Today I REALLY miss my Dad...

[LeatherneckPA]

...so I'm going to bounce something off of you guys. In the past I would have had a sit-down with Dad and taken advantage of his 77+ years of hard won experience and old-fashioned common sense. but he went and died on me back in February.

Many of you are familiar with my situation. Nearly 50 years old and 25 days from a Federal pension (roughly $3000 a month), my wife and I have begun to seriously search for land where we can build our little farm/homestead and live happily ever after. Cindy will continue to work for 8 more years, at which time her pension should exceed mine.

Two pieces have definitely caught our eye. The first is 8.35 acres of raw land, 15 minutes from the wife's office, and with a view of the lake where I take my daysailer, which is selling for $84,000. The second, more desirable IMHO, is 16 acres of gently sloped land, with a small pond on it and a year round stream feeding it, a small shed, and a 14' x 60' mobile home, including a well and septic system already in place, for $114,500.

My thoughts are that I would be getting twice the land, a well and septic, plus temporary housing (for while I build our timber-framed house). Well DUH!!! That part seems pretty easy doesn't it?

Now, here's the question I would be laying out for Dad, if he were here. We seriously screwed our credit up with plastic before I got wise. We are just digging out from under that and really would not be able to get any approval for a conventional mortgage. We can't sell our house until we have somewhere to move to, and we can't buy somewhere to move to while we still carry the mortgage to this house. My TSP only has about $150k in it. I was wondering if anybody thought it would be ok to take that lump sum and buy our land, move onto it, and then put our house on the market for a quick sale. We are different than most in that we aren't trying to make a mint on the sale of the house. As long as we cleared the mortgage, and maybe had a little bit left over to start the new house we'd be happy.

I'm thinking that it might not be that big of a deal since the balance is pretty small (compared to most of you) and since we will both be pensioned for life. To my way of thinking the most important part will be that we won't owe anybody for the house/land we live in/off of.

Or am I just talking myself into this because I so badly want to start our homestead?