Journal FroMan's Journal: This land is my land... 5
Well, my wife and I are now land owners! Yeah!
For the last four to five months my wife and I have been looking for a house. We have been married for two years and have reached our limit with apartments. At the start of this we would pray that God would lead us in the direction he saw fit, a home that would glorify him through his work through us in it.
Shopping for a home is a very difficult task, though we did not believe it would be at the start. Well, we did our work of finding a realtor and searching listing daily, if not more than once a day (as pressure built up). As neophytes to the realestate business we quickly found out we were not quick. By the end we also found out, speed is not necessary in God's plan for us.
As I was saying above, we would scoure the web sites and every other source we could find for homes. Our normal process would be to call our realtor with an MLS number or two and have him try to get us in for a showing. The realtor would then call us back a few hours later telling us the house was sold, doh! The few houses that we did get a chance to see would be sold the day or two after our viewing.
Well, the first house we made an offer on was quite a dump, but it had an acre of land. We figured no one in their right mind would buy that house after their first viewing. In the basement was a considerable amount of water damage to the drywall and in the bathroom there was a small leak in the ceiling. However, my father-in-law was a builder and willing to help us fix things. We made our offer about 10,000 less than the original price for the house. After we made our offer we recieved a call from our realtor about an hour later telling us there was another offer on the house too! Doh, so we changed our offer to the asking price. The next day our offer was accepted, so we entered the phase where we had our inspections done. Well, our inspector (father-in-law) came to the house and started frowning, a lot. Well, his final assesment was that the roof would need complete replacing, which was far more than we were willing to do. We withdrew our offer at that point.
The next house we saw was quite a beauty. There was absolutely nothing that needed to be done with the place, again on an acre of land. We again made an offer about 10,000 less than the asking price (which was right at our limit that we would be willing to make), the countered with only taking 1000 off the price, so we had to decline and keep looking.
By now we were into august. August was pretty dry for houses on the market in our area and in our price range. Getting fully discouraged and planning on waiting till spring to search, we did something we are now very glad we did. We searched land prices. Well, there was a 12 acre plot in the area we were interested in so we started talking to my father-in-law about building. Well, to shorten this already quite long story, he was keen on the idea. As of yesterday (firday) my wife and I own just shy of 12 acres in Coopersville, MI. Next spring we will be breaking ground, Lord willing, and into our home by fall.
Since we have been looking at building we have been thinking of all sorts of things we would like to do.
The most exciting thing is setting up a wind turbine. With the amount of land we have we should be able to find somewhere to put up a wind mill. With the research I have done so far, it seems like we should be able to purchase a wind mill with an inverter and possibley batteries for back up for around 6-10,000. The best part about this though is that we can do it as an add on project after the house is built.
Another thing we are looking at is using a heat pump for heating and cooling. There does not seem to be much information on the web about how well these work, and cost is also an issue for us. This is not something that is readily able to be added after the house is finished, so we will see about this.
Other things are solar panels, but this is more than a few years down the line. I'd first like to see panel cost come down and effectiveness go up. However, we should be able to get some synergy between the supplies for the wind also.
One thing, again in the future (and probably wait for kids) is horses. With 12 acres, it would be a shame to not use it in some fashion. Another possiblity here is my wife would like to breed kittens, granted they don't take a large amount of land, we can build the house with kennels in the plans.
One of the more important things we have to worry about is internet access. Our closest cable line goes along one road that borders the property, but we do not know if we can get cable. DSL I am sure is not available. However, satalite has many issues, mainly being high monthly cost and low ping times. I guess we'll have to see what can happen here.
Well, those are the interesting things we have in mind. I guess now I would ask, what would you do? Have I missed any of the potentially geeky things that can be done when building a new home and land?
Congratulations! (Score:1)
Of course, this is just 3rd-hand hearsay, and you will still need to do your research. But I just wanted to soften the possible shoc
Re:Congratulations! (Score:1)
When we were looking at homes we did see that there was actaully one home on the market that used a heat pump. Unfortuneately it was one of the homes that had sold before we had a chance to see it, so our chance to talk to that fellow was not there. Like all things, a certain amount of research is necessary, as we would rather know before hand, than after that something would not work.
Re:Congratulations! (Score:1)
Congratulations (Score:2)
There are significant tax benefits for a farming operat
Re:Congratulations (Score:1)
A high speed ROI fo