Real estate, starting over

W

wander2039

Joined
Feb 26, 2005
Messages
4,842
Location
Kansas, USA
Found a property we liked and just put in for a land loan. I know people do this all time but I'm as nervous as a alley cat.

Paid off our house 5-6 years and over the years have pretty much rebuilt it. New kitchen, two new bathrooms.. only a couple sections are left to finish. It's a small house and lot but we made it work. Fairly cheap and allowed her to be a stay at mom for 8 years. Problem now is the neighborhood and the county in general. Due to some concussions I can't handle the bass in music, just kills me. Unfortunately our houses are close and my neighbors don't get it. And yes I've tried twice talking to them, anymore we just turn them in past 10:30p. Won't even discuss the county.

Looking at 10-20 acres raw land -no house- max a hour from the city. Financially we can afford it just not as free as before. Only real debt is the BMW and we put over 40% of our income in retirement. Almost feels like we're taking a step back, by the time we do everything maybe 350-400k. So much for retiring early. Looking forward to whole thing though but still nervous.. House that I won't have to fix anyone else's mistakes, shop.. and maybe too many tractors. Grew up on a farm so making a little income from it isn't out of the question.

Enough rambling.. We're only 44 and 47 so not too old. Anyone start over at this stage?
 
I purchased a nice FL 2ac lot that backs up to the everglades using a construction loan. Worked out very well, despite the initial high interest rate. As the 'draws' the builder made were initially small, such as the cost of the slab. Then the walls, then the trusses/roof. So most of the payments were near nil, until completion. Then the loan converted to a conventional mortgage. $1414 per mo in 2002. Not bad! House took 9mo. I was 39 when I did this.

$45K for the lot, $157K for the mostly finished house. I then did the flooring, appliances, and interior stuff like sinks, cabinets, tub, tile. Stuff that's not too hard.

I knew what I wanted and made very few configuration mistakes. The layout is exactly right and worked as well as I hoped. My shower for example is almost 9 feet by 4.5 feet with two stations and 6 shower heads. Big well pump, 3/4 inch copper plumbing for high flow, etc. Nice large kitchen, 6 burner propane cooktop, etc.
House kitchen 4.webp


I lowered the garage floor from the original design about 2 feet and lowered the garage ceiling about 2.5 feet. This made a 'bonus room' for storage above the garage that is nearly 30 feet long.

I'm 61 and will do it again, prob in TN. I plan a ranch style house, with large doors, no stairs and no basement. The idea is to be wheelchair or walker accessible. Everything easy for an older couple. My grandfather did this and it worked out perfectly.

ZT652H2.jpg
 
wander2039 said:
Enough rambling.. We're only 44 and 47 so not too old. Anyone start over at this stage?
Click to expand...
50 here, and building a house right now - not by choice, but we just kept getting outbid on everything that looked reasonably decent. No mortgage, but between HOA fees, property taxes, insurance, utilities, landscaping/snow removal, etc, we'll be paying more per month than what we're currently paying for a 2-br apt, which isn't cheap either, but we do need more space.
 
Check with noise ordinances. Sad you got to move to enjoy you're right to live peacefully. When I was playing in bands at different clubs that were in a neighborhood sitting, you'd be surprised how noise ordinances pops up.
 
Cujet said:
I purchased a nice FL 2ac lot that backs up to the everglades using a construction loan. Worked out very well, despite the initial high interest rate. As the 'draws' the builder made were initially small, such as the cost of the slab. Then the walls, then the trusses/roof. So most of the payments were near nil, until completion. Then the loan converted to a conventional mortgage. $1414 per mo in 2002. Not bad! House took 9mo. I was 39 when I did this.

$45K for the lot, $157K for the mostly finished house. I then did the flooring, appliances, and interior stuff like sinks, cabinets, tub, tile. Stuff that's not too hard.

I knew what I wanted and made very few configuration mistakes. The layout is exactly right and worked as well as I hoped. My shower for example is almost 9 feet by 4.5 feet with two stations and 6 shower heads. Big well pump, 3/4 inch copper plumbing for high flow, etc. Nice large kitchen, 6 burner propane cooktop, etc. View attachment 257756

I lowered the garage floor from the original design about 2 feet and lowered the garage ceiling about 2.5 feet. This made a 'bonus room' for storage above the garage that is nearly 30 feet long.

I'm 61 and will do it again, prob in TN. I plan a ranch style house, with large doors, no stairs and no basement. The idea is to be wheelchair or walker accessible. Everything easy for an older couple. My grandfather did this and it worked out perfectly.

ZT652H2.jpg
Click to expand...
That's the full intention of this house.. No stairs except maybe the wrap around porch. I want to be able to stay there till our 80's.. or the end whenever that might be. My plan is a basic house, no crazy roof lines everything serviceable and a foundation. One boy will be a senior, the other a freshman so we have around 4-5 years before we have to build. Not transferring them to a new school.
 
Schmoe said:
Check with noise ordinances. Sad you got to move to enjoy you're right to live peacefully. When I was playing in bands at different clubs that were in a neighborhood sitting, you'd be surprised how noise ordinances pops up.
Click to expand...
Yeah we've researched it. Nothing the PD can do till after 10:30, actually the ordinances say 10:00 but the recent experience with the PD said otherwise. That put her in a fighting mood, now she hates them all. Except the couple neighbors across the street that we've known for 20 years.
 
Wife and I are in our very early 60s. We owned numerous homes over the years, but rented over the past decade (although we owned a home we rented out).

After five plus years of searching, we purchased a home last summer that was built in 2019. At our age, we were very happy to have a home with all the "modern updates". As @Cujet pointed out, being older allows for designing the home for wheelchair access, no thresholds, wider hallways and doors, no stairs, etc. All something worth looking into as your wife and you are soon to hit 50 years of age.

Sorry you have a poor neighbor. Not so unusual at this time. I like your idea of building in the country.
 
wander2039 said:
Found a property we liked and just put in for a land loan. I know people do this all time but I'm as nervous as a alley cat.

Paid off our house 5-6 years and over the years have pretty much rebuilt it. New kitchen, two new bathrooms.. only a couple sections are left to finish. It's a small house and lot but we made it work. Fairly cheap and allowed her to be a stay at mom for 8 years. Problem now is the neighborhood and the county in general. Due to some concussions I can't handle the bass in music, just kills me. Unfortunately our houses are close and my neighbors don't get it. And yes I've tried twice talking to them, anymore we just turn them in past 10:30p. Won't even discuss the county.

Looking at 10-20 acres raw land -no house- max a hour from the city. Financially we can afford it just not as free as before. Only real debt is the BMW and we put over 40% of our income in retirement. Almost feels like we're taking a step back, by the time we do everything maybe 350-400k. So much for retiring early. Looking forward to whole thing though but still nervous.. House that I won't have to fix anyone else's mistakes, shop.. and maybe too many tractors. Grew up on a farm so making a little income from it isn't out of the question.

Enough rambling.. We're only 44 and 47 so not too old. Anyone start over at this stage?
Click to expand...
Kinda. 55 and in the building process of our retirement home which is 1.5 hours from where we live now. We intend to relocate there once the kids are both off to college (3 years).

It is a lot to develop a bare piece of land. The new place is well and septic and it is falls within the Chesapeake Bay protection zone (which has it's own set of regulations). I never thought the septic system would determine the rest of what you can do on the lot but, for me anyway, it is the linchpin of the entire project. The county goes by "bedrooms" so if your septic will only support 3 bedrooms at 150 gal a day, then don't buy 4 bedroom plans because they won't get approved.

Everything had to start with an engineering soil analysis and septic design for me.
 
thastinger said:
Everything had to start with an engineering soil analysis and septic design for me.
Click to expand...
That is true just about everywhere. Even in rural TN, where they have no real building codes at all. A perk test is mandatory. Too many people were just running a drain pipe 500-1000 feet down the hill. One can easily have a perk test performed in the proper location prior to property purchase.

Just a thought about stairs. My current home has 3 1/2 stairs from the garage to the house. No biggie when one is healthy. But a practical ramp won't work there, and it absolutely cannot be navigated with a walker or wheelchair. Meaning that when my wife is using a walker, she needs to go to the front door in the rain to get in. And even then, the patio is 1 step above ground level, and the home has a raised entryway. That was a mistake. It is not hard to layout a home with no ramps and no stairs. Just takes a little thought.

You can see the ramp in the picture.

If you look carefully, you can see the property is sloped away from the house. So there is never any standing water.
 
wander2039 said:
Found a property we liked and just put in for a land loan. I know people do this all time but I'm as nervous as a alley cat.

Paid off our house 5-6 years and over the years have pretty much rebuilt it. New kitchen, two new bathrooms.. only a couple sections are left to finish. It's a small house and lot but we made it work. Fairly cheap and allowed her to be a stay at mom for 8 years. Problem now is the neighborhood and the county in general. Due to some concussions I can't handle the bass in music, just kills me. Unfortunately our houses are close and my neighbors don't get it. And yes I've tried twice talking to them, anymore we just turn them in past 10:30p. Won't even discuss the county.

Looking at 10-20 acres raw land -no house- max a hour from the city. Financially we can afford it just not as free as before. Only real debt is the BMW and we put over 40% of our income in retirement. Almost feels like we're taking a step back, by the time we do everything maybe 350-400k. So much for retiring early. Looking forward to whole thing though but still nervous.. House that I won't have to fix anyone else's mistakes, shop.. and maybe too many tractors. Grew up on a farm so making a little income from it isn't out of the question.

Enough rambling.. We're only 44 and 47 so not too old. Anyone start over at this stage?
Click to expand...
Interesting. At the age of 47 I moved out of a townhouse and built a house on some acerage that I purchased. I pre-paid on the home loan and got it paid off early. It worked out for me and very glad that I did it when I did.
 
Cujet said:
That is true just about everywhere. Even in rural TN, where they have no real building codes at all. A perk test is mandatory. Too many people were just running a drain pipe 500-1000 feet down the hill. One can easily have a perk test performed in the proper location prior to property purchase.

Just a thought about stairs. My current home has 3 1/2 stairs from the garage to the house. No biggie when one is healthy. But a practical ramp won't work there, and it absolutely cannot be navigated with a walker or wheelchair. Meaning that when my wife is using a walker, she needs to go to the front door in the rain to get in. And even then, the patio is 1 step above ground level, and the home has a raised entryway. That was a mistake. It is not hard to layout a home with no ramps and no stairs. Just takes a little thought.

You can see the ramp in the picture.

If you look carefully, you can see the property is sloped away from the house. So there is never any standing water.
Click to expand...
We picked plans with an elevator. Around here, new construction has to be 6.5ft above mean water anyway, so it isn't that much more to add 3 more feet to that and have an enclosed garage under the main house. We are building without a loan and I have no intention of paying for flood insurance. Flood ins is only affordable now because it is tax payer subsidized, I think that subsidy will go away during my kids lifetimes so I chose to build 11 feet up.
 
I am just grateful to have gotten into our home when we did. I bought at the bottom of the market about 1994. Lost money in the house I sold, but it would be tough buying anywhere around here now.

I ain't going nowhere except the garage for oil changes.
 
wander2039 said:
Found a property we liked and just put in for a land loan. I know people do this all time but I'm as nervous as a alley cat.

Paid off our house 5-6 years and over the years have pretty much rebuilt it. New kitchen, two new bathrooms.. only a couple sections are left to finish. It's a small house and lot but we made it work. Fairly cheap and allowed her to be a stay at mom for 8 years. Problem now is the neighborhood and the county in general. Due to some concussions I can't handle the bass in music, just kills me. Unfortunately our houses are close and my neighbors don't get it. And yes I've tried twice talking to them, anymore we just turn them in past 10:30p. Won't even discuss the county.

Looking at 10-20 acres raw land -no house- max a hour from the city. Financially we can afford it just not as free as before. Only real debt is the BMW and we put over 40% of our income in retirement. Almost feels like we're taking a step back, by the time we do everything maybe 350-400k. So much for retiring early. Looking forward to whole thing though but still nervous.. House that I won't have to fix anyone else's mistakes, shop.. and maybe too many tractors. Grew up on a farm so making a little income from it isn't out of the question.

Enough rambling.. We're only 44 and 47 so not too old. Anyone start over at this stage?
Click to expand...
Lots of ways to skin this cat. I sold previous house 4 years ago, at 76 YO, and put the least down payment possible on a new(er) house, at 2.5% GI loan. Cheap money, when I pass on my wife will have a large equity in this house, as it has already appreciated 70%, plus the profit we banked from the old house. So, age is just a number.........fortunately we don't live near LA so we are unlikely to see fire.
 
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