B a r r y said:

Greg G. wrote:

Well, if you've seen the crap they throw up in the metro area that he
is avoiding (I live there), you would realize that his land is the
major investment.

Agreed about the land. No question!

If I had only owned 30 acres of farmland in Roswell...
Growing up, no one wanted it - now it's Yuppie Land.

The cracker box "investment" house won't last much
more than 20 years, or just till it's about paid off. And the
remaining 1/6 acre lot is worthless.

Wanna' make a bet?

Well, you clipped off the "To me, anyway" part.
In an era when land is priced at millions per square foot in, oh, say
Manhattan, it's obviously not worthless to someone. But I place no
value on it, and sure as heck don't want to live there.

"Construction quality today" has been a hot topic for what, 100 years?

If the house meets code, even though it will require repairs, the value
will most likely at least keep up with inflation. A mobile home is
guaranteed to depreciate AND require repairs.

Ahh.. but. the mobile home only cost a few thousand dollars.
It is pretty much a given that it is disposable. As for maintenance,
well, it's pretty basic stuff. In 20 years, that plot of land will be
worth far more than the deteriorating McMansion - even though they
cost the same amount originally.

Perhaps I'm jaded due to the poor quality of new construction here.
I've lived in other states where the quality of work was far superior.
I think it's just a case of Atlanta having been a boom housing market,
and it attracted a lot of carpetbagging, skank developers like Ryland.

We barely have building codes here, compared to the north, and the
inspectors are willing to overlook just about anything - for a price.
Maintenance on the unsupervised beaner built $400k crap put here is
already huge. A large development nearby, less than three years old,
is already having roofs replaced and structural problems. Not to
mention the erosion and flooding problems due to the clear cutting and
terracing of the natural roll of the landscape. They are truly
abominations.

Heck, we live in a 15 year old house that is in need of constant
repair due to the low quality work and the total lack of code
enforcement during it's construction.

Yea, it's a McMansion. I didn't buy it, the other half did, before
her husband died. I'm the idiot who ended up with the maintenance
nightmares. I begged her to sell it right after we met, 'cause I
could see the light at the end of the tunnel - it was the oncoming 120
ton locomotive of major repairs.

No flashing, no drip edges, improper roof framing on the stupid bows
and other such pointless "curb appeal" flash, leaving chipboard as the
sole structural member, framing buried under grade and infested with
termites, etc, etc. Only the electrical and plumbing are even close
to code. Even the HVAC is fubar'd. We've replaced doors, windows,
siding, roof, structural components in much of the roofing and wall
framing. The builder must not have been able to read a blueprint,
because I can't imagine ANY architect designing something the way this
was built. They didn't even manage to get the studs on center
properly. The walls wave in and out so badly that the lap siding had
to be face nailed to keep the gaps from showing between overlaps. The
floors are sinking, uneven and squeak horrifically in the winter.
There were 3" of shingles hanging over all the edges, presumably to
supplant the nonexistant flashing and drip edges. It goes on and on.
A collection of the cheapest "builder special" crap available, thrown
up by the cheapest unskilled and untrained labor they could find.

I want to build my own new home, on a large plot of conservation land,
but ended up rebuilding this turd instead. Just to keep ahead of the
rot, decay and deterioration so we can sell it. Neither my father's
home, nor my first house, have needed any of this bull****, and they
are far, far older.

I could itemize much more here, but the point is that given a choice
between a plot of land, and a 1/6 acre corporate built McMansion - the
McMansion buyer is just a fuel screw for Greedy Corporate America.

Unwittingly, Like Me.


Greg G.