Home buying thread

Haus · 2025-03-16T20:37:30-0400

Haus said:
In my area, I'm looking at my house coming up on 4x what I paid for it in 2001. And over half the time in my neighborhood they're literally just paying for the land and razing the house.

Hate replying to my own post but this deserves an update...

So... my house currently I have a standing offer from a developer for right at 4x what I paid for the house. I was wondering why. I just looked up recent deals on these "raze it and build a mcmansion" gambits. The house across the alley from me, almost exactly same sized lot, razed and rebuilt, sold less than a month ago.... for 9.3x what I paid for my house in 2001.

Looks like project peaches is no longer "live here until we finish building in the country", it will be "Buy land, drop a double wide on it (or buy land with a workable enough small home), live there while building, while simultaneously razing and rebuilding at our current lot to then sell and pay everything off."

Gravel · 2025-03-16T21:15:19-0400

Haus said:
In my area, I'm looking at my house coming up on 4x what I paid for it in 2001. And over half the time in my neighborhood they're literally just paying for the land and razing the house.

My mother-in-law has a trailer on a double lot that we really want to build on. But I can't really wrap my mind around how to do so.

We'll probably need to talk to a builder, loan officer, and the permit office to see what our options are. Most of that is because we don't have income though, and asset backed mortgages seem terrible if you can even get one.

We've considered selling our house here and moving into the trailer. I was thinking we could build an in-law suite (one bed, one bath, maybe 600-700 sqft), live in the trailer as it's getting built, and then tear down the trailer and build the actual house after that.

Depends on whether you can have multiple buildings on one property though. If not, I considered if we'd be able to connect the two, and basically build in stages (or thinking of it an addition...that's 3x the size of the existing structure, in this case the in-law suite). Not sure how feasible that'd be though since we can't pour a foundation where the trailer is currently until we tear it down, and not sure if you can pour a foundation next to an existing foundation.

It'd also be nice because when we don't have anyone using the in-law suite, something that size can rent for like $200ish a night in the summer.

It's in an amazing area. Close to the beach (5ish min), centrally located, but in a quiet neighborhood.

Edit: That's pretty funny, cause I didn't read your post just before mine. Pretty similar situation, although you have a job still I believe.

Haus · 2025-03-16T22:25:01-0400

Gravel said:
My mother-in-law has a trailer on a double lot that we really want to build on. But I can't really wrap my mind around how to do so.

We'll probably need to talk to a builder, loan officer, and the permit office to see what our options are. Most of that is because we don't have income though, and asset backed mortgages seem terrible if you can even get one.

We've considered selling our house here and moving into the trailer. I was thinking we could build an in-law suite (one bed, one bath, maybe 600-700 sqft), live in the trailer as it's getting built, and then tear down the trailer and build the actual house after that.

Depends on whether you can have multiple buildings on one property though. If not, I considered if we'd be able to connect the two, and basically build in stages (or thinking of it an addition...that's 3x the size of the existing structure, in this case the in-law suite). Not sure how feasible that'd be though since we can't pour a foundation where the trailer is currently until we tear it down, and not sure if you can pour a foundation next to an existing foundation.

It'd also be nice because when we don't have anyone using the in-law suite, something that size can rent for like $200ish a night in the summer.

It's in an amazing area. Close to the beach (5ish min), centrally located, but in a quiet neighborhood.

Edit: That's pretty funny, cause I didn't read your post just before mine. Pretty similar situation, although you have a job still I believe.

This is one example of what I've been looking at :

https://www.land.com/property/5101-county-road-3133-lone-oak-texas-75453/22085231/

But to do that right now would involve something like...

Get a mortgage for that property. (We're less than $50k to completely paid off on our current house)
Move to that double wide.
Finance the destruction and rebuild on our own home lot. Time est (~6 months) Cost est ~$525k. So at this point close to a Million in mortgage overhead for 6 months.
Sell that house (hopefully for what the one across the alley sold for, hopefully within 3 months of completion)
Pay off all loans/mortgages involved.
...
Profit.

Should result in us with a great house on a small hobby ranch, and a tidy bit of a profit. Question being how much will I need in liquid assets to pull it off. I have a good pool of assets outside retirement funding right now, but would prefer to only have to liquidate a minimum of it. And still have a good income from my "day job".

One of my original thoughts was that I'd keep this house, turn it into a rental, and rent it once we lived outside town. But now I'm literally at the age to think in terms of "how much would I make total in rent off this if I rented it until I died, versus how much I'd made in a lump sum selling it now"

Cad · 2025-03-16T23:35:19-0400

Haus said:
In my area, I'm looking at my house coming up on 4x what I paid for it in 2001. And over half the time in my neighborhood they're literally just paying for the land and razing the house.

Thats only a 3.3% real appreciation rate subtracting out inflation. it seems insane because it's 4x for the same house, but thats like shitty municipal bonds return rate in general. And I'm not saying that in a "wow thats a shitty investment" way, but just that fixed assets like real estate in any kind of reasonably desirable area (anyplace north of I-30 in DFW and south of the Oklahoma border is relatively desirable with today's growth rates) should appreciate, and your result isn't really out of the norm.

Kithani · 2025-03-17T08:28:39-0400

Cad said:
Thats only a 3.3% real appreciation rate subtracting out inflation. it seems insane because it's 4x for the same house, but thats like shitty municipal bonds return rate in general. And I'm not saying that in a "wow thats a shitty investment" way, but just that fixed assets like real estate in any kind of reasonably desirable area (anyplace north of I-30 in DFW and south of the Oklahoma border is relatively desirable with today's growth rates) should appreciate, and your result isn't really out of the norm.

Can’t necessarily look at it as shitty muni bonds, he prob put 20% down and thus had 5x leverage in a low risk situation

Fucker · 2025-03-17T09:03:19-0400

Gravel said:
My mother-in-law has a trailer on a double lot that we really want to build on. But I can't really wrap my mind around how to do so.

We'll probably need to talk to a builder, loan officer, and the permit office to see what our options are. Most of that is because we don't have income though, and asset backed mortgages seem terrible if you can even get one.

We've considered selling our house here and moving into the trailer. I was thinking we could build an in-law suite (one bed, one bath, maybe 600-700 sqft), live in the trailer as it's getting built, and then tear down the trailer and build the actual house after that.

Depends on whether you can have multiple buildings on one property though. If not, I considered if we'd be able to connect the two, and basically build in stages (or thinking of it an addition...that's 3x the size of the existing structure, in this case the in-law suite). Not sure how feasible that'd be though since we can't pour a foundation where the trailer is currently until we tear it down, and not sure if you can pour a foundation next to an existing foundation.

It'd also be nice because when we don't have anyone using the in-law suite, something that size can rent for like $200ish a night in the summer.

It's in an amazing area. Close to the beach (5ish min), centrally located, but in a quiet neighborhood.

Edit: That's pretty funny, cause I didn't read your post just before mine. Pretty similar situation, although you have a job still I believe.

Move trailer to a different lot. Sell house. Live in trailer. Build house on empty lot. Sell trailer when house done.

Fucker · 2025-03-17T09:14:09-0400

Haus said:
Hate replying to my own post but this deserves an update...

So... my house currently I have a standing offer from a developer for right at 4x what I paid for the house. I was wondering why. I just looked up recent deals on these "raze it and build a mcmansion" gambits. The house across the alley from me, almost exactly same sized lot, razed and rebuilt, sold less than a month ago.... for 9.3x what I paid for my house in 2001.

Looks like project peaches is no longer "live here until we finish building in the country", it will be "Buy land, drop a double wide on it (or buy land with a workable enough small home), live there while building, while simultaneously razing and rebuilding at our current lot to then sell and pay everything off."

I lived out west, and people would put giant houses just anywhere. I saw a 5k+ sqft house go up, mere feet away from a loud busy street. No land to speak of, and right next to a house that was falling down. Getting out must have been a real PITA, next to impossible to back out during rush hour.

And in another place, two big houses on a micro lot...they shared a fucking driveway. A tiny, narrow driveway.

Palum · 2025-03-17T09:16:49-0400

Kithani said:
Can’t necessarily look at it as shitty muni bonds, he prob put 20% down and thus had 5x leverage in a low risk situation

Yea but then you have to subtract the total interest payments which eat further into the appreciation. Might as well take out property taxes also, and then insurance since you don't need insurance on bonds and don't pay taxes to hold them.

fris · 2025-03-17T09:44:37-0400

Haus said:
That sounds a lot like the framework of what my wife and I are referring to as "Project Peaches". We want somewhere between 15-30 acres, build a house to our specifications (probably in the 3000-3500 sq ft range), with a big ass separate barndominium for my workshop and garage. Also with the goal of being around an hour from anything that would pass as a "big city".

My fear right now isn't even the land purchase, although any land meeting that criteria in Texas anymore is getting expensive, it's the cost of building the house.

1 hour from big city is big suburbs. for Austin, you'd probably need to be 2 hours to get that much space. Houston, maybe 3 lol
that's my dream as well, probably do that after the kids have moved out. porch all around the house, no visible buildings from many angle. enough land where me and my dog can walk the fence line.

Cad · 2025-03-17T09:51:34-0400

Kithani said:
Can’t necessarily look at it as shitty muni bonds, he prob put 20% down and thus had 5x leverage in a low risk situation

If he put 20% down then we need to further subtract the mortgage interest on the 80% and the property taxes, which likely makes it a negative return investment.

Palum beat me to it.

Gravel · 2025-03-17T11:02:51-0400

Fucker said:
Move trailer to a different lot. Sell house. Live in trailer. Build house on empty lot. Sell trailer when house done.

So the problem with that is I don't have another lot to move it to. Anything nearby is like $300k for the lot, and that's for places not on the water. It's Orange Beach, AL, which is becoming a burgeoning beach community. Theoretically I guess we could buy something much further inland (past Foley maybe), but at that point it's a chore and I'd rather just stay put.

Fucker · 2025-03-17T11:19:49-0400

Gravel said:
So the problem with that is I don't have another lot to move it to. Anything nearby is like $300k for the lot, and that's for places not on the water. It's Orange Beach, AL, which is becoming a burgeoning beach community. Theoretically I guess we could buy something much further inland (past Foley maybe), but at that point it's a chore and I'd rather just stay put.

Might inquire with these places to see if they have lots to rent, or know of where to look. Might get lucky.

33 Mobile Home Parks near Orange Beach, AL | MHVillage

Browse mobile home parks near Orange Beach, AL. Search by all-age or 55-plus communities. Find homes for sale or rent and view available lots in a nearby community.

www.mhvillage.com

Palum · 2025-03-17T11:20:51-0400

Fucker said:
Might inquire with these places to see if they have lots to rent, or know of where to look. Might get lucky.

33 Mobile Home Parks near Orange Beach, AL | MHVillage

Browse mobile home parks near Orange Beach, AL. Search by all-age or 55-plus communities. Find homes for sale or rent and view available lots in a nearby community.

www.mhvillage.com

Pharazon2 · 2025-03-17T15:43:58-0400

Cad said:
If he put 20% down then we need to further subtract the mortgage interest on the 80% and the property taxes, which likely makes it a negative return investment. Palum beat me to it.

But if you consider that then you should also consider the money one would have spent renting if one didn't own and you come out ahead again.

Cad · 2025-03-17T15:48:12-0400

Pharazon2 said:
But if you consider that then you should also consider the money one would have spent renting if one didn't own and you come out ahead again.

Thats not as straightforward as it seems though because if you rented you could keep a lot of your money in the market that would otherwise be sitting in home equity earning negative percentages.

Palum · 2025-03-17T15:50:06-0400

Right it's not like there's no value such as privacy or hedging against vagaries in the rental market, etc., it's just not as straight forward as 'housing best investment'. Realistically, the house is the best store of value, because it prevents retards from spending it on frivolous shit and generally keeps up with inflation on its own as a hard asset, not just because it actually appreciates as areas get developed and become more popular.

Captain Suave · 2025-03-17T15:58:59-0400

Cad said:
Thats not as straightforward as it seems though because if you rented you could keep a lot of your money in the market that would otherwise be sitting in home equity earning negative percentages.

I did exactly this for most of the 2010's. My local real estate market was such that renting was ~60% the cost of owning at the amount I"d have to borrow. This let me keep money growing in the stock market that eventually let me put 60% down when we bought in 2023.

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