do we dare????

[chewie]

ok, for the last year we've tried to buy a modular house with the help of rural development (govt loan program) which has only helped drive us over the edge. they are impossible and so very slow, that here we are, one year older with no house, and now they say we must wait another 4 months to continue with 'the program' b/c for now, they are out of money. this very small house, on a basement, that we've been trying so hard to get is still going to put us into a big debt, for 30 yrs. that scares me, and i am not sure its right for us. many of the things rural delv. insists on are things that we could do as we could pay for it, but they must have it picture perfect from day one, which means we have to hire ppl for things we could do ourselves down the road. and many things aren't in the style i'd like either (rustic) b/c its a one-size-fits-all house.

we have 2 daughters, 13 and 11. as i've told before, we are only a few months off of having our 16 acres paid for. it has a nice big barn (not really livable for us, but we need it for animals anyhow and could use some of it for storage) and the area for the house is ready for building...been cleared, etc.

do we dare build a pole barn, outfit it with a bathroom and kitchen area, and live in it as we go??? i know others have said something to me to this effect, but please oh please, i need to hear we ain't nuts! my oldest is already calling me crazy and i know she ain't thrilled.

if we live where we are, we have a decent house, free rent and free animal feed. but not for long, its for sale and i am feeling terrible, like we are freeloading. the owners have rented out some of the pastures too, and the yahoos that show up are not my favorite ppl. (pooping in my milking barn!) and, living here we have no time to work on our own place since to live here, we do work it off. some of you may remember that there is also a good paying (short term) job a mile from our land, which would be a a boost for us too. so we can either stay here and not get very far due to lack of time or go off the deep end, live in a pole barn of our own!

i know some of you have done similar, i am begging for input!! yes, begging!
would i be putting our kids in danger of being removed? how can i find out what child services will let us get away with, without showing our hand, so to speak?? is this going to harm them mentally?? if it werent' for them, i'd done this LAST year. i am sure it will not be fun the whole time, but i am fully ready to tackle it, but the kids?? is is bad parenting to raise them in a pole shed??? i can already hear the neighbors and family (my parents will absolutely freak!!!) taking pity on us, and being dubbed 'that weird family'! but i can also see where we could have a really cool home with very little mortgage! or would this be the start of us being homeless???

[Jena]

If you are poor enough to be using the government program to buy a house, then how will you afford to build? Even a pole barn costs money and then some to make adequate living quarters. You can't afford to run out of money before you get it in livable condition.

Have you done the math?

Jena

[muzzelloader]

As I understand it you have property that is or will be paid for. That is one giant hurdle you have already cleared. which brings me to the house. Tell me why on earth you would place a house on the property that will tie a debt around your neck for the next thirty years!!?.Which of course will take your free and clear property and mortgage it also and one little financial bobo and you would not only lose the house but also the property. There are several options for you that will work quite well. Perhaps a used mobile home in good condition while you move forward on a permanent self built home or as you mentioned something like the pole barn stile that you mentioned. You could probably move forward on one of these ideas for the down payment for the home you mentioned. Also doing it on your own will keep you out from under a banks thumb or a gov agency's multipel got to do stuff.

[Faithful One]

live in a camper until you saved enough money.

I hate loans and bankers!

Four evil professions in life:
Lawyers, Bankers, Real Estate agents, and kissy Poo preachers.

[chewie]

we can come up with enough to put up the building and get it to the point as i described but not finish it out like we want to wind up with, at least right away, it would take a year or two to get it as finished as we'd like. we are very motivated and have a decent job, so its not one of those 'we will do it later' and never get it done things, it will just take some time.

the govt house situation demands it be fully done to live in it at all, (like a fully finished basement where we'd rather finish it as we could get to it)that's if they even get re-funding this next year. they also demand to have professionals do it all, even tho we are fully capable. they are demanding we do far more than we want to, and its no handout--we'll pay for it just like a bank loan, but at a lesser interest rate with no downpayment. for this house, the downpayment (from a trad. bank loan if we went that way instead) would be more than the barn and the slight modifications to make it work for the time being, simply b/c of the way they insist it be done.

it will take longer but cost significantly less doing our barn-house. the govt program might not even be going anymore, and we wont' even know that for another 4 months, and we need to get going on something soon, this house could sell any time.

i am not fond of paying so much for something i am not wanting--i do want a nice home, but not exactly the way this program is telling me to do it. but you have to play by their rules, period.

[chewie]

muzzleloader and faithfulone....we xposted, THANK YOU. both of you put it in words what i am fighting with. as for the mobile, for the price of moving one in, and hooking it up, we could have our barn-house further along, so this is why we are going this route. the idea of that huge mortgage makes me ill, another reason for our barn-house. and the fact that the barn-house FITS us, if you know what i mean! the camper idea is still open, tho. its also an item we could use later on when we do have the house finished. and yes, only a few months and the property is ours! i'd post a photo of it if i knew how.

but, how can i find out what 'officials' will except as decent living conditions for my kids without tossing red flags? and AM i doing wrong by my kids?

[Kmac15]

I would look at a small trailer of camper that would be livable until you can finish building a home to your standards.

[Jalopy]

As suggested try finding a used mobile home as a place to live on your land while building your new home. That way you can possibly satisfy your daughter's need. Being a teenager is hard being a teenager of homesteading family would be harder unless she can really buy into the lifestyle. If it is used you can sell it when you house is built and recoup that money. Also when you build the house you could finish the basement first and move into it and work on the upper level as you live in the basement. That would be a better alternative than living in a pole shed in the upper midwest in January. And you could still get the basement poured this fall yet. Just my $.02 worth. Good luck JLP

[Faithful One]

The problem with a used mobile home is somtimes it cost MORE to MOVE it than the trailer is worth!

That is if you want to be legal(or break the law and pull it with a tractor and break every law in the book)

My Dad did the latter, for a full setup the guy wanted thousands of dollars.

[barn-apart]

Perhaps you could scale the proposed building back in size to make it more imediately affordable, build to the standards the financeirs request then build on later to increase the size to your needs . This may get them off your back and give more time to improve.
Maybe concentrate on the bath and kitchen, build large rooms then devide them later. Like a large bedroom that is counted as one ,but large enough to devide later in two.
And loft areas,(unfinished) . Good Luck

[amyquilt]

I say go the camper route.

[haypoint]

My wife and I started out in a camper. Lived there for nearly two years. Since we were outside most of the time, 3 acre garden and both had full time off farm jobs, it worked fine. You have teenagers and that may be harder. How willing are they?

Buying an old house trailer would require more dollars in moving it, fixing up the worn out stuff to make it useable then getting rid of it is trouble, too. Get an older camper and plan on selling it when you are done with it.

30 years is a huge commitment. While at this stage of your lives it may seem like you'll have children to care for for a while. But the years pass swiftly and both your children will be gone. Plan for just the two of you with "get you thru" plans for the teenagers. A one or two bedroom is fine. Give them a bedroom and you two sleep on a bed in the living room. Make do with what you can afford.

[Dirtslinger]

I don't know the SD climate, but I'll tell you a camper gets old, particularly in the summer and winter.
Add a kid into the mix?? I don't think your kid will have comfort or space to settle in to do homework in a camper. Hey anything's possible- but don't forget the reality factor.

[belladulcinea]

I'm missing something I guess. Why would you think that children's services even care what you are doing unless you are under their watch now or have foster kids?

We have friends who built a pole barn on their property, no one came to take the kids and they lived in a travel trailer for about a year before anything was done.

[Nette]

Rural Development is telling you right. They ARE out of funding. Could very well be another four months. If that's not the type of house you want, then you shouldn't obligate yourself to it. But understand that this Government agency, like a bank, has to protect it's security interest. Yes, you could probably do some of the work yourself, but that means they would need to trust your ability and willingness to complete the job. If they're financing the house, they want to be sure it's a quality product, and that means getting a licensed contractor. Banks can be more flexible about letting you do some of the work yourself (for WELL-qualified applicants), but not eveyone can get financing from a bank, so--there you go.

I like the older mobile home idea. Around here, you can get someone to move it with a tractor (if the distance isn't too great), and then do whatever repairs are needed yourself. We got one for our dairy employees more than ten years ago, and it's still in good shape. It's a long singlewide, and I think DH paid $4000 for it. I'd be fine living in it.

Edited to add: Call your Congressmen and ask them to FULLY FUND these Government housing programs in the next FY, if that's the route you choose to go. It's in their THEIR hands to provide the funding. It may not be a perfect fit for you, but for some people, a Government loan is their only chance at homeownership.

[Ravenlost]

Since there is already a large barn on the property could you take the money you would invest in a new pole barn and make part of the existing barn liveable?

[Beeman]

Why get involved with any Gov't programs? , especially if you don't want interference of any sort. Not knowing your family situation or work situation or ability to build it's impossible to give any worthwhile advice.

[chewie]

the govt situation is unreal, and i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. they have strung us along for over a year, and a month ago i called asking if they still had funding, oh yes, no problem, plenty of money!! i could write a book on how they've made us jump thru hoops only to tell us later, oh, well that isn't anything you needed done! telling me i misunderstood them, or flat out saying they didn't tell me one thing or another when i know for certain they did. (i wrote things down) i understand part of their problems but they make no efforts to see who were are or what we need. yet they claim to be an agency there for helping families get into a house. only on their terms!

as for the kids, no, nobody is watching us currently, and they are my own kids. i just wonder if they know we are living in a camper or some other temporary type thing, would it be something 'they' would frown on? we are just an average family, fairly known in our tiny area, lots of friends. but we've always lived 'regular' lives, in a real house, and i just didn't know if even doing the camper thing was legal!

husband has building abilities, and for other stuff like elec., we have a very close friend who would be willing to do that for a very fair price. we are 'DIY' types. he has a steady job, and still will get jobs offered to him every so often. we have super credit. but as someone has already mentioned, we believe we can build ourselves something for the same cost of the down payment of this pre-built house/basement. and we do not have a huge amt saved for a down payment, we were buying land and cattle instead.

the current barn is for animals, and wouldn't be feasible to fix/live in. but some of it will work for storage.

i am looking to avoid a huge, long term mortgage. i do not like the idea that when you are done paying for 30 years, you wind up paying back about 3x as much as the original price. i would rather build it as we go, but cannot live in a car til then! we need to get something workable now, and that is all i am asking about. we cannot live in our current house and work on our new place, it just isn't working that way. and at any time we could get a month's notice to go. and we'd like to do it our way, since it IS our money. some days i feel frozen, we are in such a state of limbo. its eating at me in the worst way.

thanks for the replies!

[Ravenlost]

You might check Freecycle and Craigslist for an older RV. I recently saw one on Freecycle that was being given away and there's one down the road from us that's for sale...only $5000.

My brother lived in a pop up camper for a year in south AL and nearly froze to death some nights. I have an uncle who lived in an RV for YEARS and was quite comfortable.

[tomstractormag]

If your land is all but paid for why not use the equity and go to a >real< bank not a government agency?
Find a trailer (mobile home) for cheap and put on the land.
We live in trailer on our own land and its very comfy. I would like to build a small house (1000sq ft) but refuse to pay the 2 to 4 times the taxes we currently are paying. A fine for doing good and bettering yourself.
When we bought our land it had an old junky trailer with poorly built additions on it. Tore it down and hired a company to move our mobile from a park to here (few miles) for $500. Could have used a farm tractor (and did to get it in place) but the mover had all permits, insurance and knowledge. Money well spent.
OR why not get 2 campers??? Hook them up close together with maybe a breezeway between them. Campers are cheap and getting cheaper with our collapsing economy. I see many for sale along the roads I travel with decreasing price tags.
There are always options.
Tom