EP98 Why We Chose a $130K Manufactured Home Over a Barndo

After 14 years of military service, I’m finally doing what many dream of—building our own homestead in Texas. On 10 acres of land filled with mesquite and cactus, we're creating a slower, freer life on our terms.

Military life taught me stability, but building a homestead, as a First Gen Latina had some challenges. In this episode I share my decision to build a manufactured home instead of a barndominium and the costs that go along with it.  

From deciding to leave the military after post-COVID-19 mindset shift, to buying 10 acres of land without ever seeing it in person, to figuring out how to pay for it, it was a journey with many ups and downs. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 House Construction Loan Approved
• 2:40 Leaving Military After 14 Years
• 6:27 Choosing San Antonio for Our Homestead
• 11:05 Buying 10 Acres Sight Unseen
• 19:39 Financing Challenges with Self-Employment
• 31:44 Manufactured Home: The Smart Solution
• 34:27 Breaking Down the Construction Costs
• 43:05 Final Mortgage and Future Plans

Transcript

Speaker 0: 0:48

Hola, hola, welcome to another episode, and I am sharing some great news. This week is that I finally closed on the construction loan for my house. I am building a manufactured home on 10 acres of land and let me tell you, it has been a journey. I started this journey in 2022 and now we have the loan and so now we're just going to get started. They're going to get started in actually building manufactured home and doing all the land, you know, development to get the house ready to move in, and so I'm going to share with you the journey, but also share the numbers and what you can expect, things I've learned and all that she's made, so that way, if you ever want to do something similar, you kind of get an idea. I am going to share the numbers, um, but you know it can vary depending where you're at and what type of loan and all that stuff. So I'm gonna talk all about that in this episode. Okay, so let's start at the very beginning, and this was, I think I was starting to think about doing something like this around 2020, 2021.

Speaker 0: 2:05

After COVID, I think a lot of us had kind of like this mindset shift of like what are we really doing with. You know, living and working in this capitalistic, you know country that we are like working ourselves to death. And COVID, I think, opened a lot of eyes to a lot of us. And it was the same thing with me. I was in the military, I'm still in the military, but like I'm about to get out in a few months, but I started thinking about leaving the military, especially since I was thinking of having, uh, my daughter, and it just was like a lot of like, okay, I really need to think, what am I going to do now? And I talked to my husband and we talked about it and we're like okay, I think you know, we're gonna make the decision to leave the military. It's time we've we've been in for quite some time and neither one of us had thought to like stay in the whole time. And then it's like, well, now or never, because then we're gonna end up just being here for 20 years and then we're going to miss out on a lot of stuff. So that was around that time 20, end of 2021, beginning of 2022 when we made the decision of leaving the military.

Speaker 0: 3:28

Now, this decision was a little bit difficult because the military is a stable paycheck. You get money on the first and 15th of every month consistently. You know exactly what you're gonna get right. And like it was pretty crazy to think, okay, we're going to go out. And again, we've been in for quite some time. He got out at 13 years, I'm getting out at 14 and a half. So 14 years, over 10 years, of getting consistent, steady paycheck, not having to really think too much about, you know, finding a job or anything like that.

Speaker 0: 4:02

So, um, but at this time is when I had started my really like taking real estate investing seriously, and so I was like you know what, by the time we decided to get out, because the goal was around this time, I wanted to give myself a few years to be able to get some houses, some more rental properties, and so that was the plan, right, that I was really going to go hard at real estate investing because I still had to finish out my contract. So the reason I had to wait a few more years versus just getting out right then and there was because I had an obligation, because the Navy paid for my school, for my degree, and I owed six I think it was six years because of that and my husband just had to wait to the end of his contract, which was um a few years as well, and so we were going to be getting that. Well, we are getting out. At the same time, he's already out, and so that's why I was like, okay, in those few years I'm going to be able to acquire enough rental properties and that, and so that was the goal, and so then the next thing was deciding where we were going to live.

Speaker 0: 5:19

He's from Florida, I'm from Texas. Now loved San Diego, and I would definitely have stayed in San Diego had I been able to convince my parents to move over here, but they weren't having it because, um, down in texas, my mom is from matamoros and my dad's from monterey. I'm from monterey as well, and it's easy, it's right there for them to just take the bus or whatever to cross the border and go visit family right and over here in san diego. They'd have to catch a flight and all that. So I understand and so, but I wanted to be close to my family, because I had been away from my family at this point for 14 years and you know I only get to see them on holidays and you know, um a few times throughout the year, when, if they come to visit. So, uh, definitely decided that you, you know what we're going to be by my parents because, um, my daughter is the only granddaughter on my side and on his side they have two grandchildren, so it's kind of like, kind of like being even, and also I wanted my daughter to be around you know spanish speaking, so that way she picks up spanish, and be close again to the border as well, so we could go visit. So it would just be easier.

Speaker 0: 6:38

So then we decided, okay, well, where are we gonna stay? And I didn't want to go back to dallas. I'm from dallas and no me gusta, like I don't know what it is, I just, um, I think maybe just growing up on it, in it, like I'm like all right, I'm over it, and every time there it's like construction all the time. So we decided San Antonio because it's kind of in the middle. I had already lived in Houston during the time that I was going to college to get the degree for the Navy and I did like Houston, but I didn't want to be in Houston and I didn't want to be in Austin because it was expensive and I don't know anything really about Austin, san Antonio. I have been there several times and I knew that it was, you know, the next big boom. Right, san Antonio is going through a lot of growth and development and I actually know a lot of military that are going to retire. It's attracting a lot of military veterans. So we decided in San Antonio.

Speaker 0: 7:38

So, once we decided that we were going to be in San Antonio, we were really debating, okay, like you know where, in San Antonio, and all that and at this time around COVID, I feel like there was a big shift after COVID with a lot of like homesteading and things like that, and I fell down in that rabbit hole and I it appealed to me. You know, throughout those years, I was definitely, you know, growing my own food, learning how to garden and all this stuff. I had chickens in my previous home and I really enjoyed it. I really was enjoying that. I started, like you know, even with my mental health. It started improving and it really helped me throughout the time that I was going through fertility treatments and all that stuff, and so I really wanted to, you know, start living a slower life and my mindset started shifting of like work, work, work, work and really, you know, chasing the next big promotion or the next big thing of being successful, right. So we really talked about it and we're like you know what? I think we want to go and buy some land and be able to build a house on it and grow our own food, homestead and all that stuff. So we started the hunt. Now this is where my first tip comes in is when you want to start looking for land.

Speaker 0: 9:08

Definitely, I know we hate Facebook and everything like that, but I for me, facebook is really useful through the Facebook groups. I don't use Facebook for like posting or anything like that. I just have it there mostly because of the. I'm like part of lots of um groups, like, obviously, the neighborhood one, just to keep in the know, but I'm a part of a lot of real estate investor groups in the areas that I invest in. Of course, I had to join the one for San Antonio and then I'm in a few other groups as well. So that's what I use it for, and if you're not using it for that like, you're really missing out on some of these awesome resources, and that was.

Speaker 0: 9:51

I found a Facebook group that was um, geared toward like land sales and stuff, and of course, I used, uh, a lot like the MLS um, not MLS but like realtor and all this stuff land for salecom, stuff like that, so, um, but it was through the facebook group that I saw you know someone uh, posting you know several lots for sale. So then I started looking where it was saying what it entailed. Now, I've never bought land, so it was definitely scary, especially doing this out of state. I was over here in california. There was no way I could go and look at this land and I know that I'm crazy because I actually bought this land without stepping foot on it prior and I will say that this kind of, you know, because I invest in out of state properties, I have gained the confidence to be able to do that right, because I know how to, um, find resources, a realtor and all that stuff. So I, I contacted the realtor and all that stuff went through that and through a lot of like facetime and videos and all that stuff and researching and all that stuff, I decided to like, okay, definitely interested.

Speaker 0: 11:16

I looked around the area and everything is not too. It's on the outskirts of San Antonio, um, which is perfectly fine for me because I honestly don't go to the city that much, even now in San Diego, like I don't really go down to San Diego, especially when I lived in the rural part in Ramona. It's kind of like a rural area, rural town. I stay there for most of my time. I rarely went, and you know, around in San Diego. I stay mostly at home, I'm a homebody, so, living in the outskirts of the main city, when I want to go I can, but for I know for like 70, 80 percent of my time I'm going to be local and in my house. I love being at home, in my yard, in my garden, you know, enjoying my mortgage, as you know, some people say on tiktok.

Speaker 0: 12:12

So I ended up, you know, wanting this land because it had a lot of nopales that were full of tunas, um, it was covered with mesquite trees. I mean, it was, it was. I loved it, it was what I wanted. The only thing I kind of want, wish that it would have had, was some nice, a few oak trees, because, um, the neighbor had a few and I was like dang, but of course that wasn't for sale. But you know what? I'll plant my own, I guess, and in like 20, 30 years I'll enjoy it, I guess.

Speaker 0: 12:43

But this land cost 145 000 for 10 acres and there was water there, with the water line, and electric line was at the street now. Then this land was shaped like they call it, a flag shape, where the the land kind of I mean imagine a flag. Right, the little stick is part of the road. That gold meets at the main road and then it goes all the way and then the flag part is the actual plot, because there's another piece of land, another plot, in front of yours, but in order to have access to the road, they create this little narrow path. Access to the road, they create this little narrow path and you know a lot of people don't like that, but I wanted that because I had this vision of being able to drive down that and just plant trees on the sides and have like this beautiful like path. And it's going to take some time, right, because trees take a while, but over time it's going to create this, you know, pretty canopy. So that was my vision. And then the lot next to me was also available and I ended up convincing my parents to get that one. Um, so that way now we're, you know, building kind of like a family compound on 20 acres combined.

Speaker 0: 14:09

Now here's the tricky part, because with land you either have to buy it like outright this one actually had owner financing, meaning the owner will act like the bank you make payments to them for for, like they still charge you like an interest. In this case they were I forget what the interest I think was gonna be like 10% or something like that. So, plus, they wanted a high down payment. I forget what it was at this point, but it was going to be too crazy. But with land it's you really can't get loans too much. It's very hard to find financing. There are land loans out there, which is what I ended up getting, but it's pretty tricky and you kind of have to like it's. It's annoying, right, um, but I did find a bank to which is local and which is my next tip is to find the local banks that are in those rural areas, because they deal with that more often than somebody a bank from the city or whatever. They're not going to really want to do it, but the ones that are in that area are, you know, are used to it. So then you have an easier time.

Speaker 0: 15:27

But with these loans they are more, most of the time, interest only, payments up front, and that's how mine was, and the interest was fixed, but it was only fixed for a certain amount of time. So with these loans, they had like increments. The first one was going to be at at the seven year mark, where they would reassess and then switch the interest rate, so you would want to pay off this loan before then. Now there are different ways to buy the land and also build your house, so you just have to be aware of that. But because I wasn't going to build right away, I only had to purchase the land, so I needed to get a land loan, and so that's what I did. And then, in order to get the down payment for that, I actually ended up selling my Lexus. It was a 2017 Lexus and I had it paid off already.

Speaker 0: 16:28

So at this time, we had bought the little beater car that I was driving around before it finally crapped out on me. But my husband actually was using that because he has a truck and he has his drive was an hour at this time to where he was stationed at, and so we had bought that beater car just for gas purposes, and I was like you know what I don't need? We don't need three cars. I am perfectly fine just driving that beater car, because at this time he was basically getting out and I was like, all right, let's get rid of this car. And I used that for money as a down payment for the land, because I don't want to use, like, our savings or the rental income that I was getting at that time, because actually that was going towards, like, fertility treatments. So, yeah, I ended up just selling the Lexus and that's how I got the money.

Speaker 0: 17:23

And so, august 2022, I ended up, you know, closing on the land and then I went down there a few months later, I think in November. I went down there after I had bought the land and actually set foot on it for the first time, and it was. I was so happy, I was so glad that I bought it because, like, wow, I'm excited to get on there and start homesteading and building my house. And so, you know, even though I had a few more years before my contract was up, it was time to kind of like start looking at what I wanted to build on it. But around this time was the time that I was going through my fertility treatments and surgeries and we ended up having to do a surrogacy journey. So, um, we had to kind of shift a little bit in far as far as our finances and what we needed to focus on. So we really had to, like, raise funds and all that stuff to be able to do the surrogacy journey. So so 2023 was just, you know, focus on that. And then my daughter was born in 2024. So then we could start focusing. Uh, as you know, we were getting closer. 2025 was the year that I was getting out. My husband got was getting out at the end of 2024.

Speaker 0: 18:52

And so, around end of 2023 and early 2024, I started kind of researching on what kind of house I would want to build on this land. And I knew that having a stick built, which means just building a regular house the regular way, was going to be very pricey, and so I wanted to look at alternates. And during this time, of course, I was still going, you know, kind of like really deep into youtube videos and all that on people homesteading and I started seeing a lot about barnum mediums and I started researching what a barnum medium was and all this stuff and the whole flexibility that it provided, and I decided that you know what I want to build a barnum medium. It's um, you know, they were saying it was cheaper than a stick bill and you have such um a leeway with the layout, because with stick built homes you have to worry about, you know, load bearing walls, things that make sure that you know the roof doesn't cave in, or whatever. But with barnuminium, the, I guess, the weight is distributed on the outer wall, so then the inner walls are just like you could do whatever layout that you want. So I really like that.

Speaker 0: 20:18

And I started thinking that, hey, I want a barnuminium. Well, I, you know, was just watching youtube videos but I didn't really dive into what the cost was actually because, like I said, at this time I was more focused on the surrogacy journey that we were in. And then, at the end of 2024, it was like, all right, we need to start figuring out what we're going to do and actually build. And so then I started getting quotes for a barnuminium and well, let me tell you, it is still pricey. So, just to give you an idea, was that the way a barnuminium the quote happens is they'll um, sell you the kit, which is basically the walls, and like the roof and all this stuff and usually it will include them setting up, and this is called like the shell right, it's all the outer parts, because our bar in the medium is basically a metal building and so they, you know, prefabricated and cut out everything and send you all like the pieces, like a freaking you know Lego set, and so you can either buy the kit and then you know a lot of people that know how to build and stuff like that they'll do that, which is what I was watching on YouTube, not thinking like, hey, I'm not a construction worker or, you know, contractor or anything like that, and so that was my bad, and so you could do that, get the kit and do everything yourself, be your own general contractor and all that, or they could, you know, rise the whole shell, weld it together for you, put the foundation, all that stuff, and then after that it's like phases and with this builder it was that they would have like three phases and even with the third phase now they did do turnkey. But I definitely wasn't interested in doing turnkey because that's basically a stick build at that point and they would do everything, including installation, but they would not do the like plumbing, electrical or anything like that. They would just kind of like, do the rough framing on the inside of the layout and then that's it, and they would put foam, insulation foam, and just that was already like 189 000 just for that, and it didn't include, like, the clearing, it didn't include, like I said, the electrical, the plumbing, drywall, all this stuff, so it would end up, you know, costing way more.

Speaker 0: 23:05

Now I've been spoiled with the mentality because of the military having a steady paycheck and whatever. I've never had trouble getting a loan and, um, we had the loan over here for the California house and that was like our mortgage. There was like four thousand dollars. And so I'm thinking, okay, over here is gonna be fine, okay, you know, yeah, it's gonna be pricey. And when I'm thinking, okay, over here it's going to be fine, okay, you know, yeah, it's going to be pricey. And when I did the rough calculations, um, you know, because you could use like those calculators online just to get an estimate of and they're pretty accurate, a lot of them, especially, I think it's calculatornet or something like that, they have a mortgage calculator right there. So I calculated and it would be roughly around the same, like 37, 4 000, whatever was going to be our mortgage and I was like, okay, yeah, sure we could do that, right.

Speaker 0: 24:00

And the problem was that when I went, I went to go get the loan, we started having issues because my husband was a contractor, so he had gone out and gotten a contractor job at a startup company and meaning he's a 1099, so basically self-employed. And so if you're self-employed, this one's for you, if you're thinking about buying a house, is that when you are 1099, self-employed, the banks will give you such a hard time with getting a loan because you don't have a stable income and they want you to have, um, maybe a, depending on the lender at least two years of consistent income as being self-employed. So you'll have to file taxes and all that stuff. And you also want to make sure that during this time, if you know you're going to buy a house in the future, if that's your goal, that you are not, you know, doing too many deductions, because then that's going to lower, um what you know how much you make, right, because maybe you brought in, let's say, a hundred thousand in um revenue, right of income, but because you started deducting this or that or whatever, then you actually are making like eighty thousand at the end of the day, when you file your taxes. So when you go get this loan, they're going to say you're making 80K instead of 100,000. And now you're going to either have trouble getting the loan or you're going to have trouble getting enough of what you need to actually get the house that you want. So make sure that you're being strategic about what you're deducting and all that stuff, and so talk to your tax person and also maybe a lender, that way you know what to kind of like start preparing for.

Speaker 0: 26:01

And so, because my husband was a 1099, when I went to go apply for the loan, they weren't going to include his income, and they weren't going to include, uh, the, the military income, because now he left the military right, so that became such a hassle. Oh my god, that was the beginning of, like the stress. So, because he was a 1099, like I said, they didn't want to include his income, but they sure as hell included his debt, which was, you know, paying child support and also, uh, he still owed money on the truck, so he had a car payment and so he's not making. So all that debt, you know, then carries over to me and I have my rental properties right. So then that made my debt to income ratio way too high. So they were only going to let me borrow maybe 200k 250, and I needed like 400k. Actually it probably was going to be closer to at least half a million 500K, because the thing was that I wanted to lump the land loan together. So there's a way to, like you know, merge everything when you get your construction load or whatever they pay off the land and then at the end, once everything's finalized, then you just end up with one mortgage, right? So I needed to have enough to pay off the loan but also enough to build the house.

Speaker 0: 27:32

Now, at first we weren't kind of stressing too much. I mean, we were right because like, wow, big sticker shock. But and then you know the whole loan thing. But my husband, it's a startup company. They were planning and were in the process of turning it from a startup to an actual company. So then he would become a w-2 like a regular employee and that had a regular paycheck and all that stuff, and then they would accept that right, they just needed paycheck stubs. It was so ridiculous or whatever.

Speaker 0: 28:06

But the problem was that we had to wait for that and then it just kept. You know, they kept pushing it back because it takes time to do this, and so the month would go by, another month would go by, and then now we're like stressing, and then they're like well, we still aren't going to be able to qualify for what you need. We still aren't going to be able to qualify for what you need. So then I start looking at smaller builds and smaller barnaminions. But like it was still, it was just like. And then, on top of that, because of the timeline, I was like dude, like it's going to take like a year to build and like we're already so behind. So like I was going through it Not to mention the salary that my husband was getting at the time was not going to be enough to like help cover that and because I was planning on just going to school, I wanted to take a break from working after I get out, because it's like working nonstop and being like all the time.

Speaker 0: 29:05

I was just I wanted a break, right, take advantage and take a break. And I was just I wanted a break, right, take advantage and take a break. And I was saving up for it. But I'm like dude, like 4,000 is gonna be tough, and like I don't, I don't know like. So we decided like, all right, we gotta figure something different now. And we started seeing like things about manufactured home.

Speaker 0: 29:24

Eventually, once you start looking at these homesteading videos, you'll end up with people who build manufactured homes on the land, and so I started looking at them and started researching about them. I'm like, wow, that's actually not bad. And so we started looking at manufactured homes and we realized that one they get built faster, right, so I don't have to wait like a whole year now, mind you, because of our timing. We still have to wait until like end of august, still so, but whatever, it's still not another year. And like everything's so much more affordable for what you can get that you just set it on the land and they're still sturdy and everything like that. It's just that manufactured homes get a bad rep, right, because it was seen as like basically trailer trash and all that stuff.

Speaker 0: 30:18

But let me tell you like, once I started thinking about it and doing the numbers, I started like having this mindset shift of like you know, I wanted this big, huge house and all that stuff, but, like in Ramona, I had a four bedroom, two story, 2400 square foot house. And let me tell you how much wasted space that house like I didn't use a lot of them, especially the rooms. One was like an office that I didn't even use because I would just, you know, work downstairs. Um, because two stories is a pain in the ass to go up and down, and everything like that too. Like oh, you want water? Okay, now I gotta go downstairs, or anything like that. And then like there was like we had a second living room that just basically just had desks in it that I didn't use, except like once in a while that I wanted to force myself to use the desk, like I.

Speaker 0: 31:15

It was a lot of wasted space and so I started thinking about it was like, and then it was a pain in the ass to clean, like going upstairs, downstairs, like it was a whole freaking like evolution. It was a whole process. Like we all had to, like you know, clean that freaking house and it was a pain in the ass and like I started thinking about it, like I, really we really do not need that much space. Like my stepson, if he lives with us, that's fine. We, we don't have enough rooms. We only have my daughter, it's just gonna be the four of us like we don't need much room, especially because most of the time we spent our time outside, and even when I would, you know, do podcasts and stuff like that, I would go outside and do them and work outside, because I love being outside in my backyard.

Speaker 0: 32:03

And so I started thinking like, okay, we don't need that much space and we don't need all this stuff, like I could still make this work. Because I started thinking like, okay, we don't need that much space and we don't need all this stuff, like I could still make this work. Because I started seeing people like you know, updating their manufactured homes, making them look really nice and everything. Like I could do that Right. And so we decided to get a three bedroom, two bath manufactured home. It's 1700 square feet, which the the layout I love the layout and stuff and like there's gonna be no wasted space. Every space in that house is going to be utilized, it's gonna be used, and so I won't feel bad of paying a mortgage of and paying for wasted space, like I did with the house in California. Like I was paying four thousand dollars for me to use the bedroom, my bathroom, the living room, the kitchen and outside, that's it. All the other rooms like, were just not being used and I was just paying for them. So I'm glad that we decided to shift gears and we decided to get this manufactured home.

Speaker 0: 33:12

Okay, so let's get into the actual numbers of what it's going to cost for me to build this manufactured home on this land, and I'm not going to get too much into the loan process because I want to do a separate episode on that because this episode is getting too long already. So for the manufactured home itself, uh, it's going to be 129,900. That's what it cost us for the three bedroom, two bath manufactured, two-bath manufactured home. Again, it's 1,700 square feet Now in total improvements, meaning that everything that they're going to do to make the house livable, like electric, a driveway, all that stuff, it is quoted at $36,000. That stuff, it is quoted at $36,000. So overall the whole package deal is supposed to cost around $165,000.

Speaker 0: 34:17

And I'm going to go into the breakdown a little bit. But I do want to make a little note that when you go get a construction load, usually they add um, about 10 15 on top of that. So let's say it's, the quote is 165, 000. They're going to add another maybe 10 15 as a buffering case, like prices go up or there's um something that came up, you have that buffer, so then it will. Actually, you know, they'll let you borrow a different amount, not because they're not going to give you a loan for the exactly 165, right, they're going to give a little bit extra cushion for that, so they're going to want to do that. So when you go shopping around for a house to build, just keep that in mind, because if you have a max of loan that they're going to let you borrow, you have to take that into account, that percentage. But again, I want to go into that in another episode because there's a lot of stuff that I want to talk about with that.

Speaker 0: 35:24

Now for the breakdown. Again, our land is raw land. Right, it used to be a ranch and it just. The ranch got sold and everything just has overgrown. But there is water and electric at the end of the road. Now, remember my land is shaped like a flag, so that means they have to pull the electric and the water line all the way back to where I'm going to build. So just be aware that adds extra cost. I was okay with it because on top of that I have to build a drive, you know a, basically street all the way back there. But because my parents are getting the lot next to me, we're just going to go half seas on it. And then same thing with kind of the electric and stuff um, they could just jump from mine, and so, as far as the the fees, let's get into that.

Speaker 0: 36:23

So again, the actual manufactured home is 129 900 and this is a complete manufactured home. It includes appliances minus washer and dryer drywall. So, uh, instead of like how sometimes you see these manufactured homes have those like mobile panels looking things, um, it's actually going to be drywalled on in the inside and it's going to have, like you know, the plumbing and electric run through the house and all that. So that includes everything. So, basically, all right, you're ready to go house that you just need to put on some land. Now, as far as preparing where you're going to put the house, the site prep is going to cost me $1,200 and the home pad, where the house is going to actually be right, site prep is like clearing debris and maybe, like you know, trees or whatever. But the home pad itself, they have to like flatten it, level it out and blah, blah, blah. That's going to be $2,900.

Speaker 0: 37:28

And then the thing that gets a little bit pricey is the water connection, because again I have the water at the end of the road and I have that long drive back to where I'm actually building. So they charge $1,100 $1,150 for initial, like setting up the line, connections and all that stuff, and then for additional footage they charge me like $3.90 per extra foot, it looks like, and it's an extra $12.30. So it ends up actually being pricey at $.97. Yeah, pretty pricey. And then the same thing with electric. The initial is 1900 but then on top of that they're going to charge me an extra 1500 because again I have to pull the electric all the way back there. So things to keep in mind if you want to be like way back there and have to, you know you want to buy a lot similar like mine. Now, permits and fees from the electric company is going to be around $12.50. And then to get the meter and a loop in the pole to put where the meter goes, for that I guess for the electric is going to be 23.50. So yeah, again, like utilities are, gets pretty pricey.

Speaker 0: 39:01

Now they do have to do plumbing the there's plumbing throughout the house, but then of course they have to do the underground plumbing where they connect all the lines from the main water line and to the house. But then of course, they have to do the underground plumbing where they connect all the lines from the main water line and to the house. That is $1,150, and then for the septic, I'm getting a septic uh, it's for a three-bedroom home. It includes the installation inspection and the engineering plans and things like that. It's $7,400, and it's an extra $1,500 to get the septic engineering and permits done. Now they're going to build two decks decks one four by eight and one six by six, and the four by eight is twelve hundred dollars, and then the six by six deck is sixteen hundred dollars, and so that brings the total to a little over thirty six thousand dollars.

Speaker 0: 40:03

Now, one caveat, though, is that we didn't include the driveway building the street from the, the main street, all the way back to where I'm having the house, and the reason for this is because, as I mentioned, my parents and I are going like halfsies on building a road back there. It's gonna be a gravel road, so I didn't want it included. One because, again, we're going halfsies on it, and two is to bring, uh, the loan a little bit lower, um, just because, again, we were having trouble with the financing portion. So I was like you know what, let's, we'll pay that and bring it down. So, um, because we had actually also picked a different manufactured home that was going to be a little bit pricier similar square fee, but for some reason was pricier so we went to this one and, on top of that, are going to pay for the road out of pocket. So that is another. I think it was eleven thousand dollars, thousand dollars. So overall, you know, give or take, you're almost at like 180 thousand dollars to actually, you know, build the home and then get all you know the utilities back there and prepare the land and all that stuff. So 180.

Speaker 0: 41:26

Now, remember, I have a land loan on the land and I still owed 114, so they had to pay that off, and so that's why then I end up having a loan amount of 288. Now, I know the math doesn't work out, because in reality it's close to 295 of what the overall cost of, you know, paying off the land loan. But because I had purchased the land for 145 back in 2022, the land value actually increased and I had, again, you know, put a down payment on it and so the land actually went up to, like you know, based on the tax value, if you want to go off of that, it's a hundred worth 180k based on the county right. So I had equity in that house, so I was actually able to use the equity of the land to use as a down payment for the whole loan, and so that's why I actually end up with, you know, $288,000.

Speaker 0: 42:51

Realistically, like I went from, you know, wanting a four well, not wanting, but was depending on the house that I wanted at that time I was gonna end up with like close to $4,000 mortgage. Now I'm down to $2,700 and I can still go and get a VA home loan on it after everything's completed. Because the problem that I was having with doing a VA home loan off the bat with the construction is that they're so freaking nitpicky on things uh, on building that it was just gonna like prolong everything, it was just gonna complicate, prolong everything, it was just going to complicate it. But now that the house is built and everything's lumped together, now I could go to the VA home loan and be like, hey, I want to um, you know, refinance into a VA home loan and that will bring down my interest rate. I don't know the interest rates off the bat on my head of what, the current ones, but it's definitely going to be lower than that. So that's in the future. And then my mortgage will go lower and now, like you know, things are looking better and now I have way cheaper.

Speaker 0: 44:02

You know, from what I initially thought I was going to have as a mortgage and my rental properties are, I already make pretty much most of this mortgage and then. So now I'm able to, you know, start, you know, getting financial freedom even faster, because now I am still able to fulfill my goal of, you know what, not working for the rest of the year because I'm just going to focus on school, because, being a veteran, I do get benefits with school and they give you, you know, some extra money to pay, so that way you could, you know, have somewhere to live, help you with those bills, so that way you could focus on school. And then I'm still gonna do the reserves. So that's extra money. And then you know other things that I'm bringing in, plus the rental properties, but that's getting put to the side because I want to keep reinvesting that. So, um, and then my husband's making more now than when he first started at this job.

Speaker 0: 45:06

So, yeah, things are looking up and you know it was a stressful process and you know, like, at some point I thought that it wasn't going to happen. But we are done, we signed it. Now it's just the waiting game of, you know, having this house built. They say it's around August time frame, so not sure if I want to try to do a house hack or, you know, maybe just get an RV and park it there until it's done. So, I guess, stay tuned and see what I end up doing. But thank you so much for listening and make sure, please, if you can just like and share, rate the you know the podcast, this episode, because it helps, you know, grow the podcast, um, but other than that, I will see you in the next episode. Bye.