May 27, 2025 • 46 mins
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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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 0 (00:00):
Hola, hola, welcome to another episode, and I am
sharing some great news.
This week is that I finallyclosed on the construction loan
for my house.
I am building a manufacturedhome on 10 acres of land and let
me tell you, it has been ajourney.
I started this journey in 2022and now we have the loan and so
(00:24):
now we're just going to getstarted.
They're going to get started inactually building manufactured
home and doing all the land, youknow, development to get the
house ready to move in, and soI'm going to share with you the
journey, but also share thenumbers and what you can expect,
things I've learned and allthat she's made, so that way, if
(00:48):
you ever want to do somethingsimilar, 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 andwhat type of loan and all that
stuff.
So I'm gonna talk all aboutthat in this episode.
Okay, so let's start at thevery beginning, and this was, I
(01:09):
think I was starting to thinkabout doing something like this
around 2020, 2021.
After COVID, I think a lot of ushad kind of like this mindset
shift of like what are we reallydoing with.
You know, living and working inthis capitalistic, you know
country that we are like workingourselves to death.
(01:32):
And COVID, I think, opened alot of eyes to a lot of us.
And it was the same thing withme.
I was in the military, I'mstill in the military, but like
I'm about to get out in a fewmonths, but I started thinking
about leaving the military,especially since I was thinking
of having, uh, my daughter, andit just was like a lot of like,
(01:58):
okay, I really need to think,what am I going to do now?
And I talked to my husband andwe 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 infor quite some time and neither
one of us had thought to likestay in the whole time.
(02:21):
And then it's like, well, nowor never, because then we're
gonna end up just being here for20 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 ofleaving the military.
Now, this decision was a littlebit difficult because the
(02:43):
military is a stable paycheck.
You get money on the first and15th of every month consistently
.
You know exactly what you'regonna get right.
And like it was pretty crazy tothink, okay, we're going to go
out.
And again, we've been in forquite some time.
He got out at 13 years, I'mgetting out at 14 and a half.
(03:04):
So 14 years, over 10 years, ofgetting consistent, steady
paycheck, not having to reallythink too much about, you know,
finding a job or anything likethat.
So, um, but at this time is whenI had started my really like
taking real estate investingseriously, and so I was like you
know what, by the time wedecided to get out, because the
(03:28):
goal was around this time, Iwanted to give myself a few
years to be able to get somehouses, some more rental
properties, and so that was theplan, right, that I was really
going to go hard at real estateinvesting because I still had to
finish out my contract.
(03:48):
So the reason I had to wait afew more years versus just
getting out right then and therewas because I had an obligation
, because the Navy paid for myschool, for my degree, and I
owed six I think it was sixyears because of that and my
husband just had to wait to theend of his contract, which was
(04:09):
um a few years as well, and sowe were going to be getting that
.
Well, we are getting out.
At the same time, he's alreadyout, and so that's why I was
like, okay, in those few yearsI'm going to be able to acquire
enough rental properties andthat, and so that was the goal,
and so then the next thing wasdeciding where we were going to
(04:30):
live.
He's from Florida, I'm fromTexas.
Now loved San Diego, and Iwould definitely have stayed in
San Diego had I been able toconvince my parents to move over
here, but they weren't havingit because, um, down in texas,
my mom is from matamoros and mydad's from monterey.
I'm from monterey as well, andit's easy, it's right there for
(04:54):
them to just take the bus orwhatever to cross the border and
go visit family right and overhere in san diego.
They'd have to catch a flightand all that.
So I understand and so, but Iwanted to be close to my family,
because I had been away from myfamily at this point for 14
years and you know I only get tosee them on holidays and you
(05:17):
know, um a few times throughoutthe year, when, if they come to
visit.
So, uh, definitely decided thatyou, you know what we're going
to be by my parents because, um,my daughter is the only
granddaughter on my side and onhis side they have two
grandchildren, so it's kind oflike, kind of like being even,
(05:38):
and also I wanted my daughter tobe around you know spanish
speaking, so that way she picksup spanish, and be close again
to the border as well, so wecould go visit.
So it would just be easier.
So then we decided, okay, well,where are we gonna stay?
And I didn't want to go back todallas.
I'm from dallas and no me gusta, like I don't know what it is,
(05:59):
I just, um, I think maybe justgrowing 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 Antoniobecause it's kind of in the
middle.
I had already lived in Houstonduring the time that I was going
to college to get the degreefor the Navy and I did like
(06:22):
Houston, but I didn't want to bein Houston and I didn't want to
be in Austin because it wasexpensive and I don't know
anything really about Austin,san Antonio.
I have been there several timesand I knew that it was, you
know, the next big boom.
Right, san Antonio is goingthrough a lot of growth and
development and I actually knowa lot of military that are going
(06:43):
to retire.
It's attracting a lot ofmilitary veterans.
So we decided in San Antonio.
So, once we decided that we weregoing to be in San Antonio, we
were really debating, okay, likeyou know where, in San Antonio,
and all that and at this timearound COVID, I feel like there
was a big shift after COVID witha lot of like homesteading and
(07:07):
things like that, and I felldown in that rabbit hole and I
it appealed to me.
You know, throughout thoseyears, I was definitely, you
know, growing my own food,learning how to garden and all
this stuff.
I had chickens in my previoushome and I really enjoyed it.
I really was enjoying that.
(07:27):
I started, like you know, evenwith my mental health.
It started improving and itreally helped me throughout the
time that I was going throughfertility treatments and all
that stuff, and so I reallywanted to, you know, start
living a slower life and mymindset started shifting of like
work, work, work, work andreally, you know, chasing the
(07:51):
next big promotion or the nextbig thing of being successful,
right.
So we really talked about itand we're like you know what?
I think we want to go and buysome land and be able to build a
house on it and grow our ownfood, homestead and all that
(08:11):
stuff.
So we started the hunt.
Now this is where my first tipcomes in is when you want to
start looking for land.
Definitely, I know we hateFacebook and everything like
that, but I for me, facebook isreally useful through the
Facebook groups.
I don't use Facebook for likeposting or anything like that.
I just have it there mostlybecause of the.
(08:34):
I'm like part of lots of umgroups, like, obviously, the
neighborhood one, just to keepin the know, but I'm a part of a
lot of real estate investorgroups in the areas that I
invest in.
Of course, I had to join theone 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
(08:57):
that like, you're really missingout on some of these awesome
resources, and that was.
I found a Facebook group thatwas 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 andall this stuff land for salecom
(09:17):
, stuff like that, so, um, butit was through the facebook
group that I saw you knowsomeone uh, posting you know
several lots for sale.
So then I started looking whereit was saying what it entailed.
Now, I've never bought land, soit was definitely scary,
especially doing this out ofstate.
(09:39):
I was over here in california.
There was no way I could go andlook at this land and I know
that I'm crazy because Iactually bought this land
without stepping foot on itprior and I will say that this
kind of, you know, because Iinvest in out of state
(10:01):
properties, I have gained theconfidence 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 realtorand all that stuff went through
that and through a lot of likefacetime and videos and all that
stuff and researching and allthat stuff, I decided to like,
(10:25):
okay, definitely interested.
I looked around the area andeverything is not too.
It's on the outskirts of SanAntonio, um, which is perfectly
fine for me because I honestlydon't go to the city that much,
even now in San Diego, like Idon't really go down to San
Diego, especially when I livedin the rural part in Ramona.
(10:50):
It's kind of like a rural area,rural town.
I stay there for most of mytime.
I rarely went, and you know,around in San Diego.
I stay mostly at home, I'm ahomebody, so, living in the
outskirts of the main city, whenI want to go I can, but for I
(11:10):
know for like 70, 80 percent ofmy time I'm going to be local
and in my house.
I love being at home, in myyard, in my garden, you know,
enjoying my mortgage, as youknow, some people say on tiktok.
So I ended up, you know, wantingthis land because it had a lot
of nopales that were full oftunas, um, it was covered with
(11:33):
mesquite trees.
I mean, it was, it was.
I loved it, it was what Iwanted.
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 ofcourse that wasn't for sale.
But you know what?
I'll plant my own, I guess, andin like 20, 30 years I'll enjoy
(11:54):
it, I guess.
But this land cost 145 000 for10 acres and there was water
there, with the water line, andelectric line was at the street
now.
Then this land was shaped likethey call it, a flag shape,
(12:14):
where the the land kind of Imean imagine a flag.
Right, the little stick is partof the road.
That gold meets at the mainroad and then it goes all the
way and then the flag part isthe actual plot, because there's
another piece of land, anotherplot, in front of yours, but in
(12:39):
order to have access to the road, they create this little narrow
path.
Access to the road, they createthis little narrow path and you
know a lot of people don't likethat, but I wanted that because
I had this vision of being ableto drive down that and just
plant trees on the sides andhave like this beautiful like
path.
And it's going to take sometime, right, because trees take
a while, but over time it'sgoing to create this, you know,
(13:02):
pretty canopy.
So that was my vision.
And then the lot next to me wasalso available and I ended up
convincing my parents to getthat one.
Um, so that way now we're, youknow, building kind of like a
family compound on 20 acrescombined.
Now here's the tricky part,because with land you either
(13:26):
have to buy it like outrightthis one actually had owner
financing, meaning the ownerwill act like the bank you make
payments to them for for, likethey still charge you like an
interest.
In this case they were I forgetwhat the interest I think was
gonna be like 10% or somethinglike that.
So, plus, they wanted a highdown payment.
(13:50):
I forget what it was at thispoint, but it was going to be
too crazy.
But with land it's you reallycan't get loans too much.
It's very hard to findfinancing.
There are land loans out there,which is what I ended up
getting, but it's pretty trickyand you kind of have to like
(14:11):
it's.
It's annoying, right, um, but Idid find a bank to which is
local and which is my next tipis to find the local banks that
are in those rural areas,because they deal with that more
often than somebody a bank fromthe city or whatever.
They're not going to reallywant to do it, but the ones that
(14:33):
are in that area are, you know,are used to it.
So then you have an easier time.
But with these loans they aremore, most of the time, interest
only, payments up front, andthat's how mine was, and the
interest was fixed, but it wasonly fixed for a certain amount
(14:53):
of time.
So with these loans, they hadlike increments.
The first one was going to beat at the seven year mark, where
they would reassess and thenswitch the interest rate, so you
would want to pay off this loanbefore then.
Now there are different ways tobuy the land and also build
(15:16):
your house, so you just have tobe aware of that.
But because I wasn't going tobuild right away, I only had to
purchase the land, so I neededto get a land loan, and so
that's what I did.
And then, in order to get thedown payment for that, I
actually ended up selling myLexus.
(15:37):
It was a 2017 Lexus and I hadit paid off already.
So at this time, we had boughtthe little beater car that I was
driving around before itfinally crapped out on me.
But my husband actually wasusing that because he has a
truck and he has his drive wasan hour at this time to where he
(15:58):
was stationed at, and so we hadbought that beater car just for
gas purposes, and I was likeyou know what I don't need?
We don't need three cars.
I am perfectly fine justdriving that beater car, because
at this time he was basicallygetting out and I was like, all
right, let's get rid of this car.
And I used that for money as adown payment for the land,
(16:22):
because I don't want to use,like, our savings or the rental
income that I was getting atthat time, because actually that
was going towards, like,fertility treatments.
So, yeah, I ended up justselling the Lexus and that's how
I got the money.
And so, august 2022, I ended up,you know, closing on the land
(16:42):
and then I went down there a fewmonths later, I think in
November.
I went down there after I hadbought the land and actually set
foot on it for the first time,and it was.
I was so happy, I was so gladthat I bought it because, like,
wow, I'm excited to get on thereand start homesteading and
(17:03):
building my house.
And so, you know, even though Ihad a few more years before my
contract was up, it was time tokind of like start looking at
what I wanted to build on it.
But around this time was thetime that I was going through my
fertility treatments andsurgeries and we ended up having
(17:26):
to do a surrogacy journey.
So, um, we had to kind of shifta little bit in far as far as
our finances and what we neededto focus on.
So we really had to, like,raise funds and all that stuff
to be able to do the surrogacyjourney.
So so 2023 was just, you know,focus on that.
(17:46):
And then my daughter was bornin 2024.
So then we could start focusing.
Uh, as you know, we weregetting closer.
2025 was the year that I wasgetting out.
My husband got was getting outat the end of 2024.
And so, around end of 2023 andearly 2024, I started kind of
(18:10):
researching on what kind ofhouse I would want to build on
this land.
And I knew that having a stickbuilt, which means just building
a regular house the regular way, was going to be very pricey,
and so I wanted to look atalternates.
And during this time, of course, I was still going, you know,
(18:35):
kind of like really deep intoyoutube videos and all that on
people homesteading and Istarted seeing a lot about
barnum mediums and I startedresearching what a barnum medium
was and all this stuff and thewhole flexibility that it
provided, and I decided that youknow what I want to build a
(18:56):
barnum medium.
It's um, you know, they weresaying it was cheaper than a
stick bill and you have such uma leeway with the layout,
because with stick built homesyou have to worry about, you
know, load bearing walls, thingsthat make sure that you know
the roof doesn't cave in, orwhatever.
(19:16):
But with barnuminium, the, Iguess, the weight is distributed
on the outer wall, so then theinner walls are just like you
could do whatever layout thatyou want.
So I really like that.
And I started thinking that, hey, I want a barnuminium.
Well, I, you know, was justwatching youtube videos but I
(19:37):
didn't really dive into what thecost was actually because, like
I said, at this time I was morefocused 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'regoing to do and actually build.
And so then I started gettingquotes for a barnuminium and
(20:02):
well, let me tell you, it isstill 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 likethe roof and all this stuff and
(20:23):
usually it will include themsetting up, and this is called
like the shell right, it's allthe outer parts, because our bar
in the medium is basically ametal building and so they, you
know, prefabricated and cut outeverything and send you all like
the pieces, like a freaking youknow Lego set, and so you can
(20:45):
either buy the kit and then youknow a lot of people that know
how to build and stuff like thatthey'll do that, which is what
I was watching on YouTube, notthinking 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
(21:06):
the kit and do everythingyourself, be your own general
contractor and all that, or theycould, you know, rise the whole
shell, weld it together for you, put the foundation, all that
stuff, and then after that it'slike phases and with this
builder it was that they wouldhave like three phases and even
(21:27):
with the third phase now theydid do turnkey.
But I definitely wasn'tinterested in doing turnkey
because that's basically a stickbuild at that point and they
would do everything, includinginstallation, 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
(21:50):
inside of the layout and thenthat's it, and they would put
foam, insulation foam, and justthat was already like 189 000
just for that, and it didn'tinclude, like, the clearing, it
didn't include, like I said, theelectrical, the plumbing,
drywall, all this stuff, so itwould end up, you know, costing
(22:15):
way more.
Now I've been spoiled with thementality because of the
military having a steadypaycheck and whatever.
I've never had trouble gettinga loan and, um, we had the loan
over here for the Californiahouse and that was like our
mortgage.
There was like four thousanddollars.
(22:35):
And so I'm thinking, okay, overhere is gonna be fine, okay,
you know, yeah, it's gonna bepricey.
And when I'm thinking, okay,over here it's going to be fine,
okay, you know, yeah, it'sgoing to be pricey.
And when I did the roughcalculations, um, you know,
because you could use like thosecalculators online just to get
an estimate of and they'repretty accurate, a lot of them,
especially, I think it'scalculatornet or something like
(22:57):
that, they have a mortgagecalculator right there.
So I calculated and it would beroughly around the same, like
37, 4 000, whatever was going tobe our mortgage and I was like,
okay, yeah, sure we could dothat, right.
And the problem was that when Iwent, I went to go get the loan,
we started having issuesbecause my husband was a
(23:22):
contractor, so he had gone outand gotten a contractor job at a
startup company and meaninghe'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,
(23:43):
self-employed, the banks willgive you such a hard time with
getting a loan because you don'thave a stable income and they
want you to have, um, maybe a,depending on the lender at least
two years of consistent incomeas being self-employed.
(24:04):
So you'll have to file taxesand all that stuff.
And you also want to make surethat during this time, if you
know you're going to buy a housein the future, if that's your
goal, that you are not, you know, doing too many deductions,
because then that's going tolower, um what you know how much
you make, right, because maybeyou brought in, let's say, a
(24:27):
hundred thousand in um revenue,right of income, but because you
started deducting this or thator whatever, then you actually
are making like eighty thousandat 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 eitherhave trouble getting the loan or
(24:51):
you're going to have troublegetting enough of what you need
to actually get the house thatyou want.
So make sure that you're beingstrategic about what you're
deducting and all that stuff,and so talk to your tax person
and also maybe a lender, thatway you know what to kind of
like start preparing for.
(25:12):
And so, because my husband was a1099, when I went to go apply
for the loan, they weren't goingto include his income, and they
weren't going to include, uh,the, the military income,
because now he left the militaryright, so that became such a
hassle.
(25:32):
Oh my god, that was thebeginning of, like the stress.
So, because he was a 1099, likeI said, they didn't want to
include his income, but theysure as hell included his debt,
which was, you know, payingchild support and also, uh, he
still owed money on the truck,so he had a car payment and so
he's not making.
(25:53):
So all that debt, you know,then carries over to me and I
have my rental properties right.
So then that made my debt toincome ratio way too high.
So they were only going to letme borrow maybe 200k 250, and I
needed like 400k.
(26:14):
Actually it probably was goingto be closer to at least half a
million 500K, because the thingwas that I wanted to lump the
land loan together.
So there's a way to, like youknow, merge everything when you
get your construction load orwhatever they pay off the land
and then at the end, onceeverything's finalized, then you
(26:35):
just end up with one mortgage,right?
So I needed to have enough topay off the loan but also enough
to build the house.
Now, at first we weren't kind ofstressing too much.
I mean, we were right becauselike, wow, big sticker shock.
But and then you know the wholeloan thing.
But my husband, it's a startupcompany.
(26:57):
They were planning and were inthe process of turning it from a
startup to an actual company.
So then he would become a w-2like a regular employee and that
had a regular paycheck and allthat stuff, and then they would
accept that right, they justneeded paycheck stubs.
It was so ridiculous orwhatever.
(27:18):
But the problem was that we hadto wait for that and then it
just kept.
You know, they kept pushing itback because it takes time to do
this, and so the month would goby, another month would go by,
and then now we're likestressing, and then they're like
well, we still aren't going tobe able to qualify for what you
(27:39):
need.
We still aren't going to beable to qualify for what you
need.
So then I start looking atsmaller builds and smaller
barnaminions.
But like it was still, it wasjust like.
And then, on top of that,because of the timeline, I was
like dude, like it's going totake like a year to build and
like we're already so behind.
So like I was going through itNot to mention the salary that
my husband was getting at thetime was not going to be enough
(28:01):
to like help cover that andbecause I was planning on just
going to school, I wanted totake a break from working after
I get out, because it's likeworking nonstop and being like
all the time.
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.
(28:21):
But I'm like dude, like 4,000is 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 likethings about manufactured home.
Eventually, once you startlooking at these homesteading
videos, you'll end up withpeople who build manufactured
(28:43):
homes on the land, and so Istarted looking at them and
started researching about them.
I'm like, wow, that's actuallynot bad.
And so we started looking atmanufactured homes and we
realized that one they get builtfaster, right, so I don't have
to wait like a whole year now,mind you, because of our timing.
(29:03):
We still have to wait untillike end of august, still so,
but whatever, it's still notanother year.
And like everything's so muchmore affordable for what you can
get that you just set it on theland and they're still sturdy
and everything like that.
It's just that manufacturedhomes get a bad rep, right,
(29:26):
because it was seen as likebasically trailer trash and all
that stuff.
But let me tell you like, once Istarted thinking about it and
doing the numbers, I startedlike having this mindset shift
of like you know, I wanted thisbig, huge house and all that
stuff, but, like in Ramona, Ihad a four bedroom, two story,
(29:49):
2400 square foot house.
And let me tell you how muchwasted space that house like I
didn't use a lot of them,especially the rooms.
One was like an office that Ididn't even use because I would
just, you know, work downstairs.
Um, because two stories is apain in the ass to go up and
down, and everything like thattoo.
(30:09):
Like oh, you want water?
Okay, now I gotta go downstairs, or anything like that.
And then like there was like wehad a second living room that
just basically just had desks init that I didn't use, except
like once in a while that Iwanted to force myself to use
the desk, like I.
It was a lot of wasted space andso I started thinking about it
(30:31):
was like, and then it was a painin the ass to clean, like going
upstairs, downstairs, like itwas a whole freaking like
evolution.
It was a whole process.
Like we all had to, like youknow, clean that freaking house
and it was a pain in the ass andlike I started thinking about
it, like I, really we really donot need that much space.
Like my stepson, if he liveswith us, that's fine.
(30:54):
We, we don't have enough rooms.
We only have my daughter, it'sjust 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 Ilove being outside in my
backyard.
(31:14):
And so I started thinking like,okay, we don't need that much
space and we don't need all thisstuff, 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 thisstuff, like I could still make
this work.
Because I started seeing peoplelike you know, updating their
manufactured homes, making themlook really nice and everything.
Like I could do that Right.
And so we decided to get athree bedroom, two bath
(31:38):
manufactured home.
It's 1700 square feet, whichthe the layout I love the layout
and stuff and like there'sgonna be no wasted space.
Every space in that house isgoing to be utilized, it's gonna
be used, and so I won't feelbad of paying a mortgage of and
paying for wasted space, like Idid with the house in California
(32:02):
.
Like I was paying four thousanddollars for me to use the
bedroom, my bathroom, the livingroom, the kitchen and outside,
that's it.
All the other rooms like, werejust not being used and I was
just paying for them.
So I'm glad that we decided toshift gears and we decided to
get this manufactured home.
(32:23):
Okay, so let's get into theactual numbers of what it's
going to cost for me to buildthis manufactured home on this
land, and I'm not going to gettoo much into the loan process
because I want to do a separateepisode on that because this
episode is getting too longalready.
So for the manufactured homeitself, uh, it's going to be
(32:49):
129,900.
That's what it cost us for thethree bedroom, two bath
manufactured, two-bathmanufactured home.
Again, it's 1,700 square feetNow in total improvements,
meaning that everything thatthey're going to do to make the
(33:10):
house livable, like electric, adriveway, all that stuff, it is
quoted at $36,000.
That stuff, it is quoted at$36,000.
So overall the whole packagedeal is supposed to cost around
$165,000.
And I'm going to go into thebreakdown a little bit.
(33:30):
But I do want to make a littlenote that when you go get a
construction load, usually theyadd um, about 10 15 on top of
that.
So let's say it's, the quote is165, 000.
They're going to add anothermaybe 10 15 as a buffering case,
(33:51):
like prices go up or there's umsomething that came up, you
have that buffer, so then itwill.
Actually, you know, they'll letyou borrow a different amount,
not because they're not going togive you a loan for the exactly
165, right, they're going togive a little bit extra cushion
for that, so they're going towant to do that.
(34:13):
So when you go shopping aroundfor a house to build, just keep
that in mind, because if youhave a max of loan that they're
going to let you borrow, youhave to take that into account,
that percentage.
But again, I want to go intothat in another episode because
there's a lot of stuff that Iwant to talk about with that.
(34:35):
Now for the breakdown.
Again, our land is raw land.
Right, it used to be a ranchand it just.
The ranch got sold andeverything just has overgrown.
But there is water and electricat the end of the road.
(34:56):
Now, remember my land is shapedlike a flag, so that means they
have to pull the electric andthe water line all the way back
to where I'm going to build.
So just be aware that addsextra cost.
I was okay with it because ontop of that I have to build a
drive, you know a, basicallystreet all the way back there.
(35:17):
But because my parents aregetting the lot next to me,
we're just going to go half season it.
And then same thing with kindof the electric and stuff um,
they could just jump from mine,and so, as far as the the fees,
let's get into that.
So again, the actualmanufactured home is 129 900 and
(35:40):
this is a complete manufacturedhome.
It includes appliances minuswasher and dryer drywall.
So, uh, instead of like howsometimes you see these
manufactured homes have thoselike mobile panels looking
things, um, it's actually goingto be drywalled on in the inside
and it's going to have, likeyou know, the plumbing and
(36:01):
electric run through the houseand all that.
So that includes everything.
So, basically, all right,you're ready to go house that
you just need to put on someland.
Now, as far as preparing whereyou're going to put the house,
the site prep is going to costme $1,200 and the home pad,
(36:22):
where the house is going toactually be right, site prep is
like clearing debris and maybe,like you know, trees or whatever
.
But the home pad itself, theyhave to like flatten it, level
it out and blah, blah, blah.
That's going to be $2,900.
And then the thing that gets alittle bit pricey is the water
(36:44):
connection, because again I havethe water at the end of the
road and I have that long driveback to where I'm actually
building.
So they charge $1,100 $1,150for initial, like setting up the
line, connections and all thatstuff, and then for additional
(37:08):
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 beingpricey at $.97.
Yeah, pretty pricey.
And then the same thing withelectric.
The initial is 1900 but then ontop of that they're going to
(37:34):
charge me an extra 1500 becauseagain I have to pull the
electric all the way back there.
So things to keep in mind ifyou want to be like way back
there and have to, you know youwant to buy a lot similar like
mine.
Now, permits and fees from theelectric company is going to be
around $12.50.
(37:54):
And then to get the meter and aloop in the pole to put where
the meter goes, for that I guessfor the electric is going to be
23.50.
So yeah, again, like utilitiesare, gets pretty pricey.
Now they do have to do plumbingthe there's plumbing throughout
(38:17):
the house, but then of coursethey have to do the underground
plumbing where they connect allthe lines from the main water
line and to the house.
But then of course, they haveto do the underground plumbing
where they connect all the linesfrom the main water line and to
the house.
That is $1,150, and then forthe septic, I'm getting a septic
uh, it's for a three-bedroomhome.
It includes the installationinspection and the engineering
(38:41):
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 twodecks decks one four by eight
and one six by six, and the fourby eight is twelve hundred
(39:02):
dollars, and then the six by sixdeck is sixteen hundred dollars
, and so that brings the totalto a little over thirty six
thousand dollars.
Now, one caveat, though, is thatwe didn't include the driveway
building the street from the,the main street, all the way
(39:25):
back to where I'm having thehouse, and the reason for this
is because, as I mentioned, myparents and I are going like
halfsies on building a road backthere.
It's gonna be a gravel road, soI didn't want it included.
One because, again, we're goinghalfsies on it, and two is to
bring, uh, the loan a little bitlower, um, just because, again,
(39:50):
we were having trouble with thefinancing portion.
So I was like you know what,let's, we'll pay that and bring
it down.
So, um, because we had actuallyalso picked a different
manufactured home that was goingto be a little bit pricier
similar square fee, but for somereason was pricier so we went
to this one and, on top of that,are going to pay for the road
(40:12):
out of pocket.
So that is another.
I think it was eleven thousanddollars, thousand dollars.
So overall, you know, give ortake, you're almost at like 180
thousand dollars to actually,you know, build the home and
then get all you know theutilities back there and prepare
(40:34):
the land and all that stuff.
So 180.
Now, remember, I have a landloan on the land and I still
owed 114, so they had to paythat off, and so that's why then
I end up having a loan amountof 288.
Now, I know the math doesn'twork out, because in reality
(40:57):
it's close to 295 of what theoverall cost of, you know,
paying off the land loan.
But because I had purchased theland for 145 back in 2022, the
land value actually increasedand I had, again, you know, put
a down payment on it and so theland actually went up to, like
(41:22):
you know, based on the tax value, if you want to go off of that,
it's a hundred worth 180k basedon the county right.
So I had equity in that house,so I was actually able to use
the equity of the land to use asa down payment for the whole
loan, and so that's why Iactually end up with, you know,
(41:59):
$288,000.
Realistically, like I went from,you know, wanting a four well,
not wanting, but was dependingon the house that I wanted at
that time I was gonna end upwith like close to $4,000
mortgage.
Now I'm down to $2,700 and Ican still go and get a VA home
(42:24):
loan on it after everything'scompleted.
Because the problem that I washaving with doing a VA home loan
off the bat with theconstruction 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 justgoing to complicate it.
But now that the house is builtand everything's lumped
(42:44):
together, now I could go to theVA home loan and be like, hey, I
want to um, you know, refinanceinto a VA home loan and that
will bring down my interest rate.
I don't know the interest ratesoff the bat on my head of what,
the current ones, but it'sdefinitely going to be lower
than that.
So that's in the future.
And then my mortgage will golower and now, like you know,
(43:09):
things are looking better andnow I have way cheaper.
You know, from what I initiallythought I was going to have as a
mortgage and my rentalproperties are, I already make
pretty much most of thismortgage and then.
So now I'm able to, you know,start, you know, getting
(43:29):
financial freedom even faster,because now I am still able to
fulfill my goal of, you knowwhat, not working for the rest
of the year because I'm justgoing to focus on school,
because, being a veteran, I doget benefits with school and
they give you, you know, someextra money to pay, so that way
(43:52):
you could, you know, havesomewhere to live, help you with
those bills, so that way youcould focus on school.
And then I'm still gonna do thereserves.
So that's extra money.
And then you know other thingsthat I'm bringing in, plus the
rental properties, but that'sgetting put to the side because
I want to keep reinvesting that.
So, um, and then my husband'smaking more now than when he
(44:16):
first started at this job.
So, yeah, things are looking upand you know it was a stressful
process and you know, like, atsome point I thought that it
wasn't going to happen.
But we are done, we signed it.
Now it's just the waiting gameof, you know, having this house
built.
They say it's around Augusttime frame, so not sure if I
(44:41):
want to try to do a house hackor, you know, maybe just get an
RV and park it there until it'sdone.
So, I guess, stay tuned and seewhat I end up doing.
But thank you so much forlistening and make sure, please,
if you can just like and share,rate the you know the podcast,
(45:02):
this episode, because it helps,you know, grow the podcast, um,
but other than that, I will seeyou in the next episode.
Bye.
Hola, hola, welcome to another episode, and I am
sharing some great news.
This week is that I finallyclosed on the construction loan
for my house.
I am building a manufacturedhome on 10 acres of land and let
me tell you, it has been ajourney.
I started this journey in 2022and now we have the loan and so
(00:24):
now we're just going to getstarted.
They're going to get started inactually building manufactured
home and doing all the land, youknow, development to get the
house ready to move in, and soI'm going to share with you the
journey, but also share thenumbers and what you can expect,
things I've learned and allthat she's made, so that way, if
(00:48):
you ever want to do somethingsimilar, 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 andwhat type of loan and all that
stuff.
So I'm gonna talk all aboutthat in this episode.
Okay, so let's start at thevery beginning, and this was, I
(01:09):
think I was starting to thinkabout doing something like this
around 2020, 2021.
After COVID, I think a lot of ushad kind of like this mindset
shift of like what are we reallydoing with.
You know, living and working inthis capitalistic, you know
country that we are like workingourselves to death.
(01:32):
And COVID, I think, opened alot of eyes to a lot of us.
And it was the same thing withme.
I was in the military, I'mstill in the military, but like
I'm about to get out in a fewmonths, but I started thinking
about leaving the military,especially since I was thinking
of having, uh, my daughter, andit just was like a lot of like,
(01:58):
okay, I really need to think,what am I going to do now?
And I talked to my husband andwe 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 infor quite some time and neither
one of us had thought to likestay in the whole time.
(02:21):
And then it's like, well, nowor never, because then we're
gonna end up just being here for20 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 ofleaving the military.
Now, this decision was a littlebit difficult because the
(02:43):
military is a stable paycheck.
You get money on the first and15th of every month consistently
.
You know exactly what you'regonna get right.
And like it was pretty crazy tothink, okay, we're going to go
out.
And again, we've been in forquite some time.
He got out at 13 years, I'mgetting out at 14 and a half.
(03:04):
So 14 years, over 10 years, ofgetting consistent, steady
paycheck, not having to reallythink too much about, you know,
finding a job or anything likethat.
So, um, but at this time is whenI had started my really like
taking real estate investingseriously, and so I was like you
know what, by the time wedecided to get out, because the
(03:28):
goal was around this time, Iwanted to give myself a few
years to be able to get somehouses, some more rental
properties, and so that was theplan, right, that I was really
going to go hard at real estateinvesting because I still had to
finish out my contract.
(03:48):
So the reason I had to wait afew more years versus just
getting out right then and therewas because I had an obligation
, because the Navy paid for myschool, for my degree, and I
owed six I think it was sixyears because of that and my
husband just had to wait to theend of his contract, which was
(04:09):
um a few years as well, and sowe were going to be getting that
.
Well, we are getting out.
At the same time, he's alreadyout, and so that's why I was
like, okay, in those few yearsI'm going to be able to acquire
enough rental properties andthat, and so that was the goal,
and so then the next thing wasdeciding where we were going to
(04:30):
live.
He's from Florida, I'm fromTexas.
Now loved San Diego, and Iwould definitely have stayed in
San Diego had I been able toconvince my parents to move over
here, but they weren't havingit because, um, down in texas,
my mom is from matamoros and mydad's from monterey.
I'm from monterey as well, andit's easy, it's right there for
(04:54):
them to just take the bus orwhatever to cross the border and
go visit family right and overhere in san diego.
They'd have to catch a flightand all that.
So I understand and so, but Iwanted to be close to my family,
because I had been away from myfamily at this point for 14
years and you know I only get tosee them on holidays and you
(05:17):
know, um a few times throughoutthe year, when, if they come to
visit.
So, uh, definitely decided thatyou, you know what we're going
to be by my parents because, um,my daughter is the only
granddaughter on my side and onhis side they have two
grandchildren, so it's kind oflike, kind of like being even,
(05:38):
and also I wanted my daughter tobe around you know spanish
speaking, so that way she picksup spanish, and be close again
to the border as well, so wecould go visit.
So it would just be easier.
So then we decided, okay, well,where are we gonna stay?
And I didn't want to go back todallas.
I'm from dallas and no me gusta, like I don't know what it is,
(05:59):
I just, um, I think maybe justgrowing 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 Antoniobecause it's kind of in the
middle.
I had already lived in Houstonduring the time that I was going
to college to get the degreefor the Navy and I did like
(06:22):
Houston, but I didn't want to bein Houston and I didn't want to
be in Austin because it wasexpensive and I don't know
anything really about Austin,san Antonio.
I have been there several timesand I knew that it was, you
know, the next big boom.
Right, san Antonio is goingthrough a lot of growth and
development and I actually knowa lot of military that are going
(06:43):
to retire.
It's attracting a lot ofmilitary veterans.
So we decided in San Antonio.
So, once we decided that we weregoing to be in San Antonio, we
were really debating, okay, likeyou know where, in San Antonio,
and all that and at this timearound COVID, I feel like there
was a big shift after COVID witha lot of like homesteading and
(07:07):
things like that, and I felldown in that rabbit hole and I
it appealed to me.
You know, throughout thoseyears, I was definitely, you
know, growing my own food,learning how to garden and all
this stuff.
I had chickens in my previoushome and I really enjoyed it.
I really was enjoying that.
(07:27):
I started, like you know, evenwith my mental health.
It started improving and itreally helped me throughout the
time that I was going throughfertility treatments and all
that stuff, and so I reallywanted to, you know, start
living a slower life and mymindset started shifting of like
work, work, work, work andreally, you know, chasing the
(07:51):
next big promotion or the nextbig thing of being successful,
right.
So we really talked about itand we're like you know what?
I think we want to go and buysome land and be able to build a
house on it and grow our ownfood, homestead and all that
(08:11):
stuff.
So we started the hunt.
Now this is where my first tipcomes in is when you want to
start looking for land.
Definitely, I know we hateFacebook and everything like
that, but I for me, facebook isreally useful through the
Facebook groups.
I don't use Facebook for likeposting or anything like that.
I just have it there mostlybecause of the.
(08:34):
I'm like part of lots of umgroups, like, obviously, the
neighborhood one, just to keepin the know, but I'm a part of a
lot of real estate investorgroups in the areas that I
invest in.
Of course, I had to join theone 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
(08:57):
that like, you're really missingout on some of these awesome
resources, and that was.
I found a Facebook group thatwas 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 andall this stuff land for salecom
(09:17):
, stuff like that, so, um, butit was through the facebook
group that I saw you knowsomeone uh, posting you know
several lots for sale.
So then I started looking whereit was saying what it entailed.
Now, I've never bought land, soit was definitely scary,
especially doing this out ofstate.
(09:39):
I was over here in california.
There was no way I could go andlook at this land and I know
that I'm crazy because Iactually bought this land
without stepping foot on itprior and I will say that this
kind of, you know, because Iinvest in out of state
(10:01):
properties, I have gained theconfidence 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 realtorand all that stuff went through
that and through a lot of likefacetime and videos and all that
stuff and researching and allthat stuff, I decided to like,
(10:25):
okay, definitely interested.
I looked around the area andeverything is not too.
It's on the outskirts of SanAntonio, um, which is perfectly
fine for me because I honestlydon't go to the city that much,
even now in San Diego, like Idon't really go down to San
Diego, especially when I livedin the rural part in Ramona.
(10:50):
It's kind of like a rural area,rural town.
I stay there for most of mytime.
I rarely went, and you know,around in San Diego.
I stay mostly at home, I'm ahomebody, so, living in the
outskirts of the main city, whenI want to go I can, but for I
(11:10):
know for like 70, 80 percent ofmy time I'm going to be local
and in my house.
I love being at home, in myyard, in my garden, you know,
enjoying my mortgage, as youknow, some people say on tiktok.
So I ended up, you know, wantingthis land because it had a lot
of nopales that were full oftunas, um, it was covered with
(11:33):
mesquite trees.
I mean, it was, it was.
I loved it, it was what Iwanted.
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 ofcourse that wasn't for sale.
But you know what?
I'll plant my own, I guess, andin like 20, 30 years I'll enjoy
(11:54):
it, I guess.
But this land cost 145 000 for10 acres and there was water
there, with the water line, andelectric line was at the street
now.
Then this land was shaped likethey call it, a flag shape,
(12:14):
where the the land kind of Imean imagine a flag.
Right, the little stick is partof the road.
That gold meets at the mainroad and then it goes all the
way and then the flag part isthe actual plot, because there's
another piece of land, anotherplot, in front of yours, but in
(12:39):
order to have access to the road, they create this little narrow
path.
Access to the road, they createthis little narrow path and you
know a lot of people don't likethat, but I wanted that because
I had this vision of being ableto drive down that and just
plant trees on the sides andhave like this beautiful like
path.
And it's going to take sometime, right, because trees take
a while, but over time it'sgoing to create this, you know,
(13:02):
pretty canopy.
So that was my vision.
And then the lot next to me wasalso available and I ended up
convincing my parents to getthat one.
Um, so that way now we're, youknow, building kind of like a
family compound on 20 acrescombined.
Now here's the tricky part,because with land you either
(13:26):
have to buy it like outrightthis one actually had owner
financing, meaning the ownerwill act like the bank you make
payments to them for for, likethey still charge you like an
interest.
In this case they were I forgetwhat the interest I think was
gonna be like 10% or somethinglike that.
So, plus, they wanted a highdown payment.
(13:50):
I forget what it was at thispoint, but it was going to be
too crazy.
But with land it's you reallycan't get loans too much.
It's very hard to findfinancing.
There are land loans out there,which is what I ended up
getting, but it's pretty trickyand you kind of have to like
(14:11):
it's.
It's annoying, right, um, but Idid find a bank to which is
local and which is my next tipis to find the local banks that
are in those rural areas,because they deal with that more
often than somebody a bank fromthe city or whatever.
They're not going to reallywant to do it, but the ones that
(14:33):
are in that area are, you know,are used to it.
So then you have an easier time.
But with these loans they aremore, most of the time, interest
only, payments up front, andthat's how mine was, and the
interest was fixed, but it wasonly fixed for a certain amount
(14:53):
of time.
So with these loans, they hadlike increments.
The first one was going to beat at the seven year mark, where
they would reassess and thenswitch the interest rate, so you
would want to pay off this loanbefore then.
Now there are different ways tobuy the land and also build
(15:16):
your house, so you just have tobe aware of that.
But because I wasn't going tobuild right away, I only had to
purchase the land, so I neededto get a land loan, and so
that's what I did.
And then, in order to get thedown payment for that, I
actually ended up selling myLexus.
(15:37):
It was a 2017 Lexus and I hadit paid off already.
So at this time, we had boughtthe little beater car that I was
driving around before itfinally crapped out on me.
But my husband actually wasusing that because he has a
truck and he has his drive wasan hour at this time to where he
(15:58):
was stationed at, and so we hadbought that beater car just for
gas purposes, and I was likeyou know what I don't need?
We don't need three cars.
I am perfectly fine justdriving that beater car, because
at this time he was basicallygetting out and I was like, all
right, let's get rid of this car.
And I used that for money as adown payment for the land,
(16:22):
because I don't want to use,like, our savings or the rental
income that I was getting atthat time, because actually that
was going towards, like,fertility treatments.
So, yeah, I ended up justselling the Lexus and that's how
I got the money.
And so, august 2022, I ended up,you know, closing on the land
(16:42):
and then I went down there a fewmonths later, I think in
November.
I went down there after I hadbought the land and actually set
foot on it for the first time,and it was.
I was so happy, I was so gladthat I bought it because, like,
wow, I'm excited to get on thereand start homesteading and
(17:03):
building my house.
And so, you know, even though Ihad a few more years before my
contract was up, it was time tokind of like start looking at
what I wanted to build on it.
But around this time was thetime that I was going through my
fertility treatments andsurgeries and we ended up having
(17:26):
to do a surrogacy journey.
So, um, we had to kind of shifta little bit in far as far as
our finances and what we neededto focus on.
So we really had to, like,raise funds and all that stuff
to be able to do the surrogacyjourney.
So so 2023 was just, you know,focus on that.
(17:46):
And then my daughter was bornin 2024.
So then we could start focusing.
Uh, as you know, we weregetting closer.
2025 was the year that I wasgetting out.
My husband got was getting outat the end of 2024.
And so, around end of 2023 andearly 2024, I started kind of
(18:10):
researching on what kind ofhouse I would want to build on
this land.
And I knew that having a stickbuilt, which means just building
a regular house the regular way, was going to be very pricey,
and so I wanted to look atalternates.
And during this time, of course, I was still going, you know,
(18:35):
kind of like really deep intoyoutube videos and all that on
people homesteading and Istarted seeing a lot about
barnum mediums and I startedresearching what a barnum medium
was and all this stuff and thewhole flexibility that it
provided, and I decided that youknow what I want to build a
(18:56):
barnum medium.
It's um, you know, they weresaying it was cheaper than a
stick bill and you have such uma leeway with the layout,
because with stick built homesyou have to worry about, you
know, load bearing walls, thingsthat make sure that you know
the roof doesn't cave in, orwhatever.
(19:16):
But with barnuminium, the, Iguess, the weight is distributed
on the outer wall, so then theinner walls are just like you
could do whatever layout thatyou want.
So I really like that.
And I started thinking that, hey, I want a barnuminium.
Well, I, you know, was justwatching youtube videos but I
(19:37):
didn't really dive into what thecost was actually because, like
I said, at this time I was morefocused 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'regoing to do and actually build.
And so then I started gettingquotes for a barnuminium and
(20:02):
well, let me tell you, it isstill 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 likethe roof and all this stuff and
(20:23):
usually it will include themsetting up, and this is called
like the shell right, it's allthe outer parts, because our bar
in the medium is basically ametal building and so they, you
know, prefabricated and cut outeverything and send you all like
the pieces, like a freaking youknow Lego set, and so you can
(20:45):
either buy the kit and then youknow a lot of people that know
how to build and stuff like thatthey'll do that, which is what
I was watching on YouTube, notthinking 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
(21:06):
the kit and do everythingyourself, be your own general
contractor and all that, or theycould, you know, rise the whole
shell, weld it together for you, put the foundation, all that
stuff, and then after that it'slike phases and with this
builder it was that they wouldhave like three phases and even
(21:27):
with the third phase now theydid do turnkey.
But I definitely wasn'tinterested in doing turnkey
because that's basically a stickbuild at that point and they
would do everything, includinginstallation, 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
(21:50):
inside of the layout and thenthat's it, and they would put
foam, insulation foam, and justthat was already like 189 000
just for that, and it didn'tinclude, like, the clearing, it
didn't include, like I said, theelectrical, the plumbing,
drywall, all this stuff, so itwould end up, you know, costing
(22:15):
way more.
Now I've been spoiled with thementality because of the
military having a steadypaycheck and whatever.
I've never had trouble gettinga loan and, um, we had the loan
over here for the Californiahouse and that was like our
mortgage.
There was like four thousanddollars.
(22:35):
And so I'm thinking, okay, overhere is gonna be fine, okay,
you know, yeah, it's gonna bepricey.
And when I'm thinking, okay,over here it's going to be fine,
okay, you know, yeah, it'sgoing to be pricey.
And when I did the roughcalculations, um, you know,
because you could use like thosecalculators online just to get
an estimate of and they'repretty accurate, a lot of them,
especially, I think it'scalculatornet or something like
(22:57):
that, they have a mortgagecalculator right there.
So I calculated and it would beroughly around the same, like
37, 4 000, whatever was going tobe our mortgage and I was like,
okay, yeah, sure we could dothat, right.
And the problem was that when Iwent, I went to go get the loan,
we started having issuesbecause my husband was a
(23:22):
contractor, so he had gone outand gotten a contractor job at a
startup company and meaninghe'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,
(23:43):
self-employed, the banks willgive you such a hard time with
getting a loan because you don'thave a stable income and they
want you to have, um, maybe a,depending on the lender at least
two years of consistent incomeas being self-employed.
(24:04):
So you'll have to file taxesand all that stuff.
And you also want to make surethat during this time, if you
know you're going to buy a housein the future, if that's your
goal, that you are not, you know, doing too many deductions,
because then that's going tolower, um what you know how much
you make, right, because maybeyou brought in, let's say, a
(24:27):
hundred thousand in um revenue,right of income, but because you
started deducting this or thator whatever, then you actually
are making like eighty thousandat 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 eitherhave trouble getting the loan or
(24:51):
you're going to have troublegetting enough of what you need
to actually get the house thatyou want.
So make sure that you're beingstrategic about what you're
deducting and all that stuff,and so talk to your tax person
and also maybe a lender, thatway you know what to kind of
like start preparing for.
(25:12):
And so, because my husband was a1099, when I went to go apply
for the loan, they weren't goingto include his income, and they
weren't going to include, uh,the, the military income,
because now he left the militaryright, so that became such a
hassle.
(25:32):
Oh my god, that was thebeginning of, like the stress.
So, because he was a 1099, likeI said, they didn't want to
include his income, but theysure as hell included his debt,
which was, you know, payingchild support and also, uh, he
still owed money on the truck,so he had a car payment and so
he's not making.
(25:53):
So all that debt, you know,then carries over to me and I
have my rental properties right.
So then that made my debt toincome ratio way too high.
So they were only going to letme borrow maybe 200k 250, and I
needed like 400k.
(26:14):
Actually it probably was goingto be closer to at least half a
million 500K, because the thingwas that I wanted to lump the
land loan together.
So there's a way to, like youknow, merge everything when you
get your construction load orwhatever they pay off the land
and then at the end, onceeverything's finalized, then you
(26:35):
just end up with one mortgage,right?
So I needed to have enough topay off the loan but also enough
to build the house.
Now, at first we weren't kind ofstressing too much.
I mean, we were right becauselike, wow, big sticker shock.
But and then you know the wholeloan thing.
But my husband, it's a startupcompany.
(26:57):
They were planning and were inthe process of turning it from a
startup to an actual company.
So then he would become a w-2like a regular employee and that
had a regular paycheck and allthat stuff, and then they would
accept that right, they justneeded paycheck stubs.
It was so ridiculous orwhatever.
(27:18):
But the problem was that we hadto wait for that and then it
just kept.
You know, they kept pushing itback because it takes time to do
this, and so the month would goby, another month would go by,
and then now we're likestressing, and then they're like
well, we still aren't going tobe able to qualify for what you
(27:39):
need.
We still aren't going to beable to qualify for what you
need.
So then I start looking atsmaller builds and smaller
barnaminions.
But like it was still, it wasjust like.
And then, on top of that,because of the timeline, I was
like dude, like it's going totake like a year to build and
like we're already so behind.
So like I was going through itNot to mention the salary that
my husband was getting at thetime was not going to be enough
(28:01):
to like help cover that andbecause I was planning on just
going to school, I wanted totake a break from working after
I get out, because it's likeworking nonstop and being like
all the time.
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.
(28:21):
But I'm like dude, like 4,000is 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 likethings about manufactured home.
Eventually, once you startlooking at these homesteading
videos, you'll end up withpeople who build manufactured
(28:43):
homes on the land, and so Istarted looking at them and
started researching about them.
I'm like, wow, that's actuallynot bad.
And so we started looking atmanufactured homes and we
realized that one they get builtfaster, right, so I don't have
to wait like a whole year now,mind you, because of our timing.
(29:03):
We still have to wait untillike end of august, still so,
but whatever, it's still notanother year.
And like everything's so muchmore affordable for what you can
get that you just set it on theland and they're still sturdy
and everything like that.
It's just that manufacturedhomes get a bad rep, right,
(29:26):
because it was seen as likebasically trailer trash and all
that stuff.
But let me tell you like, once Istarted thinking about it and
doing the numbers, I startedlike having this mindset shift
of like you know, I wanted thisbig, huge house and all that
stuff, but, like in Ramona, Ihad a four bedroom, two story,
(29:49):
2400 square foot house.
And let me tell you how muchwasted space that house like I
didn't use a lot of them,especially the rooms.
One was like an office that Ididn't even use because I would
just, you know, work downstairs.
Um, because two stories is apain in the ass to go up and
down, and everything like thattoo.
(30:09):
Like oh, you want water?
Okay, now I gotta go downstairs, or anything like that.
And then like there was like wehad a second living room that
just basically just had desks init that I didn't use, except
like once in a while that Iwanted to force myself to use
the desk, like I.
It was a lot of wasted space andso I started thinking about it
(30:31):
was like, and then it was a painin the ass to clean, like going
upstairs, downstairs, like itwas a whole freaking like
evolution.
It was a whole process.
Like we all had to, like youknow, clean that freaking house
and it was a pain in the ass andlike I started thinking about
it, like I, really we really donot need that much space.
Like my stepson, if he liveswith us, that's fine.
(30:54):
We, we don't have enough rooms.
We only have my daughter, it'sjust 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 Ilove being outside in my
backyard.
(31:14):
And so I started thinking like,okay, we don't need that much
space and we don't need all thisstuff, 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 thisstuff, like I could still make
this work.
Because I started seeing peoplelike you know, updating their
manufactured homes, making themlook really nice and everything.
Like I could do that Right.
And so we decided to get athree bedroom, two bath
(31:38):
manufactured home.
It's 1700 square feet, whichthe the layout I love the layout
and stuff and like there'sgonna be no wasted space.
Every space in that house isgoing to be utilized, it's gonna
be used, and so I won't feelbad of paying a mortgage of and
paying for wasted space, like Idid with the house in California
(32:02):
.
Like I was paying four thousanddollars for me to use the
bedroom, my bathroom, the livingroom, the kitchen and outside,
that's it.
All the other rooms like, werejust not being used and I was
just paying for them.
So I'm glad that we decided toshift gears and we decided to
get this manufactured home.
(32:23):
Okay, so let's get into theactual numbers of what it's
going to cost for me to buildthis manufactured home on this
land, and I'm not going to gettoo much into the loan process
because I want to do a separateepisode on that because this
episode is getting too longalready.
So for the manufactured homeitself, uh, it's going to be
(32:49):
129,900.
That's what it cost us for thethree bedroom, two bath
manufactured, two-bathmanufactured home.
Again, it's 1,700 square feetNow in total improvements,
meaning that everything thatthey're going to do to make the
(33:10):
house livable, like electric, adriveway, all that stuff, it is
quoted at $36,000.
That stuff, it is quoted at$36,000.
So overall the whole packagedeal is supposed to cost around
$165,000.
And I'm going to go into thebreakdown a little bit.
(33:30):
But I do want to make a littlenote that when you go get a
construction load, usually theyadd um, about 10 15 on top of
that.
So let's say it's, the quote is165, 000.
They're going to add anothermaybe 10 15 as a buffering case,
(33:51):
like prices go up or there's umsomething that came up, you
have that buffer, so then itwill.
Actually, you know, they'll letyou borrow a different amount,
not because they're not going togive you a loan for the exactly
165, right, they're going togive a little bit extra cushion
for that, so they're going towant to do that.
(34:13):
So when you go shopping aroundfor a house to build, just keep
that in mind, because if youhave a max of loan that they're
going to let you borrow, youhave to take that into account,
that percentage.
But again, I want to go intothat in another episode because
there's a lot of stuff that Iwant to talk about with that.
(34:35):
Now for the breakdown.
Again, our land is raw land.
Right, it used to be a ranchand it just.
The ranch got sold andeverything just has overgrown.
But there is water and electricat the end of the road.
(34:56):
Now, remember my land is shapedlike a flag, so that means they
have to pull the electric andthe water line all the way back
to where I'm going to build.
So just be aware that addsextra cost.
I was okay with it because ontop of that I have to build a
drive, you know a, basicallystreet all the way back there.
(35:17):
But because my parents aregetting the lot next to me,
we're just going to go half season it.
And then same thing with kindof the electric and stuff um,
they could just jump from mine,and so, as far as the the fees,
let's get into that.
So again, the actualmanufactured home is 129 900 and
(35:40):
this is a complete manufacturedhome.
It includes appliances minuswasher and dryer drywall.
So, uh, instead of like howsometimes you see these
manufactured homes have thoselike mobile panels looking
things, um, it's actually goingto be drywalled on in the inside
and it's going to have, likeyou know, the plumbing and
(36:01):
electric run through the houseand all that.
So that includes everything.
So, basically, all right,you're ready to go house that
you just need to put on someland.
Now, as far as preparing whereyou're going to put the house,
the site prep is going to costme $1,200 and the home pad,
(36:22):
where the house is going toactually be right, site prep is
like clearing debris and maybe,like you know, trees or whatever
.
But the home pad itself, theyhave to like flatten it, level
it out and blah, blah, blah.
That's going to be $2,900.
And then the thing that gets alittle bit pricey is the water
(36:44):
connection, because again I havethe water at the end of the
road and I have that long driveback to where I'm actually
building.
So they charge $1,100 $1,150for initial, like setting up the
line, connections and all thatstuff, and then for additional
(37:08):
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 beingpricey at $.97.
Yeah, pretty pricey.
And then the same thing withelectric.
The initial is 1900 but then ontop of that they're going to
(37:34):
charge me an extra 1500 becauseagain I have to pull the
electric all the way back there.
So things to keep in mind ifyou want to be like way back
there and have to, you know youwant to buy a lot similar like
mine.
Now, permits and fees from theelectric company is going to be
around $12.50.
(37:54):
And then to get the meter and aloop in the pole to put where
the meter goes, for that I guessfor the electric is going to be
23.50.
So yeah, again, like utilitiesare, gets pretty pricey.
Now they do have to do plumbingthe there's plumbing throughout
(38:17):
the house, but then of coursethey have to do the underground
plumbing where they connect allthe lines from the main water
line and to the house.
But then of course, they haveto do the underground plumbing
where they connect all the linesfrom the main water line and to
the house.
That is $1,150, and then forthe septic, I'm getting a septic
uh, it's for a three-bedroomhome.
It includes the installationinspection and the engineering
(38:41):
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 twodecks decks one four by eight
and one six by six, and the fourby eight is twelve hundred
(39:02):
dollars, and then the six by sixdeck is sixteen hundred dollars
, and so that brings the totalto a little over thirty six
thousand dollars.
Now, one caveat, though, is thatwe didn't include the driveway
building the street from the,the main street, all the way
(39:25):
back to where I'm having thehouse, and the reason for this
is because, as I mentioned, myparents and I are going like
halfsies on building a road backthere.
It's gonna be a gravel road, soI didn't want it included.
One because, again, we're goinghalfsies on it, and two is to
bring, uh, the loan a little bitlower, um, just because, again,
(39:50):
we were having trouble with thefinancing portion.
So I was like you know what,let's, we'll pay that and bring
it down.
So, um, because we had actuallyalso picked a different
manufactured home that was goingto be a little bit pricier
similar square fee, but for somereason was pricier so we went
to this one and, on top of that,are going to pay for the road
(40:12):
out of pocket.
So that is another.
I think it was eleven thousanddollars, thousand dollars.
So overall, you know, give ortake, you're almost at like 180
thousand dollars to actually,you know, build the home and
then get all you know theutilities back there and prepare
(40:34):
the land and all that stuff.
So 180.
Now, remember, I have a landloan on the land and I still
owed 114, so they had to paythat off, and so that's why then
I end up having a loan amountof 288.
Now, I know the math doesn'twork out, because in reality
(40:57):
it's close to 295 of what theoverall cost of, you know,
paying off the land loan.
But because I had purchased theland for 145 back in 2022, the
land value actually increasedand I had, again, you know, put
a down payment on it and so theland actually went up to, like
(41:22):
you know, based on the tax value, if you want to go off of that,
it's a hundred worth 180k basedon the county right.
So I had equity in that house,so I was actually able to use
the equity of the land to use asa down payment for the whole
loan, and so that's why Iactually end up with, you know,
(41:59):
$288,000.
Realistically, like I went from,you know, wanting a four well,
not wanting, but was dependingon the house that I wanted at
that time I was gonna end upwith like close to $4,000
mortgage.
Now I'm down to $2,700 and Ican still go and get a VA home
(42:24):
loan on it after everything'scompleted.
Because the problem that I washaving with doing a VA home loan
off the bat with theconstruction 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 justgoing to complicate it.
But now that the house is builtand everything's lumped
(42:44):
together, now I could go to theVA home loan and be like, hey, I
want to um, you know, refinanceinto a VA home loan and that
will bring down my interest rate.
I don't know the interest ratesoff the bat on my head of what,
the current ones, but it'sdefinitely going to be lower
than that.
So that's in the future.
And then my mortgage will golower and now, like you know,
(43:09):
things are looking better andnow I have way cheaper.
You know, from what I initiallythought I was going to have as a
mortgage and my rentalproperties are, I already make
pretty much most of thismortgage and then.
So now I'm able to, you know,start, you know, getting
(43:29):
financial freedom even faster,because now I am still able to
fulfill my goal of, you knowwhat, not working for the rest
of the year because I'm justgoing to focus on school,
because, being a veteran, I doget benefits with school and
they give you, you know, someextra money to pay, so that way
(43:52):
you could, you know, havesomewhere to live, help you with
those bills, so that way youcould focus on school.
And then I'm still gonna do thereserves.
So that's extra money.
And then you know other thingsthat I'm bringing in, plus the
rental properties, but that'sgetting put to the side because
I want to keep reinvesting that.
So, um, and then my husband'smaking more now than when he
(44:16):
first started at this job.
So, yeah, things are looking upand you know it was a stressful
process and you know, like, atsome point I thought that it
wasn't going to happen.
But we are done, we signed it.
Now it's just the waiting gameof, you know, having this house
built.
They say it's around Augusttime frame, so not sure if I
(44:41):
want to try to do a house hackor, you know, maybe just get an
RV and park it there until it'sdone.
So, I guess, stay tuned and seewhat I end up doing.
But thank you so much forlistening and make sure, please,
if you can just like and share,rate the you know the podcast,
(45:02):
this episode, because it helps,you know, grow the podcast, um,
but other than that, I will seeyou in the next episode.
Bye.
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