Buying and Building a House

We started this journey a few months ago when I discovered the USDA Rural Loan Program. As long as your credit isn't totally in the dumpster, you can get a guaranteed loan with a $250 down payment. You have to understand that while we usually make ends meet, we spend what we make and are aren't very good at the whole "saving money" thing.

My mother has 60 acres outside of Dallas and has always said we were welcome to come out there and build a house, but until I found the Rural loan program, the idea of us getting enough money together for a house down payment was pretty laughable. The government website has a listing of approved mortgage vendors to use, so I picked one and applied for a loan just to see if we'd really qualify. WE DID. Unfortunately after applying and getting approved I found out we'd only be able to get a prebuilt house or a house in a subdivision because the RLP didn't cover construction loans. Ugh. Figures.

We started shopping for a mobile home since that was pretty much the only way we'd be able to get a home built on our property. We decided on a Palm Harbor as we'd looked at them before and we liked their construction, their aesthetics and their size. We decided on The Gotham, a 3k sq foot monster with two living areas and 4 bedrooms. Our oldest would have his own bathroom and bedroom, the next oldest would have her own bedroom and the two smallest would have their own bed.

We're a little worried about the luxuries once we move.. we won't have city sewer, we won't have high speed internet, but we will have plenty of room for the kids to play, plenty of room for some farm animals. Good schools and a real old time Main Street. We'll be 15 miles away from a Walmart and other big chain stores and restaurants, but there is a local grocery store and a few fast food restaurants so we'll be able to get our greasy food fix occasionally without having to go too far.