That's very cool. They don't say whether or not it's retroactive, though (I'll bet not).

I am astounded at some of the starting salaries, these days. Kids, right out of school, make more than I ever did, at the peak of my career.

And can't afford a house.

My father never made more than about $40K, but had a house in Potomac, two cars, and a stay-at-home wife.

Money ain't what it used to be.

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mothballed 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I still can't afford a house. So I built one. It was cheap as hell even post covid, I think it took about $60k. I did not submit building plans, I did not get it code inspected, and I did not have any trades licenses. There is an actually "professional" built house next to me, following the gazillion licensing laws and planning nonsense, it is much older, run down, and barely larger but cost 5x the price.

The reason why you can't have a house isn't that you don't make enough to build one, it's that the people you elected tricked you into thinking "muh codes, zones, and environmental review" brought you safety rather than serfdom.

========= replies here due to post throttling ==========

>It’s true that you don’t need much expertise to build the house but electric and plumbing does need some, no? You don’t need to sell the property perhaps but how did you get labor? Surely you didn’t just do it all yourself.

No I literally did all of it including the electrical extension to the pole.

>Not sure where you live, but in my area -even if it's a great house- it would not end well.

I exploited a rarely used "loophole" since there was no "commercial" business on the house and it was fully DIY, and got it legalized through the county. Since there was no commerce it didn't interact with and trigger most of the regulations that were only legitimized on the basis they were regulating commercial activity. I have this explicitly stated on my permits that established the legal occupation of the house.

>So what you are saying is that you build a cheap house by breaking the laws and local regulations? Next logical step would be to just barge in the neighborhood house and live there for free.

I did not break the law. I exploited a loophole. My county issued me a closed permit explicitly acknowledging I did not break the law and that my house was legalized. To trigger building inspections in my county it can only be forced if there is compensation or commercial intent for building or use of the house, but you have to use a special process to record this with the county affirming you're the owner and the builder and it's a non-commercial non-rented domicile.

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Root_Denied 3 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

> To trigger building inspections in my county it can only be forced if there is compensation or commercial intent for building or use of the house, but you have to use a special process to record this with the county affirming you're the owner and the builder and it's a non-commercial non-rented domicile.

The question I have about this is whether you would need to get inspections and permitting done if you ever tried to sell the house?

If that's the case the loophole only works for the owner/builder and the next person to own it is going to have to scrape it clean and rebuild entirely. If you ever wanted or needed to sell it sounds like this would complicate that process by quite a bit either way.

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vlade11115 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

So what you are saying is that you build a cheap house by breaking the laws and local regulations? Next logical step would be to just barge in the neighborhood house and live there for free.

	▲	arjie 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Some research seems to point to TN allowing for this if the county has chosen to do so https://support.commerce.tn.gov/hc/en-us/articles/208924888-... That’s a pretty cool rule! I think it’s actually super awesome that this dude did this.

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arjie 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It’s true that you don’t need much expertise to build the house but electric and plumbing does need some, no? You don’t need to sell the property perhaps but how did you get labor? Surely you didn’t just do it all yourself.

I have to say, pretty cool all told if you managed this!

	▲	bluGill 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You need some expertise, but electric and pumbing are not hard to do yourself. If you don't know what you are doing a bad install can kill you (or your family/friends), so you want to do this right. However it isn't hard. I helped my uncle build his house, the only thing he didn't do himself was dig the holes (foundation and well), pour the concrete, and tape the drywall. Everything was inspected by the county and passed. We could have done those as well, but is made sense to hire someone for those parts considering the experience/tools of family/friends, and how long it would take working only Saturdays. I miss living where I have lots of family around. There are things I'm forced to hire out that I know how to do just because I can't make a few phone calls and get a dozen people to help next Saturday.

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3pt14159 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I’m sorry but this comment is hysterical. I have experience with construction and engineering and I shudder to think what type of monstrosity you’ve built.

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Marsymars 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That’s not historically uncommon though. Like the house I grew up in was a rural house built in ~1890 by the brothers who farmed the land. Of course it had the usual quirks of an old house, but it was well maintained over time and I wouldn’t view it as any kind of “monstrosity”.

	▲	cryzinger 3 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I'm guessing it didn't have wiring or plumbing when it was originally built, though. If professional electricians/plumbers added those _after_ the fact, then that's still way different than trying to DIY everything in the 21st century.

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shmeeed 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Anybody remember Groverhaus?

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mothballed 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

My grandpa built a similar house under similar level of scrutiny roughly at the same point in life as I did, it was still standing and in good order when he died. At this point it's basically already paid for itself vs rent even valued at $0.

	▲	ChrisMarshallNY 3 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Not sure where you live, but in my area -even if it's a great house- it would not end well. We have some pretty heavy-duty local township bureaucrats.