SUBS#11:
SAVE OVER $200,000 ON
A $100,000 BUILDING!

This outrageous claim, of course, sounds absurd on it's face . . . until you examine it closely.  Once you fully understand it, you will realize it is actually quite conservative in many cases.

To start with: WHAT *IS* THE COST OF A $100,000 BUILDING?   That is the KEY DATUM!

The ACTUAL COST of a $100,000 building, [mortgaged over 30 years, as MOST buildings are] is USUALLY between $300,000 and $400,000 [depending on interest rates].

In other words, you PAY FOR three or four buildings, the bank takes two or three of them, and after thirty years of paying, you only own ONE of them.  If you miss a few payments, you LOSE IT ALL, and get a cardboard "HOMELESS, Please Help!" sign at the freeway on-ramp.  Your banker goes by in the limo YOU bought him . . . and doesn't even slow down.  For a second you think he's waving at you, but then you realize he's just giving you the finger . . . for the $150,000 you STILL owe him on your solemn promise to pay . . . and pay!

The idea is to buy and put up ONLY what you can pay for, fully free and clear, right now.  Never borrow.  Never owe.  Don't put a down payment on a mortgage you MUST pay every month for 30 years, or lose 25 years of payments.  Take your "down payment" and build one room.  If you lose your job . . . who cares?  You don't have any payments to make.  NO LOAN = NO DEFAULT = NO PRESSURE!  Add on later when you have more money.

A loan for $100,000 over 30 years at 10% interest is about $1,300 every month!  That's over $450,000 dollars, or four and a half $100,000 buildings!  Clearly, the MOST COSTLY part of the house is invisible, adds NOTHING to the structure, is a total WASTE, and can't be resold . . . THE LOAN!  If you can eliminate the loan, you can eliminate MOST of the cost of the house.  That leaves you with LOTS of money left over to make it SUPER-STRONG.

Of course, to eliminate the loan, you either have to be able to buy the entire building at once, or you have to be able to buy it a little at a time.  Most people can't buy a home outright because they don't have enough money.   A structure like a swimming pool simply can't be built and used gradually . . . because it just won't hold water until it's all there.  So NOT all buildings can be put up without a loan. However, many of them CAN.

A typical house can be built a room at a time.  A porch can be added, and then turned into a room.  The roof can be removed, a second story added, and the roof replaced.  A motel or mini-storage business can be expanded one unit at a time AS NEEDED.   Many other structures can be enlarged and added on to.

A carpenter or contractor can easily build himself a house a little at a time.  As he gets time and materials, he adds on to it.   That would be impractical for the non-tradesman owner, who would have to negotiate separate contracts for each of many phases of development.  SUBS [Simple Universal Building System] brings the ability to build in many small discrete phases to many potential owners who would otherwise be locked in to mortgaged buildings.

Instead of paying $1,300 a month to the BANK for 30 years, just put $1,000 a month into the BUILDING!  You'll be living in a very small place to start out, but after 8 years and 4 months, you will own the WHOLE THING, free and clear!  And you will NEVER owe a dime!  If you lose your job . . . no problem, you just don't add on to your house for a while.  You won't have any payments to miss!  And I guarantee that you WON'T EVER miss them!  Not once!

With the money from the two or three [or more] houses that you DON'T have to buy, you can make the one you DO buy and own ENORMOUSLY BETTER.   Even doubled material cost for the house shell is an incredible bargain if it allows you to build the entire building for one-third of the normal cost!  And you get a much stronger, safer and more flexible house too!

This is only one of the many areas where SUBS truly IS "Superior By Design"!

Bill Dur <billdur@net-prophet.net>
Modular Systems @ http://net-prophet.net/billdur/billdur.htm
Simple Universal Building System: Superior By Design