Buying a property was only step one. There wasn’t a house on the property only an office and shops. To move to the new property we would have to get a domicile on the place.

When we bought the property it was a collaboration of myself and my two brothers. One brother was going to live on the place as soon as we had a place to live. The other brother was going to live there when he retired from the military which was a couple decades away. He has since went a different route leaving the property shared with only one brother.

So in the meantime we needed a place for my family and my brother. We considered a lot of options, a cabin, a travel trailer, the office and a mobile home. We decided the best option was an old mobile home. We were going to build a house eventually, but we wanted to live on the property until that time and not have to wait til the house was completed.

Mobile homes can be very expensive and as cheap as free. I wanted one that was ready to be lived in or one needing a minor amount of work. I had no desire to buy a new mobile home as we were only needing to use it until we got the house built.

We looked at several mobile homes before we found the one we liked in Iowa on Ebay. It was a late 70’s duplex, a trailer that is divided into two completely separate one bedroom homes that don’t share any utilities. The trailer was divided in half with each half having its own bathroom, living room, bedroom and kitchen. The halves were mirror images of each other. We drove up to look at the trailer and it was very well cared for. It was perfect for us.

The current owners used the trailer the same way we intended to. They were two brothers who had bought a property and moved the trailer there to use while building a house. The house was built and they no longer needed the trailer.

The problem came when we tried to find someone to move it to our place. Because it had to cross state lines it required a special mover. We called anyone we could find to get a quote. We narrowed it down to three with prices ranging from $1,500-$5,000.

While trying to solve the transportation problem the auction for the trailer ended on Ebay with no bids. We were not going to buy it until we were sure we would be able to move it. A couple weeks after the listing had ended I was contacted by the sellers and they offered it at half the original asking price. So we took a chance that we could get it moved and bought it.

We had to buy tires and get the trailer ready to go from its current location. The trailer also came completely furnished, it even had dishes. We had to secure everything inside for the move, and we trucked the AC unit and other items back to our place on the return trip.

We eventually found a good company to work with that also had the lowest bid, so we hired them. We had a lot of work to do fast. My brother took leave from his job and I shut my business down to devote all our time to the property.

We decided to place the trailer on the west end of the centered gravel turn around. We saved the prime location for the future house. We had 300’+ to get to the lagoon and 200′ to the nearest source of electricity and water for the trailer.

We looked into renting a trencher and to hiring the work done. Both were very expensive. So we bought a used trencher for the same amount that the local rental company had wanted to rent a trencher for. We got a good deal and could actually make a profit if we decided to sell it in the future.

We poured piers to rest the trailer frame on. We leveled the ground under the trailer to make any work under it easier in the future. We worked hard and we still had work to be done when the trailer arrived.

 

The trailer was moved down to our place without a hitch. We still lacked having the utilities ready, but at least the piers were ready.