My mom (78 years old) is looking to put a house (around) 1200 sq ft on our property (130 acres) and has a budget of around $100k. It cannot be a “mobile home”. Would love to hear thoughts on modular, prefab, etc. Recommendations. Also, if $100k is utterly out of the question…need to know that too!

Appreciate any input or advice you can share.

Cheers!

A room in, or added onto, your existing house makes more sense to me, but I don’t know your mother.

Barndo with concrete floors…..pending on how cheap you can get the metal erected.
Here is a design I like. You’d have to do a lot yourself to get under $100 a sq foot.

https://rafterpconstruction.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/CELESTE-Floor-Plan.jpg

Is it a deed stating no mobile homes or a HOA/POA?

I’m selling a home for a friend’s mom, she is moving to his 200 acres and I just scored him a brand new tiny home for $35,000.

Tiny houses are nice. But for elderly you have to plan way ahead. All doors at 36" width. Bath fully handicap equipped. Ground level construction with minimal step up to floor level. Back to the bath, 48" walk in shower with grab bars and a dual shower heads, one handheld and one overhead.

Finished shipping container apartment

You’re not going to find anything finished out for $100k at 1200 sf. You’d be hard pressed to find a MH for that size and price.

There really isn't a cheap way to build a home and the only way to keep costs down is to limit the size. When doing that there are still some cost that are somewhat fixed that cannot be worked around. No one thing in a house is expensive but houses are made up of many things and combined they add up to a good chunk. For conventional construction doing everything nice and using masonry type clapboard siding you're going to spend about $135,000 to $140,000 on building a house the size that you're describing. Of the price I just quoted about 55% of that is materials cost and the rest is labor. If you've got skills and can do some things yourself you can save a lot of money.

Concrete piers in the ground. Build a pier and beam style house, but out of steel. 12' wide, and as long as you want it to be. Nice windows, R-panel or U-panel outside. Spray foam, minisplit HVAC.

When she dies, it can be sold and hauled away. You'll get your money back and/or make a profit.

I was going to suggest this as well.

Your imagination is as big as your check book.

Bob's Containers

The modular home and mobile home difference used to be in the concrete footing the modular was attached to, which the mobile homes had axle frames.

I would see if you could get a park model trailer to meet the “ modular” designation somehow.

I can’t see any feasible way to have a site built 1200 sq. Home for $100k. A barn that size would run you about $75k

100k will be the hard part. Depending on how handy you are or plan to do yourself may make a big difference too. East tx a bardo shell will concrete plumbing and electrical eats up most of that budget. Most I’m seeing are in the 70k range for that not including dirt work. Figuring basic interior stained concrete floors and basic appliances would probably be about all you would get anymore.

Tiny home could be done but that’s going to be significantly smaller and way less practical

Pole barn with living quarters. Keep it basic. Trying to make it look like a stick frame house adds up

Some of those tony homes are nice. Even some some shed to houses on YTube.

A buddy of mine lives in a 16x44 shed/house. He loves it. He has plenty of money, but hates paying taxes and travels a lot. It’s a home base. I will look for some pictures he sent me.

Barndo’s are triple that. I’d do shipping containers all day,

A $300k, 1200 sq ft barndo? Maybe in the city of Austin.

You'd never get a barndo approved in the City of Austin.

This is a local guy that been in business for decades. He's operates state wide. He can probably get you close to your budget.

Does a 78 year old need 1200 sq ft? Maybe could go a little smaller, save on money and taxes.

Saw a video for a tiny prefab house purchased on Amazon. Can’t find the video, but it was kinda neat the way it was delivered and unfolded. Much smaller than what you’re talking about but also much cheaper.

Get some bids for one right now. Material costs have made them expensive compared to what they were 15-20 years ago. Not talking about a shell, but a move in finished job. I just did.

If you did it all yourself you MIGHT be able to get it built for 100 a sqft but you’d be framing it, hanging Sheetrock, installing floors, the works.

I would go this route personally.

https://www.mbrkcabin.com/

https://www.muellerinc.com/products/steel-buildings/homestead-1200/

Mueller pre engineered house is $28k for 1200sf. If you skip the concrete middleman and hire the sub directly, you can have the building and slab for $35. Erecting should cost $3-$6 per sf. Finishing out the inside can be as cheap or expensive as you want it. But again, skip the contractor and hire the subs direct.

Depends on your location. Some places they will let you be your own GC some places won’t. Depends on the permitting processes for the county.