Unconventional Housing Question?

That was good advice for a conventional house buy. Could be you are one of those people who need to look outside the box? Like the guy on thesurvivalistblog who lives in a travel trailer on a paid for lot? That is 'out of the box' thinking.

Are you the sort of person who could do it themselves or do you really need to buy a ready to go place?

A lot depends on where you are, who you are, the climate, the laws and culture. Can you afford to buy just the land (a building lot or maybe acreage)? Can you put up a pole barn and park your travel trailer in there while you build a house.

Will a real 'fixer-upper' work for you? Can you live in and fix a place at the same time? Can you do it paycheck to paycheck and with scrounged materials? There is a whole world of shelter ideas and thoughts (and advice type help) out there if you are able to go 'out of the box' in your search for shelter.

We bought out first place on a land contract out of the back of a magazine. After several years we paid the land off and everything we did to the place was ours.

There are risks but it can be done.

TOR here: Interesting question. As for unconventional housing I think generally speaking we (if you don't include your spouse in the decisions your asking to become single, sorry but its true) are pretty open minded. For a time we lived in in RV both on a relatives land and in a trailer park. Glad we did it but also glad it is over. Can't say we would never do it again but it would not be our first choice.

I have gone over most of the outside the box options in the past and there are some possible options.

Could we do it ourselves? The short answer is YES! We do have the rather unique situation that at least for the foreseeable future we will be moving every 3 years or so. This means it is not worthwhile to do the sweat equity thing that will create a cheap long term place to live unless we could get out money back out of it. Factoring in what our time is worth lots of the conventional outside the box housing ideas do not make sense in this context. Mobile homes don't move real well and finding land that you can purchase which is hook up ready is fairly rare, certainly not something you would want to try and find every 3 years.

I could build a pole barn (be on the phone to my Uncle every few days but that is OK) but again putting improvements into land just to sell it and gamble we will get the $$$ back isn't something I'm going to do.

Of all the ideas you have mentioned getting a real fix er upper is very realistic for us. As long as a home is structurally sound I can do just about everything. The idea of living in a home for a few years during which we do a lot of repairs and increase the value is realistic. Since we are going to move anyway it would fit into our plans pretty well. I think depending on the overall situation (how much we pay for the place, what needs to be done, the market, etc) doing repairs/ improvements as cash comes is would be doable. As for scrounged materials they can work but as I have seen at friends places the end result is a scrounged mis matched place which can hurt value on resale.

Buying land, paying it off and then building (and or fixing up) down the road is a real possibility. It will depend a lot on when we finally settle, our financial situation at the time and what is available. Living in a travel trailer while we substantially repair or build is a very valid option. Wifey's folks lived in a travel trailer and had their stuff in the barn while their home was build and we may well emulate that plan.

Did I miss anything?