Life Advice/Home Buying Advice

Coming here to ask for some advice as far as figuring out a home-buying guide of some sort.. Unfortunately it is impossible for me to get a mortgage, but I have a lumpsum of cash (not much, around 35k-40k) and am looking to move to a more remote area out of the city. I have been scouting around Western Pennsylvania where I have some family, but also eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia, and a few other options. All of them have a plethora of houses in that range, just all obviously needing a good bit of worth (some more than others). My options weigh between a prefab insulated cabin (both 12x30 and 24x30 are under 25k), plenty of camps around in the area (1-2 bedrooms, but no plumbing installed), and "fixer uppers" (usually 20-35k), and gutted houses (8-18k usually) Are there specific things you'd recommend looking out for when it comes to repairs that should be avoided because they will cost far beyond my price bracket? Has anyone else been in this situation before? What did you do? What would you recommend? I'm a complete idiot, not too handy, but am wanting to get out of my situation and needing to do so in the next 5 months. Sorry in advance if this isn't *exactly* /diy/, but I wasn't sure where else to turn.

I bought a house with the GI bill from 4 years in the military and a 50k down payment. very comfy in the hills of alaska

>>4884 I scoped a bit of Alaska, some trailers and little camps and cabins, it's so beautiful, I'm jealous as hell. I don't really have anything on the books or any way of legitimizing my income, haven't filed taxes in quite awhile, and am mostly SOL/off grid, that's why I have to settle for a cheap beater for now and work on it myself.

>>4883 if you are a self-confessed idiot I would honestly recommend reddit as a source of info to start with; there's so much DIY and home based information on there, even people talking about buying land and property taxes etc. I don't really know a better 'forum' to recommend off the top of my head that covers everything you need and personal opinion too. just ignore all the literal soykaf, treat it like a search engine; gives you a good jumping point I guess. you can totally do it so gl lainon

If you do not plan on growing all food for yourself, or growing food for others, then do not try to live in a remote location. If you work in the city, you live in the city, suburban LARP is disgusting.

>>4887 Cities are fragile and unsustainable long term, and there's no real argument against that fact. Not where I want to be, nor am I 'from' here so to speak. >>4886 Yeah true, gunna keep hunting around for resources. Thanks doggie, I'm optimistic

you don't want to have to replace the plumbing, and a house without a decent foundation is just asking for trouble

>>4890 Your "local" suburban 20 mile drive, or in case of "collapse" - walk Walmart-Costco strip gigamall is quite fragile and unsustainable on itself as well. Where do you think food and goods come to it from? Faraway places, delivered by petroleum vehicles.

Now's the right time to find a place though. Ever since the Cov happened, there had been plenty of houses being sold lately. The perfect balance is a suburb blindspot, not too near a potential rioting city but still a place to get supplies, and if weather conditions seem good you can even plant and store your food **(look in yt: rob greenfield)** guerilla farming and even forage from fruit trees which surprisingly people don't even know. You will need electricity though if you want a really off the grid set up.

Personally I wouldn't buy one but rather rent one in a housing co-operative. You get pretty much all the perks of home ownership but without having to be tied down to the area and don't have to deal with realtors. Though if you really are set on buying get a tiny house or mobile home so you can always pack it up and move if you get tired of where you are or if a natural disaster is looming. Other than that advice I say you need to be sure the house is checked for radon, water safety and quality, electrical safety, termite damage and if there is asbestos insulation. Always check a house in person not what you see online alone.

>>4936 pro tip: a "tiny house" is just a trailer made of wood, which is worse for mobile living in pretty much every way.

>>4883 I would definitely buy a prefab at that price range, just be aware that the cheaper you go, the shorter the life span of the house is going to be. Another option would be pouring concrete slabs and living in a shipping container or 2, which would probably be about 30k altogether to get fully plumbed and finished (most containers are 4-5k by themselves depending on where you are). There's a lot of people on YouTube that have done that kind of thing.

>>4940 Another option would be to build your own log cabin, it's not too expensive if you can get the lumber off your own land and mill it yourself. It is a ton of work though, like at least a year of working 40 hours a week for one person.

OP, you may consider van dwelling or acquiring a used camper/travel trailer for cheap. They can be relatively easy to maintain and are much more affordable than any immobile structure. They also tend to come with water, waste, and electrical systems preinstalled so you wont need to do much if any work on that sort of thing, which can be quite expensive and quite complex. https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/rvs/d/towson-04-wilderness-travel-trailer/7174233140.html https://philadelphia.craigslist.org/ctd/d/columbia-jdm-rhd-1994-isuzu-elf-camper/7159901635.html If you plan to stay in one spot with such a vehicle for an extended period, go ahead and spend another 2K or so, to have a metal car port built over the top of it to protect it from rain, sun and debris. In general, you wont be able to beat the space and amenities of a used RV/Camper at the same price point, with any fixed structure. Unless you built the structure yourself. But then there is a ton of labor involved. Just my 2 cents. Hope it helps.

don't even bother trying to buy a house bro just buy a really good tent and find some unoccupied land to camp out on

>>4885 It is way better to live around your family if you can. Don't be a rural bugman.

>>5608 Don't think that banks and governments aren't willing to foreclose your home and force your entire family onto the streets, just because you couldn't afford a mortgage payment to them on time. They don't give a soykaf about you. If you want to obey them when they say you are not allowed to build something because they did not approve your permit, or that their zoning doesn't let you use your land the way you want, then you will find yourself paying hundreds of thousands to millions in taxes. All so they have more money and infrastructure to control your life. They don't give a soykaf about you, their rules are not meant to benefit anyone except for the rulers. >>5605 Even better, build an underground simple pole shelter by digging a trench and cutting down some trees, then you too can survive 50 PSI airburst nuclear bombings. Isn't it funny how much money and effort governments spent just to find new ways to kill you?

>>5605 I'd say live this way before you recommend something like this, internet must be good in the forest to surf on lainchun huh? lmao

>>7051 >neurosuggesting you should have an internet connection when you're camping.

>>5605 Scythian nomad time

>>7082 Dunno what you're specifically insinuating at, but yeah. It's still pretty common for people around modern-day TTajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia to live in tents around the year. Dunno whether or not they have an internet access, though, but with modern-day technology it shouldn't be thought of as an unreachable goal, service or priviledge or w/e else you want to call it.

>>7083 Mongols had satellite tv to go with their Japanese dirt bikes and Russian hunting rifles by the late nineties, they definitely have yurt wifi by now. Besides most of them live in standard Chicom apartments most of the year and go out in the tent for fun/for tourist money when the weather's good

>>4890 >Cities are fragile and unsustainable long term, and there's no real argument against that fact. maybe in Ameristan where there hasn't been a city that stood more than 300 years. Damascus has been continuously inhabited for over 3,000 years and it has no sign of being abandoned, even in the middle of a civil war.

>>7084 >Besides most of them live in standard Chicom apartments most of the year and go out in the tent for fun/for tourist money when the weather's good most, but a pretty sizable proportion of the population of outer mongolia is still fully nomadic.

>>7081 I have mapped out my local forested regions and selected ~a half dozen campsites where I get better cell service than in the local villages. When you're living innawoods, you're not taking a break from the hubbub of city living. Information services are quite integral to my quality of life.

I was not a carpenter when I bought my first home, a fixer. Over the next couple years I was flooded twice, and installed a continuous foundation and repaired all the many, many structural, plumbing, and electrical issues of the ~80 year old structure. Then Citi purchased my lender, rewrote my loan, and demanded I pay the ~$500 greater payment. I sought counsel, who assured me I might win in court someday, but until then I needed to pay or suffer foreclosure, which is eventually what happened. However, the extensive experience I gained allowed me to become a finish carpenter, and my work has since been featured on HGTV's Dream Home Giveaway. Buying a fixer is like a college education. If that's what you want to learn, I highly recommend it.

>>4883 If you don't have the skillset, tools, and access to materials needed to repair a house, then you need to either factor in the cost of learning and acquiring those things, or the cost paying a tradesman to do it. Priorities should be good insulation, double glazed windows, no roof leaks or drafts, since heating/cooling is usually the biggest home expense. Buying a liveable house is cheaper long term than buying an icebox and trying to compensate with a space heater in every room.

>>7051 I've read that in Alaska you can have an ISP paid to beam Internet in a straight line for miles to your house. User >>4884 might not even be in a populated area. Also the feds apparently want to 'help out' by offering money to build Internet there.