Some honest talk about mobiles.

[Homesick Gypsy]

At this point, a mobile is all I can afford. I got a quote to build John's simple 20 x 30 single level house and it was $92 to $100 a square foot. Too much for such a simple plan. Here in North Texas, bigger is better and they charge a premium to build anything else or anything not a cracker box, subdivision house.

I am no longer able to build it myself. Waited too long. 

[Erin]

Have you ever considered a used mobile home to start your homestead with? Maybe as a starting point, something habitable, and then added onto. I have seen some transformations that make them unrecognisable as a MH when done.

Well I sure don't want to live in it forever, nor do I want to put any effort into "transforming" it, but here's the story of our $500 trailer house that we started out with... 
http://countryplans.com/smf/index.php?topic=9630