Nope 60k won't do it - not even a manufactured home . It will cost you several
thousand dollars to tear down the home even if you did it yourself . I bought
a manufactured home 15 yrs ago and put it on a private lot . Back then it cost me 45,000.00 excluding the lot and foundation . So by the time you consider
the cost of tearing down the old house , foundation , water and utilities you
are looking at a minimum of 70,000 . I live in northern Illinois so we are in the
same part of the country . You also need to check if manufactured homes are
even allowed in your area .

If you are looking for something small and mobile homes are allowed in your area, consider a large single-wide. They are much cheaper to purchase, much cheaper to move. do not consider it an investment.....they depreciate in value and will never be worth more than you paid, but they are still better than renting or making huge mortgage payments. My daughter got a nice 16' x 80' single wide repo that was only a year old for less than $20k. It has 2x6 walls and is rated for northern use. My son just bought a small double-wide for $45k including moving it in and setting it up. You will not be able to have a house of any size built for $60k though.

Just a couple ideas:

You might "put the word out" at local lumber yards, feed stores and the like that you have this old house you want gone. There might be someone who would tear it down for the usable lumber left in it. With lumber prices falling, that may be a long shot.

I had a similar deal on the land we own. It had on old house, beyond repair, plus a long road up to the house that had washed out terribly. I found a local bulldozer operator who hooked a cable to the middle of the house, pulled it down, and burned it. He then dozed the remains into the old driveway, and rebuilt it. Total cost: $700.

I think I just got lucky on that deal, though.

Sorry, but I agree with fayemarie. $60K is pint-sized even if DIY; because even a very small house is more like 5-gallon bucket sized.

Money is needed for permits (possibly including to tear down the old house), for fees, deposits and hook-up charges for electricity, water, sewage -- or to pay for well and septic field. Haven't gotten to the cost of the foundation, and already $5k to $20k is spent! Basic foundations can be pretty basic, but the money saved in doing a cheap cinder block foundation will be quickly spent in heating and cooling costs in the following years. Basements cost -- oh not as much as the finished floors above, and they are actually cheap square footage, but the digging, floor and walls do cost.

You will see --repeatedly-- cost mentioned as something like "$xx sf" which means "dollars per square foot", or the overall finished cost divided by the number of square feet in the house. And whenever you see that sort of figure, you have to consider WHERE the house is, because costs vary considerably from state to state; and even within a state, depending on the county and whether it is city, town, subdivision, or rural. In my state it would be possible -- using the cheapest materials and in the most rural economically-depressed area to owner-build your house for less than $80/sf... and in the same state but in a nearby town it would cost $100/sf; and in the same state but near a large city, the cost would likely be at least $150/sf; and in my residential neighborhood expect $200 to $250/sf. That's a lot of variance in cost, and an example of why you can compare houses within a particular neighborhood, but *not* compare the cost to other areas.

Do spend time reading prior posts on this forum. You will find previous discussions about costs, and posts from DIY and OB folks, which may enlighten you as to some of the difficulties encountered. Also spend some time with other online sites such as smartbuilding360, and B4Ubuild. Many other good sites are referred to within the GW forums... spend some more time reading and following up on those links. And, don't be surprised that it will take weeks (not hours) just to get a feel for what is being said because no one --not one single person-- is born knowing how to build; it takes time to learn.

It takes time and effort to learn about building, and money to actually build. Don't skimp on either.

It cost us $50K to build our 1500 square foot garage/workshop 10 years ago and we did all of the labor ourselves except for the foundation pour (slab, which is cheaper than basement). Yes, it's heated and cooled and insulated just like a house would be, but it doesn't have any plumbing, which would have added another 15K minimum just to have a powder room. I wish we had opted to have it plumbed now, as that figure has done nothing but go up as this little town has increased the rules and regulations (and thus costs) associated with building.

Exactly what is wrong with the home on the land? Does it have utilities? A working septic system? A roof that doesn't leak? A sound foundation? YOu might be better off assessing exactly what the issues are there and putting some DIY money into fixing them if there are only a few structural ones. Cosmetic isses are exactly that. Ugly orange shag carpet and avacado wall paint can be changed out at some point if the foundation is solid.

I think it would be unrealistic to think you could build for 60000. The best way to get an idea of whether to build or renovate etc is to talk to a contractor. That is what we did. We showed him the piece of property we wanted to buy, and we showed him the house we lived in. We picked his brain with questions regarding which way made more sense. Even if you had to pay someone to come and get an idea of what you are getting into, it would be well worth the price.

We built a house because we did not have enough room on the existing house lot to do what we wanted to do. But before we completed the house we built a double garage with a suite over it. It is a smaller version of the house we built. It has a small kitchen and full bathroom and loft for the living area. Perhaps you might be able to build something like that until the time comes that you need a larger dwelling or sell. It sounds like you have plenty of room to do that. And you could rent out your suite if you decide to build a house.