cheap rural housing?

rwh64 · #1 09/19/12, 08:08 PM

Has anyone on here purchased a really cheap (under $30 k) home and had luck with it? There are a ton of cheap places in E.Texas, and Im considering the leap..Or am I being unrealistic?

Forestdude · #2 09/19/12, 08:31 PM

Purchasing a "cheap" home isn't always the cheap way to go, but it could be. I would say it all depends on what you're buying. Every home/land is different. I would first want to know why it's so "cheap"? Is it because the house isn't liveable? Any type of problems ranging from septic, water, house foundation or electric issues? Or is it a foreclosure with no problems?

I can say that buying a few acres and setting up a mobile home is a possible option for cheap rural housing. There's some stuff involved which includes finding a mobile home you'd live in and all the setup stuff - septic, water, power, driveway, etc. It's not hard to do, and can possibly be done on the cheap - for $30,000.

I did see a foreclosed home close to here that someone bought for $23,000. It is an older large home that had a new metal roof and septic, fenced yard, and looks to be in great shape. And it's got just over 3 acres with it. A great deal IMO. They put a coat of paint on it and new carpet inside. It'd easily sell for $75000 now.

Jena · #3 09/19/12, 09:05 PM

Don't buy it without seeing it and know what you are looking at. And, you ought to know the area before you buy. I paid $23K for my house, but I know the area well and knew all the work I needed to put into it.
Generally if a house is super, super cheap...it's because it is unlivable and darn near unfixable. Mine needed a lot of work, but it was not that cheap for the area.

MO_cows · #4 09/19/12, 09:11 PM

Look at foreclosures. We found a well maintained 100 yr old home with 5 acres for our son's family in the $40's. House was in move-in condition. Has a barn with water and electric, good fencing, big garage/shop with 3 bays. FHA had valued this property at $113k when they loaned on it. Also found 2 foreclosed houses in a small town, both just needed some paint, flooring and elbow grease, both were around $20k. Houses are on sale right now, land not so much, but still a lot less than a few years ago in most places.

RebelDigger · #5 09/19/12, 09:44 PM

6 acres, a 1988 Fleetwood 16' x 80' mobile home and a 100 plus year old dog trot style farmhouse. Also, a 1961 mobile home that we tore down and got about a thousand dollars for scrap metal out of it. Paid $28,000. Put $40,000 give or take into remodeling the house while we lived in the mobile home for the past two years. Just moved into the house the first of this month, now MIL is moving into the mobile home. So, yeah, doable. We did not have to remodel the house, could have stayed in the trailor but, that was not the point of the thing for us, we were looking for an old farmhouse on acerage, the mobile was just icing to have a ready made place to live while we fixed up the house. Might add, we paid cash for everything from the proceeds of selling our former home, so no mortgage. It all depends on what you are willing to tolerate as far as living conditions and if the structure is sound. Also helps if you have some carpentry skills and a DH who is a retired electrician LOL.

kasilofhome · #6 09/19/12, 11:33 PM

I did the raw land thing and was set to build a home (personal shtf) needed to rush and have a 16 by 24 premade (ok was to be for animal--but buy never pd) for 16000 inc'd deliver and a 16 by 16 built on site addition.

No ele, plumbing, no heat by the next year I had some "form" of each of those. running water 3000 for well 86 feet hit water at40 feet-- for old jewlery I got the house plumbed. Sewer was a pipe to a crib (never heard of such a thing but when I got here most homes were "grandfather in like this" Bringing ele to the land 22k on a 10 year note at 6 percent (high but desperate). Got an oil boiler and a side arm 4 g installed too.

once we got a wood stove we could afford heat-- the oil heater we would run only when we got to 40 and then stopped at 50 it was too costly to do much more.

Hope it helps.

**Ross** · #7 09/20/12, 06:51 AM

Generally cheap houses (here) are3 in areas wit no jobs and too long a commute to jobs. Individually cheap houses in good employment areas will need work by competent hands and if reasonable still get snapped up by contractors

Callieslamb · #8 09/20/12, 07:17 AM

Home inspections by a reputable company. I'd ask if they have a delux inspection available. The last inspection we had done took 8 hours. It cost us, but we knew exactly what we were buying - down to the nicks in the baseboards, elec socket that didn't work and wrong type of metal in the fittings coming from the water heater.

oregon woodsmok · #9 09/20/12, 11:58 AM

You might be able to do it. You really need to go and look at them all until you find one that will work.

If there are a lot of properties for $30,000 that might just be the market price in that area.

calliemoonbeam · #10 09/20/12, 12:37 PM

Welcome to HT!

I bought an old mobile with an really nice add-on, with 5 acres, 5 years ago in Oklahoma for $35,000 on land contract, easy down, easy payments for 10 years (but will actually have it paid off in less than a year - I aimed for 5 but didn't quite make it). It was the only way I could afford to get out of a very bad part of a big city nearby, so I took the chance, and I've never been sorry. That was also before the bottom fell out of the real estate market, so $30,000 now sounds perfectly doable to me, depending on the circumstances.

The acreage was really overgrown, and I'm still fighting sumac and blackberries, but have made tons of headway, including raised beds for gardening (heavy clay soil here and on a slope so lots of runoff). Luckily, it had an aerobic septic system that was only a few years old, as the ground doesn't perk here, and I've had no trouble with it at all.

The mobile was basically sound, but had a packrat infestation that was hard to clear out, as well as an overabundant snake population due to the same. I'm absolutely terrified of snakes, but forced myself to learn to deal with them. Once I got the rats cleared out, the snakes have disappeared too.

Unfortunately, the rats did a job on the insulation and the wiring, so both had to be redone. Before I realized that about the wiring, I suffered two lightning strikes, the first one of which wiped out all my electronics and my central air unit, which all had to be replaced. I had a whole house surge protector put on, but still had the second strike, although absolutely everything was also on individual surge protectors, so I did fare better that time. Then I had an electrician check all the wiring and discovered the true damage.

Luckily, my son has friends in almost every field, so I got discounted parts and free or almost free labor (they all think of me as an adopted mom, lol), so I've only actually spent about $6000 on repairs so far. If you can do repairs yourself or have friends like this, then I'd say it would probably be a good deal. If you're going to have to pay people retail prices and labor, I'd have to think twice.

If you're not familiar with the area, you might try the City Data boards for information: City-Data.com Forum: Relocation, Moving, Local City Discussions

There are lots of friendly, knowledgeable people here on HT, so someone is bound to have an answer for any questions you have. Good luck!

Pheasant283 · #11 09/20/12, 12:47 PM

Where I live a 30K house in town in the norm. However comming from experiance as I have bought and fixed up a few houses for 10K and less, in lower income communities people will be more willing or able to rent a house then they will to buy it. Which I am not even sure if you are thinking of flipping the house but thats just some food for thought.

Otherwise pretty much like everyone else said, as long as you can or are willing to do some of the fix up work yourself, you can save your self a ton of $. Goodluck!

PhilJohnson · #12 09/20/12, 04:20 PM

I bought my house for $30,000 in late 2008. It is out in the country on 5 and a half acres. It needed a ton of work and there was a lot of garbage on the property. I think it scared a lot of people away. The plus was it had a functioning septic and a good well. I still see cheap rural houses for sale on occasion but they always fall into the category of tons of work. The area has a fairly weak job market so no doubt that plays into the pricing of property. I've noticed in my area the further off the beaten path a piece a house is the more expensive it will be. That I believe is because of all the big city folks wanting a little piece of the north woods driving up real estate prices.

rwh64 · #13 09/20/12, 05:24 PM

Thanks to everyone who replied to my question. My skills are average as far as handyman and such go,so I probably could jump in.Your response have been encouraging. Thanks!

fantasymaker · #14 09/20/12, 08:48 PM

What you are gonna get for 30 grand depends a lot on where EXACTLY you are at. What do you want?
Here in my little village of 400 30 grand would get you a nice house on half a block or better. In the country it might get you a livable house on between 1 acre and 5.
20 miles from here that gets a lot more expenceive. In the country in 3 directions thats true about the towns of about 5000, but in one town of that size in another direction houses are about the same or cheeper as my village but the lots are more.

fantasymaker · #15 09/20/12, 08:49 PM

wanta hint? move to the area you are interested in and RENT then go on house hunting feild trips. LET EVERYONE know what you wnt , put up flyers and after a year you will have a good Idea of the market and whats available.

Dusky Beauty · #16 09/20/12, 10:52 PM

Just bought a 32k 3-ish bed 2 ba live in ready home on 3 acres 50 mins west of Phoenix AZ. We won a hud bid for 28.5, financed for 32k and redid the power that was stripped out and set up house for us. We lucked out with a barn and some existing fencing.

search Zillow.com for all the listings in a neighborhood you like, and keep up to date at hudhomestore.gov (or is it org?) Sometimes homes are sold through HUD before zillow even gets them listed.
My advice? look at places that take horrible pictures, then go see them in person to decide. Lots of investors bid on huds sight unseen and may bid low on a place that doesn't look like an easy profit.

Also, owner occupants get priority over investors, so it's worth following them.

The septic report on the place was worse than reality so we got off easier than expected. "Needs work" is the key phrase. Just make sure you can DO the work.

ldc · #17 09/21/12, 09:54 AM

East Texas is big; which region are you looking at?

Warwalk · #18 09/21/12, 10:12 AM

Idc had mentioned "East Texas is big"... he / she is right ~ it's the size of some whole states, so from area to area there can be differences. I know a friend of mine in the Vidor area, which is near Beaumont, who's mom just passed and has a double-wide in very very good shape on about a half acre, and the family is looking for $25K for it. I think in part it's going to depend on a) Area, b) your personal preferences and requirements. Ironically, I just moved this way last Christmas from Atlanta, and now we're moving ~again~... this time to Oklahoma north of Tulsa! So I'll be interested myself in finding something inexpensive and will be going through the same searching process.

rwh64 · #19 09/21/12, 11:40 PM

My search area is in the MT Pleasant ,Tyler ,Kilgore area..My job can transfer me most anywhere, So Im trying to target a rural spot within 20 miles or so of a company location.Im encouraged by what ive seen online, yet I know better deals are to be had at auction. Im thinking Tax or Foreclosure auctions might be a thought on this. Any feedback is appreciated, I wont pull the trigger , so to speak for a few months, so I can educate myself.. Thanks again!

Dusky Beauty · #20 09/22/12, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rwh64

My search area is in the MT Pleasant ,Tyler ,Kilgore area..My job can transfer me most anywhere, So Im trying to target a rural spot within 20 miles or so of a company location.Im encouraged by what ive seen online, yet I know better deals are to be had at auction. Im thinking Tax or Foreclosure auctions might be a thought on this. Any feedback is appreciated, I wont pull the trigger , so to speak for a few months, so I can educate myself.. Thanks again!

Auctions can be scary--- make sure you know what the title situation is. Famous are the stories of the fellas who thought they dun good winning a home appraised at 400k for 200k.... then they come to find out the deed comes intact with 350k in leans.

Different dispersals have different rules. There's been several threads in the real estate section all about auctions and how banks operate foreclosures (and bid back on them)

Look at hud homes, seriously. The sales are divided into types of buyers-- When a home first becomes available it's open to non profit or gov't agencies. When that time period expires its open to owner occupants. investors can't even bid until the property has expired for occupant bids. Bank homes sell to the highest bidder and don't care who it goes to as long as they get cash so they are a little more difficult to win-- in my area we have a lot of canadian and chinese cash investors speculating that are fast with the wire transfers.

A dispersal auction property is often as is and whatever the condition is you're stuck with it (and like I mentioned, possibly the debts too) Vandalism is REAL bad here on vacant properties--- not only are they looted dry for scrap, materials appliances and fixtures, but you've got punk kids tearing out walls, putting cement down the sinks and toilets, etc.

If buying something sight unseen, I'd advise spending half your cash on the property itself, and reserve half for repairs.

With HUD; you get a week to accept or refuse the purchase after your winning bid to really do an in depth inspection. Getting a second opinion on our septic in this time period was the deciding factor in our current home.
The property is sold to the highest bidder, but in a slow market an "ugly" or "fixer" house often has no other bidders, especially if there are a lot of "fancier" choices. Most folks shopping are looking at the house only, not the land or outbuildings. As a homesteader your viewpoint as a "big picture buyer" will work to your advantage.

My agent said you can offer 5% less than the list price and HUD will take it without further ceremony so that's what we did, and as far as closings go it was pretty fast and easy-we were moved in in 3 weeks. (Seemed longer with my crazy landlord breathing down my neck, but less than a month? That quick. )

Oh, and useful info for some, HUD has a "good neighbor next door" purchase program. Buyers employed by fire dept, law enforcement, as a teacher, or as EMS from a public hospital can qualify for 50% off Hud properties in "target areas". Hopefully next time we buy, my medic hubby and I can take advantage of this