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Can you build a decent home, not including land, for $150,000?

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It's not the home that'd be a problem building for $150,000.00. You can build a pretty nice home for that, depending on the square footage you're wanting to build to. You can build a Very high quality home with fewer square feet, or a Decent quality home with a generous amount of square feet.

The cost of land will ultimately determine what you spend on building your home. You should determine how much total you intend to spend/mortgage and then parse out the value between house and land.

Obviously, a more expensive living location will reduce the amount available for the build and vice versa.
 
Like everyone else mentioned, a lot depends on location. Well, also what you want in your house...
What size lot are you looking at? Is it going to be 2 stories or just 1? Garage? Automatic sprinklers? Marble countertops? Gold plated floors? You know a good honest engineer to help you design the house also? Architect? A lot of little things will add up.

But, I think your biggest concern should be buying the land and everything associated with ownership of it. After that, you take whatever you can afford and put it into the house. I have seen remodels of kitchens cost 100s of thousands of dollars, and remodels of houses into the millions.
 
Sure you can but you're going to have to do a lot of the work yourself. Hiring other people to do a job is what gets expensive. A lot of it also depends on location and how much land you actually want.

We bought a 5 acre plot of land for $20k. The total cost of the house and land came to about $90k. Granted that's in the middle of nowhere Washington but I'm sure if you looked around you could find something similar somewhere.
 
Originally posted by: Alistar7
COme to Lake Wylie SC, best schools in the state and you can buy 10 acres for 20,000 and have a 3bdrm, 2 bth, w/ 2 car garage built for 80,000....... if you dont mind paying $400 a YEAR in property taxes..........😀

oh and you then live on a penninsula of a very cool lake.....


Charlotte is only 15 mins away, although alot of my neighboors have horses, land, etc.. Big demand for IT people in the Charlotte area as well fellow AT'ers, large east coast banking center, and they need a ton of tech support for their systems all the time.
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I've been seriously thinking of doing EXACTLY that.... Family lives in Anderson...

 
Originally posted by: HeroOfPellinor
That's including materials and labor. I would do all the minor stuff like painting and could do some stuff like installing sinks and garbage disposals and light fixtures (if the wiring was already done). It would need to have 4 bedrooms and a den and probably 2 1/2 baths. It would be in the Sacramento area and my father's best friend is a good honest general contractor--I could ask him, but I'd rather not until we put some more thought into it. Does this sound doable? Any pitfalls?
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Sounds like a plan, although if you do more sweat equity, the contractor can give you a better deal.
I know I could do it.

 
No idea what materials go for over there, but I KNOW you could build an outstanding house here in Ohio for that. And a bungalow or small colonial would be cheaper to build than a ranch if the living area was the same, because you have less foundation and roof. The downside is the damn stairs, but there's always a give and take.
 
Maybe already mentioned, and possibly dependent on geography, subcontracting the Amish provides unsurpassed craftsmanship at unbeatable rates.
 
subcontracting the Amish provides unsurpassed craftsmanship at unbeatable rates.

And you can push em around and they won't fight back.
 
Originally posted by: RossMAN
Yes you could depending on location, location, location ...

In some parts of the US $175k would get you a 1 bedroom studio or a nice 5 bedroom 2 bath house, all depends on where.
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Heck, in parts of Ohio, $75,000 will get you a 4 bedroom 2 bath home. My family's home is 5 bedroom, three bath sitting on 1.5 acres of riverfront property and it's well under 200k (land and two sheds included).

ZV
 
Heck, in parts of Ohio, $75,000 will get you a 4 bedroom 2 bath home

not new construction though. no way
 
Originally posted by: Jadow
Heck, in parts of Ohio, $75,000 will get you a 4 bedroom 2 bath home

not new construction though. no way
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WAY! Take away the cost of the land and it's doable. He said he'd do painting and what not. It's doable...
 
You can do it, prices on some materials and labor will vary with the area though. In most areas it should be doable and have a VERY nice house.
 
Originally posted by: Jadow
Heck, in parts of Ohio, $75,000 will get you a 4 bedroom 2 bath home

not new construction though. no way
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New construction isn't worth sh!t. I'd much rather have an old farmhouse than the new junk that passes for "construction". No quality in the new stuff.

ZV
 
Originally posted by: AlienCraft
Originally posted by: Alistar7
COme to Lake Wylie SC, best schools in the state and you can buy 10 acres for 20,000 and have a 3bdrm, 2 bth, w/ 2 car garage built for 80,000....... if you dont mind paying $400 a YEAR in property taxes..........😀

oh and you then live on a penninsula of a very cool lake.....


Charlotte is only 15 mins away, although alot of my neighboors have horses, land, etc.. Big demand for IT people in the Charlotte area as well fellow AT'ers, large east coast banking center, and they need a ton of tech support for their systems all the time.
Click to expand...
I've been seriously thinking of doing EXACTLY that.... Family lives in Anderson...
Click to expand...


come on down, its great....
 
A typical cost to construct a home runs between $70 and $95 per square foot, including labor, materials, building supplies, and permits (no property), depending on what region of the country you're in, how many higher-end options/perks you want to build into your home, and how much work you're willing to do youself.
 
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