Could you build a House for $30,000?

Question

Say your given a property in the country with a well and electric hookups, could you build a house for $30,000? How would you build it?

Answer 1

Some Do-It-Yourself lumber companies have house plans you can buy with a list of supplies needed. Here in the upper midwest we have Menard's which is like Home Depot and Lowe's. I have seen racks with house plans, supply lists and total costs for vacation homes at our local store. If you can't tell, Menard's is my fave lumber/hardware store, even tho Home Depot is across the street!

Answer 2

If it was about 650 square feet and you did all the work your self and used either seconds or caught every thing on sale.If you shopped  and maybe used rough lumber for external siding like from a saw mill rather than say cedar or vinyl. .

A friend of mine built a 1000 sf house 7 years ago and did most of the work at a cost of $54,000.00.

Answer 3

I have never built a house so I can't tell you what it costs, but my guess is that it would vary tremendously depending on what kind of house you were building. If you were building a tiny house or shack with one or two rooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen, the cost would be quite different from a 4 story country house. It also depends on whether you are asking about the cost of materials and labor or just materials. Building a house for yourself is much less expensive than hiring someone to. I am guessing that if you chose to build a one or two room house, did the labor yourself, etc., you could build it for 30,000.

Answer 4

That would be a very tiny house and you would have to buy most of the stuff second hand and do all the work yourself, but I am thinking it would be a shed size for that much.

Answer 5

That might buy the lumber for a 600 ft house, then you need to add the lighing, heat, windows, doors, foundation and the fees and inspections. That is just $50/ft.  For the money, try a mobile home, faster and cheaper.  Check for prefab homes in a "Y" search.

Answer 6

Yes, I could. I would have to do all of the work myself and it would not be very big, but I could do it.

If you want do a project like this then plan on doing all the work yourself.

Also plan on spending 2-3 years working on it. Unless, of course, you do not plan on a full time job.

You will need to spend some time shopping around for supplies. Get to know the folks at the stores. They can be your best sources for bargins. And do not plan on a very large house.

I did a total remodel on a 1275  foot 2 bedroom about 12 years ago. All new carpet, new AC and heat, totally new kitchen, all new wiring, new roof, totally new bath and converted a garage to a family room. It took me 18 moths and I spent a total of $4800.

But I spent a lot of time looking for bargians. I had to, it was the only way I could afford the project. Most of the materials I used came from the clearance rack at the local store that was part of a big chain. It got to the point where they would call me if they had something they really needed to move.

One example-french doors. They were supposted to order a set where only the left door opened. By mistake they ordered one that only the right door opened. Very nice doors that normally sold for nearly $600-special order only. I bought them fo $99.95. It took me about 5 hours and cost me about $12 to change them so that both doors opened. I actually did not plan on putting in french doors, but the deal was so good that I added to my plans.

Another example, I put in used kitchen cabinets that I got from a guy for $50. I added some unfinished ones, changed the doors on all of them so they matched by trimming them down in size and adding a molding around the outside. I then painted them all. (after a TON of sanding on the used ones) I could have put in new cabinets in a day. This project probibly took me 20-25 hours. But my all new kitchen cabinets cost me about $200. Now I could have paid a contractor $3,000-$4,000 for painted cabinets, but I simply did not have the money.

If you are really interested in building your own place, go to www.motherearthnews.com. They have written a lot of articles about doing just this over the years. I liked them so much that I just bought a package with all the issues for the last ten years or so for, I think it was $65? Anyway, I can't wait to get it in.

Good Luck.

Answer 7

buy a trailer and put it on the property or a modular home.

Answer 8

Hmm I don't know about being able to build one for that much unless you did it all yourself, I mean ALL by yourself, and you weren't planning on anything large. I once bought a house for $6,000 but it needed about $75,000 of work! It also depends on your location. Hey shop around and get several estimates, who knows you might get lucky! Best of luck!