How it started

You would think one would make a real rational and thought-out decision when you are dealing with a land purchase and a home loan. But, no - we did it kind of backwards. Our 'rich uncle' has some money she wants to invest for about a year, and we've done business with her before. Twice she has lent us money for a house. One house is currently a rental that brings in enough to cover the interest-only mortgage and the property taxes, but its appreciating at a good rate. Eventually we'll sell it, and she will get her orginal investment plus interest, and maybe part of the appreciated amount. I'm not sure on that... The other house is the one we live in now. Its also interest-only, but the idea is we will re-finance eventually to a conventional loan, and she'll get her orginal investment plus years worth of 7% interest. So we've done well for her, and she's happy to lend us this money for a year and make some money in the process. So all of a sudden, we had money to build a house, and one year to do it. Funny, huh?

We started looking for some land. At first we thought we could do $20, ooo, but that doesn't go very far here or in the neighboring counties, so we upped the amount, and then upped it again. We found a really nice lot not far from the river - 5 acres, very secluded, wooded, backed up to a tree farm. Down side - it is in a flood-zone, and 40 minutes farther away from the marina where our sailboat is, and from Wilmington. That would also mean more costs for getting the building supplies up there, and it would be harder to supervise the building process. But boy, it was pretty. The day after we were shown that lot, we looked at a lot closer to where we live now. Its actually 2 lots. The back lot is a flag lot, which means doesn't have access to the road except by an access road through the front lot. And its is about 2/3rds under water.

After we saw the 2 lots, we spent days making a list of the good and bad of both. I wasn't too thrilled with the pond at first, or the lesser amount of land (3.5 acres) which still cost more than the larger lot. But the location was great, and I had my friend come look at it. She's a marine biologist major who spent time working on the river, so I was asking her would it be too buggy and swampy. She loved the pond, and I hitch-hiked her enthusiasm. We made the decision for the pond land.

Where it all stands now is we are getting the loan together for the land, and will get the money all at once for the home-building. Next post will be more about the house plans and permits.