Thread by @NormanDodd_knew

I posted while back about wanting to bring back the days where you could order a quality house out of a sears catalogue and assemble with frens.
Goal: house for $150-200k

I figured it out. Rather than turn into a business, I want to share the idea so my frens have a house
🧵

We are going to strip mine the hood ladies and gentleman.
First, let’s talk about Henry Ford.
All around Detroit or whole neighborhoods of homes built by Henry for his employees.
Thousands of them.
And they’re built different than homes built today.

First, let’s talk about materials. Not only is a 2 x 4 not 2” x 4” anymore, but the wood can barely be called wood.

In the 1920s American logging was old growth forest, now it’s tree farms, 5y wood instead of 150y.
It’s like comparing tin and steel

Today, you can’t build a home like Henry did because the wood doesn’t exist anymore. At least not in a way where it’s economical for you to get your hands on any.
The houses he built Will last hundreds of years while the house is today will maybe last a couple dozen

So let’s talk about those houses and let’s talk about where they are.
They’ve already lasted 100 years and they look almost as good as the day they were made.
The problem is is that Detroit and Dearborn never came back from 2008 crash

In Dearborn, there’s a 10% vacancy rate, 2200 homes.
In Detroit Metro area it’s almost 20% and almost 80,000 homes.

For closed, boarded up like little time capsules, and empty. Built like bomb shelters.
A perfect home for a growing family, just unlucky location

So these empty homes earn the county no tax revenue, despite being perfectly livable. It’s the neighborhoods that aren’t.
Lucky for us, friends, homeless people don’t want the American dream. They nest like animals.
So they all congregate in one house and most houses left empty.

You can pick them up for next to nothing.
Perfectly good homes in need of a light interior remodel, can be had for $10-30k.
Often times less if you wait for the county tax appraisers tax foreclosure auction. This being different than the bank foreclosure.

But the problem is still there, staring you in the face.
Want to live in Detroit or Dearborn Michigan? No
Want to raise your family in the hood?
No, you don’t.

OK then, what if the house wasn’t in Detroit anymore?

Well Stormy, houses don’t hab legs. They can’t move

Well, turns out they do move. And the cost of doing so is less than you think.
Remember my goal.

Turns out you can move a modest single-family house halfway across the country for less than $60K.
As long as it’s sturdy enough for the move.
These are about as sturdy as it gets.

For $60k ($80k max) you can lift your new $10-20k house up off its foundation, throw it on the back of a tractor trailer and take it damn near anywhere.
It requires some permits and some route planning, but there are companies that specialize in this.

Ok so let’s say you were crazy enough to ship a house across the country, what else would you need?
Land.
National average for 1 acre vacant land is $16k, less if there are no utilities hooked up.
Cost to hook up electricity to your out of the way parcel, about $2.5k-5k

Now you’ve got your land you’re gonna need a foundation to place your house on when it arrives.
Cost of leveling, site prep and 2k sqft monolithic concrete slab foundation will run you about $10-12k

Another $5k-8k to drill a well and have your own dedicated water supply.

Taking the high estimates,
House $20k
Transport $80k
Land $16k
Utilities $5k
Foundation $12k
Water $8k

$141k
That leaves the remodel up to you and you’re wife
Grok says you can do a modest interior renovation w/ new appliances for $22-60k depending on personal preferences.

and there you go boys.
Go forth and strip mine the hood.
Take Henry Ford’s houses and his legacy of self reliance and ingenuity and creativity. Fill them full of happy families across the country.

Make Henry and Stormy proud

$161k-201k