability. A home worth keeping and moving to another site someday. There coming up with some neat things, real contemporary designs that aren't the standard mobile home everybody knows. Problem is I don't know of any mobile home builders in the area looking into it.
What with the price of new construction today, it's no wonder other less costly approaches to building are being explored. I just always question the long-term value of 'mobile' homes, rehabbed or not.
Our real estate/building company for a few years represented a modular home company, Nationwide Homes out of Martinsville, Virginia. Excellent product and good company to do business with. We *built* several of these homes, one was a 2-story spec house colonial, the other's for customers who were able to take one of the company's basic designs and make certain changes to suit their needs. Then the houses were built in the NH factory and shipped in modules to a prepared site (w/ foundation in place) after which a crane 'set' the houses on the foundation. Then the house got buttoned up w/ missing siding installed and roof installed. It was all a pretty neat process but at the time (in Mtn City) there wasn't a huge demand although we did do one house in the NC mountains before we gave up our dealership to concentrate on other projects.
Perhaps now though, folks looking for alternatives will be more interested in this process, which definitely saves time! The product can be very attractive, too - hard to tell it from a traditional on-site built home. The 4 bdrm colonial we did had some wood floors, a gas fireplace. Another spec house (which sold quickly) was more of a contemporary style - good use of space and of course, we added some extras like a big deck. I just checked one website and the sq. ft. price for Nationwide was quoted as starting at $65. Might be something to look into. If you find a good, responsive dealer in the area (who knows their product), they can help you find the right design then select options and make changes so you have a more or less *custom* house built to your specs.
Good luck, Tony - with your job search and the house!
Something I wish you could still get financing for [maybe you can, depending on the design] was like my parents first home. It was what's called a "story and a half" Cape Style home. The bath room was on the first floor along with two small bedrooms or could be set up with a large master and then there were steps up to a door and the whole upstairs was unfinished. You insulated and finished out the upstairs as you got money. Don't know that can get a loan for a home in that incomplete state any more.
Sarah's correct that for a simple style, smaller sq. ft., a modular rancher could be about the cheapest sq. ft. cost to build and will hold it's value just like any other stick built and better than mobiles. I was a sales rep for about a year for a defunct company called Deck House they made beautiful pre-engineered homes but were actually much higher than stick built homes per sq. ft. as high as 150-170 a sq. ft., [thus, why they are defunct]. After I left them I worked for North American Modular Homes and I was looking at doing a raised ranch with a walk out basement on one side and having the concrete foundation poured 10' high and heavily insulated and waterproofed so I could build the kitchen myself and living room and a half bath downstairs and the utilities. [like most of the 70's style Deck Houses were designed], and then the rancher part I ordered from the builder would just be bedrooms and bathrooms and a laundry room, no expensive kitchen.
Plus, modular homes will sometimes do what we used to call a "set and get" where their crew and crane only "sets" the sections on the foundation, bolts the sections together, unfolds the roof sections and clamps then together and then takes off. You have to finish installing the missing pieces of drywall inside at the marriage walls and put the siding on the outside of the short walls that they leave off for shipping your self. [They like to refer to this as an "owner completion package" or something like that] You also take care of getting your own plumber and electrician to come and hook in the wiring to a breaker box and the plumbing to the well/septic. It can save you money over a "turnkey".
Actually Deck House isn't "defunct" they just ended up having some lean times and it was kind of a family owned business and some other complicated things and it got bought by another company called Empyrean a few years back and I believe you can certainly still get a Deck House, or an Acorn Home, a former competitor of Deck House that became the same company back in about the '90s. The company is still a going concern and still on Main St. in Acton MA. Beautiful homes but definitely not an inexpensive option. I worked out of the central MD Acorn display home in Davidsonville, MD and the model in Gainesville Va and the model in Annapolis that they built when I was a rep in the late 90s. They are very, very beautiful contemporary post and beam homes with floor to ceiling windows and signature T & G 'decking' on the roof.
Atlantic Custom Homes - THE OAK (http://www.atlanticcustomhomes.net/index.php?page=122 - broken link)
Thanks for the link, very cool house plans, haven't heard from them on cost yet. I spoke to one builder last year that builds in the $65-$70 range, I saw some of his homes, they are nicely done. I just need to be less expensive if I can.
I looked at a double wide 1036 sqft for $43,900 brand new, I'd love to be able to build at those prices. I know it can be done, it's done by several companies out west, so I can't imagine that it can't be done here as well.
43,900 for a completed home with well and septic? Even if you build on a slab... Even if someone gives you the land for free....
I think that amount of money might buy you the lumber and some of the windows...well good luck.
See if Atlantic has any homes they can build for you like I spoke of earlier where the master is on the first floor and the upstairs is unfinished. Might be a way to go.
43,900 for a completed home with well and septic? Even if you build on a slab... Even if someone gives you the land for free....
I think that amount of money might buy you the lumber and some of the windows...well good luck.
See if Atlantic has any homes they can build for you like I spoke of earlier where the master is on the first floor and the upstairs is unfinished. Might be a way to go.
Well at the quoted building cost of 64 per sqft, that 1036 sqft home is just over $66,300, about 1/3 more than the double wide, is 1/3 more cost justify stick over trailer?
As to land, I have land coming out of my ears, I'm land rich, cash poor, 26 acres and 8 acres. I'd just as soon sell the land find a small lot someplace and build a little house.
I still think your math even on a very small house like 1036 sq. ft. cabin is not including well, septic, basement, grading, driveway.
You're land poor as they sometimes say? Cool, there's worse things in this life to be.
How far out in the weeds are you? Can you subdivide? My friend lives in a trailer park over near Bristol. The owners have put in over 50 trailers over the years and charge on average about 500.00 a month to live in them. I sure as H--l wouldn't put up with that many rental trailers but 28,000.00 a month is a pretty good cash flow from a worn out tobacco farm.
If I can find a couple acres in the next few years, especially if it already has one trailer on it if I have enough room to build in another corner of the property and the ground percs for it etc. I wouldn't mind having one or two rental trailers on a corner of my farm to offset the mortgage I've priced used trailers like this couple bought and had drug back to their farm and they can be had pretty reasonably.
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Modular home builder in JC
I've priced used trailers like this couple bought and had drug back to their farm and they can be had pretty reasonably.
