Barndominiums / Texas / Retirement

Vegas Teacher · March 19, 2018

So my wife and I are planning 10 in the future but we start everything early. Anyway I will be able to retire in 12 years I think. The school system bought years and months for me but I don't know what the exact is. I think I will be able to retire at 57 years of age, not bad I hope to have 10 to 15 good years after that.

Anyway we live in Las Vegas now, and it is nice because we do not pay a state income tax. Over the next 10 years Vegas real-estate is predicted to gain 5% each year on average, and hopefully no bubble this time, but just nice slow increases. We are building our business base. Most people know we are building the Raiders Stadium on the south end of the strip across from Mandalay Bay at I-15 and Russell, we have had good success with the expansion Hockey team, the Golden Knights and we have a WMBA and an MBA team coming to town. We lost out on Amazon and Google but Oh well we couldn't hit the "Perfecta" but we didn't do to bad. Both Basketball teams will need stadiums built each stadium will take 3 to 5 years. We hope to see more industry coming. There are more homes being built, inventory is shrinking for homes on the market, builders are coming back and property values are rising once again, I just hope we don't see a replay of 2003 - 2008 that was bad.

Well what does that have to do with anything? The wife and I are looking to sell our house and our rental property at the end of our work days. We are looking for other states that have no income tax and are "Snowbird" friendly and R.V. / Semi / Travel trailer friendly on taxes and insurance. I am originally from the Midwest and I want land again in my life. I live in a 2500 square foot house that was built on a postage stamp of about an 1/8 of a acre, it is a travesty. So Texas is looking like a good state for taxes, and price of acreage, I know it will go up but near the two highest recommended cities to live in, from the internet, Lubbock and Abilene farmland is only 1000.00 per acre. Then I was looking at farmland ads and one of the adds says "Barndominiums" are acceptable. I had no idea what that meant. What is a Bardominium?

My next step was to get on line and look up Barndominium. It is a pole barn with an apartment in it. I then look up a company that builds them and find out they seem to be cheap to build. Here is what is really neat, You can design them any way you want to. So I thought O.K. I will call them and try to come up with a design that is so difficult it will be a million dollars and they will laugh at me or hang up on me. I asked them if I could get a design where I could pull my 780 in one end and out the other with doors tall enough for a full size semi. I asked if they could design or contract to have 30 amp and 50 amp service put in the building and if my door could be on a motor. After speaking to the architect, he asked if I would give him a couple of hours and my email address / phone number. 2 hours later I got an email that had a quote / estimate for a building that had a place to park both inside 30 feet for the semi and 55 feet for the trailer - Just a little extra space for both so they could be pulled in and unhooked if we wanted to. They also designed living quarters to the side and above like a loft set up. Kitchen & living quarters upstairs, bedrooms bathrooms downstairs. Just shy of $50,000.00 If you know what housing costs in Las Vegas you would understand why this excited me.

The question I am wondering is, is has anybody else out there looked at this? What is the assembly cost? Does anybody else live around Abilene or Lubbock and like or dislike the area? I know this is a ways off, no doubt 10 years is a decade to plan but as teachers my wife and I are both long term planners by trade. I planned and did research for 4 years before I bought the 780 and I still have a million questions on a good day. I have a lot of irons in the fire right now, but exiting the workforce and going smoothly into retirement is one of them. It is not going to catch me off guard.

Later,

Cory O

Steve from SoCal · March 19, 2018

Cory,

The "price" of a pole building is about one third of the cost of the finished structure in general. You could skip some things or DIY but things like site prep, utilities etc are out of most peoples area of knowledge.

If you really want to go down that rabbit hole try this place, there are many multi page threads of just what you are considering. https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=7

Vegas Teacher · March 19, 2018

1 hour ago, Steve from SoCal said:

Cory,

The "price" of a pole building is about one third of the cost of the finished structure in general. You could skip some things or DIY but things like site prep, utilities etc are out of most peoples area of knowledge.

If you really want to go down that rabbit hole try this place, there are many multi page threads of just what you are considering. https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=-1&f=7

Steve,

Thanks for the information I went on the website and looked at a few of the posts. To me this seems really interesting. The metal buildings are supposed to be easy to heat and cool plus how incredible would be to have 20 acres, a huge driveway into your house and a huge drive way going out of your house, you drive in and you drive out all the same direction. Wouldn't that be nice. Plus you walk out your door into a climate controlled area without having to go outside and your HDT and Trailer / 5th wheel are right there. I even thought about developing the land and putting in pads with sewer lines and electrical service for Fellow HDT people passing through to stay chat and relax on the way to or from somewhere. All for the price of a 6 pack of Diet Coke.

Later,

Vegas Teacher

Ronbo · March 19, 2018

Have you ever been to Lubbock or Abilene? Lubbock is mostly run down. Plainview is 45 miles north and is much nicer. A small town. You go to tractor supply once and you will know everyone there. Plenty of churches. My kids actually live outside of Lockney. Another 26 miles east. That is a really small town. You can go to Ace and get credit on your word. If you don’t have enough money in your pocket, they tell you “Get it next time”. That is where I would look. Nobody around for 2/3 of a mile. The kids were facing problems with their power due to bat overhead wires. They replaced the wires to the pole, trimmed the tree and replaced a bad section of wire on the kids side of the meter. All without asking. It is really small town mentality.

rickeieio · March 19, 2018

It's good that you're looking many years ahead. You'll discover, and discard, a lot of ideas in that time.

You mention you have rental property, so I'm gonna guess you're doing that as an additional revenue stream. The you say you like the idea of $1,000/acre land. Don't expect cheap land to generate a decent ROI. It might, but not likely.

Metal buildings ARE NOT easy to heat or cool, unless you add a lot of insulation, same as any other structure. And they don't last forever. My shop is 40 x 61, built in 1975, and I can drive the camper rig in one end and out the other, but not park inside with the doors down. Last year I had to replace all the outside sheeting for about $25k. Doors are next, for about $8-10K. I'm gonna say that $50k price was just for the shell, not concrete, no doors, no electric, no plumbing............

Vegas Teacher · March 19, 2018

2 minutes ago, rickeieio said:

It's good that you're looking many years ahead. You'll discover, and discard, a lot of ideas in that time.

You mention you have rental property, so I'm gonna guess you're doing that as an additional revenue stream. The you say you like the idea of $1,000/acre land. Don't expect cheap land to generate a decent ROI. It might, but not likely.

Metal buildings ARE NOT easy to heat or cool, unless you add a lot of insulation, same as any other structure. And they don't last forever. My shop is 40 x 61, and I can drive the camper rig in one end and out the other, but not park inside with the doors down. Last year I had to replace all the outside sheeting for about $25k. Doors are next, for about $8-10K. I'm gonna say that $50k price was just for the shell, not concrete, no doors, no electric, no plumbing............

Hey Thanks again for the information I can't tell you how much I appreciate it. I bet you are correct with the concrete and doors, I did not look into that.

Later,

Vegas Teacher

Vegas Teacher · March 19, 2018

44 minutes ago, Ronbo said:

Have you ever been to Lubbock or Abilene? Lubbock is mostly run down. Plainview is 45 miles north and is much nicer. A small town. You go to tractor supply once and you will know everyone there. Plenty of churches. My kids actually live outside of Lockney. Another 26 miles east. That is a really small town. You can go to Ace and get credit on your word. If you don’t have enough money in your pocket, they tell you “Get it next time”. That is where I would look. Nobody around for 2/3 of a mile. The kids were facing problems with their power due to bat overhead wires. They replaced the wires to the pole, trimmed the tree and replaced a bad section of wire on the kids side of the meter. All without asking. It is really small town mentality.

I taught in a town like Plainview, Stockton Missouri, as a teacher everybody knew me, I was the biology teacher, the only biology teacher. Thanks so much for the information. finding someplace good to live is important. I know as we get older I will want people who can work on the semi and work on me as my health fades.