New 5ac Homesteads and Questions

I think it sounds cool! I love doing things myself, but to be honest, I think it would be great to able to move in, have everything organized and tidy. Five acres would be good...depending on what part of E WA you're talking about. My brother lives over in the Pasco area, and the soil is weird. Do you live in the area you are building in? Does stuff grow? (Bro is a total yuppy, bigger house every couple years, new car every year kind of guy, so he only knows about what kind of grass grows best with under ground sprinkling )

Anyway, I think it'll do great, and I hope you have 4 great families that want to buy in! In fact, are there any middle schools nearby that need an excellent math teacher and his family? We might just be up for coming! Oh, and I think solar and gas are good ideas and if the attic area could be made into a loft (a la Laura Ingalls) that would be good.

Thank you Cara.

Yes, the loft can be made into a full headroom living space and dormers can be added.
Our part of E WA is near the towns of Omak, Riverside and Okanogan. The lots are covered in native grass and in areas nearby farmers grow alfalfa, corn and of course orchards.
Look for teaching positions all over Okanogan County, my sis is a teacher in W WA and says they are begging over there...

Ted

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Price sounds too good to be true..no matter where in the country you are. But at that cost will they be flimsy, cheaply built. No offense here. I agree with having different floor plans. 3 bedroom would probably sell better than 2. Even if the 3rd is a small office/nursery type of room. Dormer idea sounds good too. Basements ? don't make them all alike ..like cookie cutter houses. The home owners associations. That would really scare me away or I would buy the place and when I wanted to do more on my own sell the house and move on to something more private. Don't want someone looking over my shoulder everytime I burn some trash or my goat gets loose. But otherwise at that price it sounds good. Would be nice to acutally have a home that doesn't moan in the wind at night..floors shift..plumbing has a mind of it's own.. toilet doesn't flush ONLY when there is company visiting...and I swear there are ghosts in the attic !! You know...I think I like my old homestead..it has character and has stood for over a 130 years now so perhaps I'll just stay !! Good Luck !!

Helena, thank you for the response. Sometimes there are good prices, it just takes people willing to make it happen. Here are a few ways that we trim costs that have nothing to do with the structure. 1-No real estate people period saves alot of money on commissions. 2-No subcontractors. Bids for electrical come in at about 4K per and we can do the same work for 1.2K for example. 3-No crew...lol just george and I. We are lets see.. owners, buyer, seller, crew, accountant... get the idea.

We can't build flimsy. There are standards of construction that must be met and we will be inspected by the county all along the way.

Ted

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Hi again, Ted,

How soon are you expecting to have them ready? If we were interested, could we have you build with the dormers and the attic finished from the get-go? What about fencing? I would recommend having at the minimum an area around the barn fenced so that people could bring the animals they own and fence from there. Hmm....I'll do a bit more research, and of course, mention it to my husband! :haha:
Cara

Before jumpiing headfirst into the downside of the biggest housing bubble in history, have you considered what might happen if that bubble bursts in mid-construction? Can you say bankruptcy, or worse?

I can't think of a worse time in history (except maybe August, 1929) to start building houses when the trend is definitely towards more unsold units every month; with interest rates no doubt headed up, the folks who have ARM's on their $500,000 McMansions could trigger a huge sell-off, leaving contractors everywhere holding the bag.

Check out this site. The guy has amassed a ton of scary information on the current housing bubble and where it's headed:



http://thehousingbubble.blogspot.com/

Bruce - We are already builders so we are not jumping into anything. Yes the bubble will burst on the mcmansions but I doubt there will be much harm to basic low end market anytime soon. Now is a great time to build, rates are still low and people can lock in now and be sitting pretty next year if the rates hit 9,10,11 % etc... Monthly payment on a 30yr fixed 5.5 is 482$. yup, you can be a bank teller or work at mcdonalds and still make a house payment.

Cara - We have decided, based on feedback to do them as presales because everyone wants a little something different. So when we have the first customer lined up we start bendin nails. Yes everything can be finsihed as requested from the get go. We can help arrange for fencing.

Thanks for the replies,
Ted

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I think it's a really neat idea! I love the alternative energy angle of it. I also agree with some of the others that if you build in some flexibility it would be nicer for the buyers. I'd want TWO chicken houses and no farrowing pens, lol.

No idea what property goes for in your area, around where I live property with NOTHING on it is going for around 6K per acre, I think? But I am in a city to city corridor.

Hate the HOA idea, the one out by my place has arranged itself into two cliques and it seems like their time and energy is mostly spent fighting with each other. Don't know for sure, I no longer attend the meetings. One group even sued the other one!

Not sure what you mean by permanent rules that promote livestock ownership?

960 is small, but would be do-able for a small family. We have more than twice that amount, but if I think about it, there are four rooms that we don't even use!

hollym

I think the price is good. It does depend on what the land is like.

Land in the western states is not cheap and square foot costs on a basic home are $80-100.00 per foot. for built on site. A new house built to code on five acres( depending on location and the neighbors!). That is any easy price for most people to mortgage and you can always add on!

I am in Western Wyoming. We have almost 6 acres and the land alone will go for over $200,000.00. Add a 1800 square foot house
barn/garage and you are up in the $ 400-500,000.00 range.

Ther is one in fact with a smaller older house less acreage close to the highway listed for $625,000.00

I think that you can easily market to the "drag -on" price range of people who are starting out or downsizing for retirement.

I like the idea but the land in that area is desert. Unless you have a lot of water there's no way 5 acres will support a homestead. How deep would the wells have to be? Getting a domestic use permit for water would probably be no problem but would that cover stock and crops too? With what you want to do the key would be keeping the price down so that the people that you are targeting would be able to afford it. That might be hard to do with high set up costs. Its a nice idea though, I hope you are sucessfull, even though as someone said before, the words 'homeowners association' put me off. Jassytoo

"Most people who are sensitive are also too ill to build, but many would love a place that they could live and garden and have some small livestock eventually."
this was said by Cyngbaeld

I would add to what Kim said, by saying, she is correct, there are a lot of us that are chemically challenged or disabled that would love to homestead, and the building would be the biggest challenge, also OK is number 1 for the large number of women who are homesteading by themselves. Also for a large percentage of "couples or families" homesteading, the woman is often the catalyst and she will be doing a large percentage of the work load. I would take up this offer in a heartbeat !! Mainly because the set up is ready for me, and hubby would love the "already made" facet. And the 960 sq feet would be fine, if it is an open floor plan and built with storage. What else? Oh, price, here I would consider anything like this worth $125,000 (at least). Something I would do in this situation, is I would pick a central spot, and build a small commmunity center, with a commercial kitchen. One of the biggest problems small producers of kitchen type gardens is running into, is nothing can be canned, dried, etc for the public without having a commercial kitchen. I would consider a coop idea, not a homeowners association

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Pam in OK
Healing Herbals www.healingherbals.org

Thanks for the reply. We can build the total package right at 84.23 per sqft base model and if the well comes in perfect. :haha:

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Philbee, while there is true to form desert over there, this is more high plains grassland used mainly as grazing range. Domestic wells will be provided in the package and will be suitable for garden, livestock and home use. Well permits allow for animals and gardens. Wells in the area range from 150 feet to 300 feet or more.
Yea, we dropped the whole HOA idea. It was just that, an idea... apperantly a bad one :haha:

Thanks,
Ted

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Those prices are GREAT! Especially for solar. Around here, you couldn't even touch 5 acres with nothing on it for under 150k.

If the land is useable, I think it sounds like a pretty good deal for 4 families. Heck, if we weren't settled in where we are, we might be interested. Best of luck Ted!

THANK YOU HOMEBIRTHA!

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I think you have a good idea. Personally, if I was looking for land, I'd want a little larger acreage, and some trees on it (a woodlot), but five acres is sure better than nothing!

I don't think your house sizes are too small. Only a generation ago, that was about the average house size in this country -- many large families were raised in houses that size, and will be again, I'm sure. With the economy the way it is, the housing bubble about to pop, Peak Oil about to turn everything upside down (consider driving distances to town), the folks with big houses and big mortgages are going to be in a world of hurt. Personally, I wouldn't be taking on ANY debt for ANY reason right now. But, if you get your houses built and sold fairly quickly, you just might make it.

Kathleen

Tell us more about the financing options you have available.

Thanks.
Kenneth

Kenneth,

Unfortunatly we can't in house finance these homes. Believe me, we would if we could. We have talked to a couple of banks about the plan and they would have no problem providing financing to qualified persons.

We would like to work into carrying the note but that will have to wait until after the 5th home is sold unless we hear about a rich dead uncle somewhere.

Ted

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I'm really intriuged by what you've said, and I think that my family is just the type that might be interested in what you're building. DH has a 9-5 white collar job, but I'd rather be in the country. (and unfortunately, we're halfway across the country!)

The biggest problem I see is with the 2 bd 1 ba. That takes MANY families out of the running. Although many peope are choosing to have fewer children these days, even a 4 person family with a boy and a girl is going to want 3 bedrooms. We have 3 (soon to be 4) children, and although I don't need a lot of space, 3 bedrooms are a MUST and I have a strong preference for 2 bathrooms.

I really like the options of a pre-built chicken coop or barn/shed, but as PPs have said, I think these should be options that the homeowner can choose. I've always wanted chickens, and to have an already-built coop would be one less thing for me to do after I moved in.

Sounds like you have a good heart and are trying to do the right thing. I think the house is too small especially for people with kids. Maybe an option to upgrade that.