Tuesday 16 February 2016

The Resurgence of an Old Idea

I had a good weekend, and I am now well rested, ready to face the shorter workweek. In fact I had such a great weekend, here is a shot of me gloating about the view from my front door.
 

On Saturday morning as I looked out my window while the coffee perked away, I saw that I had some neighbours. 
 

They were casually grazing and that is shot while standing in my open door. That box in the bottom of the shot is the power box where I plug Wanda in. 

I was able to stay toasty warm and even broke out shorts (don’t worry, now pics of that). All thanks to my electric heater. I even had to turn it down . . . Woo Hoo! 

I was even able to use my black and grey water tanks and yes dump my tanks twice, once on the way in and once on the way out.

With the “Fall like” weather that we are experiencing now and (looks like it will be for some time to come) I plan to continue using them. 

I won’t de-winterize, as there is no point even if this weather is here to stay, until I can get fresh water at a dump station. I will accept the little blessings like being able to use my sink and yes my toilet.

The old idea that I spoke of in the title came back to me as I was pondering just how to make this buying a property work. I am still not sure if I really should buy a place and even if I should do so this year. Here are a few of the reasons: 

Don’t have the cash for Closing Costs (those legal and other fees that you are charged to complete the real estate sale.)
No cash for furniture or other equipment needed to run an acreage (tractor, riding lawn mower, snow blower, etc.)
Could possible end up stretched for cash . . . again. (Mortgage, utilities, power bill, gas bill, other unforeseen expenses.)

For now I will keep saving cash and just take it slow and be careful, even when I do get out there into the real estate market. Just because I am starting to look and CAN buy, doesn’t mean I HAVE to buy.

How this lead to my old idea was me wondering if I could get a roommate or two to help with expenses. That led me to wonder if I could somehow do something to help not just myself but others as well. 

I am pondering the idea of putting a few cabins on the land, say ten cabins in all. Five of them would be single room “Bachelor” cabins about the size of Wanda.  The other five would be two bedroom cabins, again small. 

The Bachelor Cabins would be for single people to rent, the Two Bedroom Cabins would be for a family to rent. This idea is to let other people do what I did, without the freezing your butt off on an Industrial side street. 

I could charge people something ridiculously small, like say $500.00 per month (all utilities included) and give them a two year time limit. You could stay there for two years and in that time frame, get ahead on your bills. 

This would allow people to do exactly what I did, but with more comfort. Yet they would still be seriously downgrading their lifestyles yet there would be an end date. 

Any money over and above that needed for bills could be put back in to expand and enhance the place. As in: meal hall, Self-storage storage building (with lockers). A small RV park so people could stay in their own RV. 

My initial guess as to what this option would take to get started (properly) would be around $500,000.00. That is apart from me letting a few people stay at whatever place I do get. 

I think that this idea is one that could actually stand a decent shot at crowdfunding  and/or raising money for. If anyone thinks that this is a good idea, and wants to help out, let me know.

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