Incremental housing: an excellent pay-as-you-go solution
Buying an existing home or building a new one is an expensive proposition, but if you’re willing to take an unconventional approach, you can build your own home in increments and spread the cost over a period of years, possibly saving yourself a mortgage.
The first step is to find and buy a property. You must have the property inspected and found acceptable for sewer or septic system and availability of water and other utilities, and ensure that the land is zoned for residential use. Make sure you get all the building permits and other documentation you need, and then plan your house.
You may want to look at house plans, for sale in bookstores and through various magazines, or you may want to design your own home. Think of ways you can build your house in stages, making sure the house is livable early in construction. A young couple decided to build a conventional stick-built house, but finished the basement area first and covered it over, then lived in the basement while they built the rest of the house.
There are companies that offer modular homes that are largely built in a factory and then assembled on site. [http://www.shelter-kit.com/lofthouse.html]. Some of these are created in segments that can stand alone or be assembled, either all at once or over a period of time. The manufacturers will be able to give you valuable advice on the best way to proceed.
Make sure the most necessary parts of your home get built first. If you must, you can essentially live in one room that serves as a kitchen, living room, and bedroom (efficient apartment renters do this all the time), but unless you want to live very rough and use an outhouse (not a nice thought!), building a fully functional bathroom should be one of your first priorities.
Also make sure that even if you plan to add to your house in increments, you plan the entire structure of the house in advance. You may decide that you will add a laundry room in two years, for example; You’ll want to have the plans for that laundry room now, so expensive plumbing and electrical work can be done as efficiently as possible. This usually means grouping rooms that need a water supply together to minimize the material needed.
Building your home over a period of years using your own money or accessing short-term unsecured personal loans, or a combination of both, will allow you to own your home immediately and save many thousands of dollars over your lifetime. If you’re willing to be patient and live unconventionally for a while, it’s a great choice.
