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| This topic is available here on The Repair-Place forum | When we read in the lot description that power, gas, phone are to the property line...how much work is it to bring these utilities into our home?
What kind of cost is this? Do we get the utility companies to take of that? Or is this the responsiblity of the land owner, we purchase the land from? Or someone else? | |
| Daisie,
To the property line means there is a utility box at the edge of your property line, with all your wires in there. You would need to trench and put a pipe (or two) to your foundation. All your wires are fed through these pipes. The size of the pipes depends on the local requirements and the amount of amps you are going to use. The low voltage wires (phone, cable, etc) are fed through another pipe which is in the same trench. Your electrican can handle this easily (unless it is winter and the ground is frozen!)
Gas, water, sewer are seperately trenched at different depths so as not to interfere with the electrical pipes. Sometimes the gas company will install for free if you are using it for heat so call and ask.
As far as the cost, it is hard to estimate from here. The ground may be easy to dig or real rocky and take a lot longer. Depends how far they need to go too.
Around here the gas is put in from a hole at the street and another at the foundation. Then they put in a self driving hydrolic ram that goes underground from hole to hole. The whole process takes 4 hours including digging, welding the valve on to the main, running the line, putting pipe to the meter bracket.
I would say maybe $1,000 for each is a good start. | Thanks for all the info, we have learned alot these past few months, and have decided not to start from scratch...not yet, we simply can't afford all of this. So we will look for an acreage that has most everything established and we can concentrate on the house needs. Hopefully we find something in great shape.
Take care,
Bev | My pleasure!
Any other questions... feel free to ask away! | Thanks,
When we consider the cost of a piece of land, add a manufactured home to help keep cost down, then the cistern or well, and septic system, plus adding the cost of getting utilities into a home, and of course we need a 2 car garage, dog run...just basics...is becoming quite expensive.
I honestly don't know how people can do this, of course they probably save and have family to help with the jobs. We unfortunately are on our own....and must hire every single contractor.
We have found a 1947 home, 5 bedroom bungalow, hardwood floors, 2 full bathrooms...how can we tell if it has been upgraded to code?
Anything to look for as we view the home for the first time, without actually tearing through the walls?
I'd like to think we'd casually be able to tell, if the house is worth taking to next step, and having it inspected. | As you walk through the house, see how it 'feels'. As yourself some questions:
-Does the house feel solid?
-Do things shake as you walk past them? Some shake is very normal but excessive shake is not.
-Is the floor sloped badly? Some is Ok especially in an older home. Some can be re leveled somewhat.
-Run the water in the sinks for a sec or two. Is there good pressure?
-Go down to the basement and look at the wiring. Is it metal cable (BX) or romex or knob and tube? Romex is the newer but not the cloth covered romex.
-Go to the electrical panel, open the door and look at the fuses or breakers. Breakers are newer. Check the amps on the main breaker. Should be 100 to 200.
If all 'feels' OK to you the get an inspection with the option to back out if needs too much costly work.
All houses need something. A home inspector will always find something or he is not doing his job. Even on new houses I see things that should be done differently to be right. You just want to protect yourself from major expenses that you might not have noticed without a home inspector.
It's always fun to go looking at houses. So enjoy yourselves! |
Daisie wrote:
I honestly don't know how people can do this, of course they probably save and have family to help with the jobs. We unfortunately are on our own....and must hire every single contractor. |
Lots of people get construction loans. The bank pays out as expenses come due, at the end of the process, the bank converts it over into a mortgage.
Talk to a banker. Or maybe a really good mortgage broker, who usually has better rates on mortgages, I just don't know if they handle things like bridge/construction loans.
Perhaps the best of all worls would be if you got a construction loan with your local bank, with whom it might be easier to work, then when it came time to mortgage the house, go with the broker. But perhaps the construction loan might not allow for that.
Intereting subject. | Thanks, our first house was 20years old, had it inspected...it was okay, we upgraded the bathrooms, but that was it. Sold it for more than we paid.
Second house (currently living in) was 8 years old, we had our brother in law do the inspection, since it was fairly new we were not worried.
But it seems to be every acreage home is the 1940-1950's range, and that in itself feels overwhelming. However I have some good news, we finally found an acreage built in 1986, and at least we won't have to worry about old wiring.
We won't be able to get another loan, unless we sell this house and we don't want to sell unless we find the greatest property ever (for us...in our price range)...kinda a catch 22. We have a great mortgage guy, he's helped us twice, and we will use him again. The bank really loves us since we pay all bills on time, and try hard to keep Visa low, and not use any other cards...so they would give us a loan, but we have to be careful how much these loans are. Two banks approved us for a loan, different reasons, and both apporoved, now we are in a little over our heads...bills are paid but our quality of life is beginning to suck, and we are stressed.
So we are considering these older homes, but are so afraid of picking a lemon, and are forced to fix too many things. I know an inspector is supposed to tell us any obvious fix up, but many times it's not until your living in it when you see things better.
I'll write those things down and share them with hubby, so we can at least scan for upgraded things. Wiring to me is the most important, as well as water...we always turn taps on, and flush toliets in every house we look at.
Sunday is when we take a look at our first acreage. Wish us luck. | Ya gotta sell your house and move into a trailer on your acreage while you build.  | 
Our hoilday trailer...actually considered it too, for a second, and moved on. Nope not gonna do that, camping for a few days is plenty of time in there.
We realy don't want a mobile trailer either, so we basically scratched them off the list of potential properties. We thought if it was a perfect acreage but had a trailer, we'd rebuild. But now we know we can't afford that option...so no mobile acreages for us. | | Just make sure you feel comfortable with the home inspector. He will feed you all the information you need to make an intelligent decision. |
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