Real Estate

I’m thinking of buying a luxury holiday home in Cornwall set on a Woodland Estate. The aim is to live there for about 3 months a year and rent it out for the rest of the year. What sort of percentage return on my investment would be deemed "good" ?

You will find that ground rent, maintenance, and cleaning charges take a lot out of rental income received.

Are they built well? I have heard they are built really well nowadays. What about re-sell value? Would the home increase in value as much as another home? I have to admit when looking to buy a home and I see the word "modular home" I think lower quality. I would think other people would too.
What do you think?

A_kansan is closer than Pengy, but still a tiny bit off. There IS a difference between MODULAR and Manufactured:

A Manufactured home is, ALSO, built in sections, in a factory, has sustained no rain/wind/weather (as do ALL STICK built homes). A manufactured home has to pass the federal standards of housing manufacture (HUD), whereas the MODULAR MUST PASS BOTH Federal AND state, local, regional standards (which makes it ‘Better built’). Used to be that one could tell the difference between and mod and man by looking beneath to see if the metal I-beams were in place; however, more mod’s are being built WITH the metal I-beams for better stability. (the manufactured have a title, another difference).

Both mod’s and man’s are BETTER built; they are built w/2×6 exterior walls, higher grade insulation, under cover so mother nature never touches the bare interior wood. Would you rather spend $100 sf (average) to build a home that could be rained on a dozen times or more before you move in, takes 3+months to build, with 2×4 exterior walls (how many stick builts have you found with thicker walls???), or a better quality ’system built’ home that can be put on your property and ready for move in 3 weeks and costs an average of $75 sf?

A lot of system built home builder’s will allow you to make changes to their home plans. Making your home basically ‘custom’. (Liberty Homes, built in Kansas, will allow you to).

The resell value is really due to the fact that most buyers don’t request drywall interior upgrade. When you go to resell the home and a buyer looks at the cheap ‘trailer’ wall paneling, they’re mind set is "70’s trailer". If the buyer saw painted drywall, they wouldn’t even know they were in a system built home, except on paper. So, yes, the resell value is less than that of a stick built home because of mindset of buyer’s who don’t know how well these homes ARE BUILT. But, we’re winning over more and more people and we’re going to give contractors a run for their money, some day.

Manufactured homes can be single wide, double wide, triple wide, two story, cape cod, any number of configurations-so can modulars. They are all ’system built’ homes.

The website, below, can answer more questions.

I don’t know anyone whose used them to build, so if you have, I’d love to hear your experience with them. Approximately how much per sf does it cost? On their website they have more standard home and nicer, higher end homes that we would be interested in. Any info on costs, people, quality would be appreciated.

Thanks!

This question has gone four days without an answer. The biggest problem is that you are appealing to people over a huge geographical area for answers relevant to a very small geographical area. What is your general location? You could be anywhere in the world. Where is the company "Greystone Country Homes" located? I’m sure that you get the idea.

In the end, you should demand that Greystone provide you with a long list of people for which they have built homes. The next step is for you to do your homework and contact some of their clients. People are usually very willing to share their experiences with a building contractor and it will pay to listen carefully.

As to price, I am sure Greystone will be only too glad to quote you prices for any type of home you wish to build.

Good luck with your building project.

We bought a new build home and have had nothing but problems with the HVAC system since day one. We recently hired a licensed HVAC contractor to do load calculation analysis and were informed the unit is undersized, return air vent is undersized, not located correctly, and needs a second return air vent. It was determined to be 1/2 – 1 ton undersized. Who’s responsible for correcting this?

You need a second opinion from someone willing to testify to it in a court of law that what you have is not the minimum industry standard.

If it falls within that minimum range you might be out of luck, as it was not warranted to be acceptable to the buyer, but simply to be "good enough."

Most homes are built to absolute minimum standards with upgrades available, is that not true?

I live in NC and am looking for foreclosed homes in my area. Most of the sites I pull up on the net ask for your credit card # etc. Is there someplace that I can find out for free? Would the county courthouse be able to give me this info?

Here is HUD:
http://www.hud.gov/homes/index.cfm

You have to know who is foreclosing? Some Banks buy the home at foreclosure price then turn it over to a Realtor to sell for them at a profit. The public never knew it was foreclosed.

I live in cook county next to an unreasonable neighbor. He is planning to run a fence along his "property line", which once erected would impede me from having access to my garage in the rear of my home. The fence would run along the sides of our homes but due to the configurations of the properties, my vehicle actually crosses his property line about 2-3 feet while swinging my vehicle to the rear of my home. Is there an ordinance governing this type of fence erection?

Only if you have an easement to use his land, it is part of the title.

Generally speaking a fence is not unreasonable, as it will protect him from trespassing, which very well might be what you are doing.

we are currently designing our home and would really appreciate any ideas/suggestions/ALTERNATIVES when it comes to home designing. eg – keeping plumbing to one side of the house to cut plumbing costs, and using ’square setting’ instead of architraves, not having skirting boards, painting the ourselves. Things that we would not have usually thought of. Even any websites would be appreciated.

Is this your personal long term residence? If it is then plan for the long term use of you electricity, install 2 different receptacle circuits per room, and share the rooms, do the lights in the ceiling with 2 circuits, and alternate the rooms. Install coax for cable in every wall more than 6 feet wide. Smoke/ CO2 detectors in every room and hallway, wired as a set so one trips they all trip. Consider using a 3 conductor cable for all outlets and alternate the circuits, this should save about 1/3 of the wire pulling labor, but the material is more expensive. This also will allow some versatility in your wiring configuration.
Plan on using a heat pump rather than a furnace and AC system. Not much of this will save you money up front, but it is well worth the initial expense.

How can I check out a new home builder to see if they are a good company or not or if I trust them? I’m thinking about buying a new house (1st time).

1. Find out if they are a member of the National Association of Homebuilders – they have a code of ethics;

2. Contact the local homebuilders association – http://www.nahb.org/local_association_search_form.aspx
and see if they have an ethics and arbitration committee and, if so, ask to speak to them regarding pending complaints;

3. Find out what company issues the builder’s warranty and contact them regarding complaints;

4. Speak to people who live in their homes (drive the neighborhood and knock on doors);

5. Check with the local BBB and the consumer fraud agency at your local county and state regrading pending complaints and issues;

6. Check with the bank that the builder is promoting for home mortgages;

7. Ask the builder’s salespeople how long they have worked for the builder (longer is better)

8. Check with the local building department to be certain that they are licensed and ask about code violations;

9. Search the web for complaints against the builder but remember, not every customer can be satisfied, no matter how hard they try – http://www.consumeraffairs.com/housing/housing.htm; http://www.hadd.com/; http://www.hobb.org/content/view/609/326/;
http://www.my3cents.com/search.cgi?criteria=Home+Builder&pcat=MISC;

10. Use common sense – have an attorney review the purchase contract before you sign.

I just want to put the ones that I have on paper onto the computer but I haven’t been successful so far. Is there any program that I can use to put these blueprints on the computer that are free?

Start your research here; http://www.google.com/search?q=free%20house%20design%20software&sourceid=groowe&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

A Decorating & Interior Design Web Site
Dedicated to Advice, Books, Services,
Products, & Articles for the Home http://myinteriordecorator.com/

Make it a great day!

My family is planning a family vacation (parents, sister and her kids, my family) at WDW over Christmas. We would like a nice (luxury) house or resort that would accomodate all of us without being too outrageously expensive. Does anyone know of a place or website that would help?

Grand Deluxe Villa at Old Key West or the Tree top villas at Saratoga Springs both located and owned by Disney will accommodate your family. Call 407-W-Disney to see if they are available. Another option may be to get a couple connecting rooms or maybe two cabins at Fort Wilderness.