Building a Log Cabin as an investment property

[John Paul Whaley]

I am pretty close to buying a piece of property in NC (Raleigh or Charlotte) and am thinking about how I am going to build on the empty plot. I stumbled upon log cabins and they’re fairly cheap and really good looking. 

What would be the problem with building a log cabin on one of my land plots? I think they look really attractive and wouldn’t mind living in one, but is the architecture too awkward when placed in a neighborhood without any other log cabins in it? I wouldn’t just stick a log cabin in the middle of a bunch of modular homes, in fact, the properties I am looking at are kind of tucked away (yet not in the middle of nowhere).

I see that the maintenance can be high. Is it too high to make a deal make sense? Does the financing make them too hard to sell?

Just wondering if anyone has experience with log homes and could share any advice. 

Thanks

[Jon A.]

I know that the older log cabins can be a lot of maintenance. Every crack has to be sealed every couple of years with log caulk and they also have to be sealed with a sealing product. It is an expensive and tedious process. Log replacement can be very expensive if they ever rot and very few people do it anymore. I have heard that the worst thing you can do is paint a log cabin, which you will notice almost all old log cabins have been painted at one time or another. Also, basic changes such as adding wiring and plumbing can be a real chore. I personally love them, but I am not sure that I would ever want to own one. If I were planning on buying a new one or having one built I would make sure and do a lot of on that style of logs cabin. Rutherfordton and Polk county apparently have the most log cabins in the country according to friend of mine that moved there to start a log cabin maintenance business.