Building your own soft field (beating the money pit??)

Hello all.

I've been pondering many ways to beat the aviation money game over the years. First step now is to build. I have owned a Cessna, rented, but never built. In Lawton Oklahoma I was able to rent a private hanger for $120 a month. We live in Colorado now and you won't find anything in my area (Colorado Springs) for less than $300 a month 'open bay'. This expense plus the maintenance fees added up. It didn’t take long for me to feel the pains of my money going into other people’s pockets. When I sold the Cessna, I got to tour a private airpark with a soft field. The owner had built a large hanger with an apartment in the back section. At the time, he spent $40K on the hanger, lived in the apartment while building his proper home near by. This got me very excited. I began to see this as the best way to beat the money pit. So I started thinking………

In other words, find some land that could be made into a soft field, build the hanger with an apartment and live there until my home is built. Certainly this wouldn't be the most comfortable situation but in the long run, I wouldn’t be paying disappearing hanger rent, commercial maintenance fees (because I would be the manufacturer), and so on. The money would be going instead to ownership of the land and building (equity). I really can’t see how this situation could not be beneficial. Consequently this should make GA a lot less expensive and in fact, quite affordable. I would only subject to my own maintenance costs, fuel prices, and insurance. Call me cheap but I don't see the point in paying every one else to keep a passion alive and affordable.

The trick would be to find the right land in a good location and take advantage. I found a right up from the Texas Agriculture Association that gave instruction on building your own soft field from start to finish. It wasn't that bad. In fact it was rather straight forward. there would be some expense grading the land and I don't know the cost of something like this.

So I thought I would offer my ideas up to everyone here to get your thoughts on this.

For me, I don't see a better way to make personal GA affordable in the long run. However, a private strip would not have the same fellowship access that public airport hanger communities provide but I would guess there would be ways around this.

This is a long ways off for me and still in the thoughtful stage. I would love to hear input on this idea. Anything that comes to mind good or bad, pros and cons, as to whether this would work both economically and feasibly would be great to hear..

Best.

Evans

You stole my dream! I someday plan to buy some land, build a house, hangar, and runway, and live hapily every after. Im hoping Mel will reply to your thread... he has done all of the above!

Everything cost money. A place to land your supercub or similar is one thing. A place useful(and safe) for your newly painted RV or have friends fly in is a lot different. A good dirt/grass strip has a fair amount of upkeep. Insurance?-gotta have it, if you let anyone else land there. Property tax(montana considers a runway a capital improvement).

Don't get me wrong, living with my airplane is my dream. Just don't want you to think it's a cheap dream.

A friend did this in Idaho, built the hangar first and then bought a large used motor home and kept that in the hangar until the house was done, then sold the motor home for what he had in it. They did have a bathroom and small kitchen in the back of his hangar but they basically lived in the motor home.

hydroguy2 said:

... Property tax(montana considers a runway a capital improvement)...

Click to expand...

Same out here, that's why you don't call it a runway. Get this, you call it a medow or better yet, get a pet goat and call it a pasture. Then you get the ag rate on the land.

I had the same thoughts for a long time but eventually settled into an airport community, which I think is a good middle-ground. You'd be surprised at the upkeep for that much land. Of course it all depends on where you build. If everything around you is dirt then your strip can be dirt but in the Midwest, that translates into over 10 acres of grass to feed, seed, water, roll, and mow. Then if you get some ground critters like moles, ground hogs, etc, there's more expense.

I don't want to talk you out of your dream. Many a farmer around here has his own strip, but then, he has the equipment it takes to maintain it. Check out an airport community. Share the expense with your neighbors and there will also be a mechanic or two to help you out, etc. Not a bad way to go.

Where did you find the Texas Runway Instructions?

Evans,
What a great dream! Where did you find that information from the Texas Agricultural Association about instructions on runway construction?
Thanks,

oh yes!

IMHO the way to do it is to get a group of pilots together and go flying.... take a camera... or if you are feeling cheap.. go on google earth and look at the land around where you are interested... get in the plane for the final pics from above... talk to the owner and buy the land... each pilot gets a plot and they each give up a little land to contribute to the runway in the middle or on the side of the strip of land. Hopefully the land will be cheap. You then build a hanger with an apt in it and live in the apt or camper. After the most important bldg is built (the hanger with the apt)... then you can build the house if you need to. Don't forget to have a clear cut agreement before hand on maintenance of the field and etc.... That way, the new rate of hanger rent 315 a month at KLZU would go towards a house and land instead of a hanger you will never own. I got lucky.. my hanger is 100 a month from an older gentleman that lost his medical and sold his airplane. The nice hangers down here in West Palm Beach, Fl are easily over 400 a month from what I've seen. I'd love to find a plot of land on a private airstrip somewhere.... even without anything on it....
Best
Brian

Steve Ashby said:

Evans,
What a great dream! Where did you find that information from the Texas Agricultural Association about instructions on runway construction?
Thanks,

Click to expand...

Here ya go!

ftp://ftp.dot.state.tx.us/pub/txdot-info/avn/avninfo/farm_ranch_airstrips.pdf

Check out 49FD on Airnav. My brothers and sister and myself divided up my parents farm when they got too old to farm. We provide our parents monthly money for each acre that they deeded each of us as supplemental income for their older age. It worked out great. My portion was a 40 acre field across which I built a diagonal runway. It yeilded a 2000 foot airstrip that works fine for our Starduster. We (my wife and I) were given an old tire store for removing it from a lot in town. The structure is all metal and was put up on the airstrip with new tin. We are building a RV8 in the "new hangar". The biggest expense is mowing the strip during the summer months, but it is so nice to have my airplane at home and enjoy a hangar right out the back door.

Steve.....

Daniel has the link there. (thats a cool trick Daniel) Anyway, my mistake, it was actually the Texas Transportation (avaition division). It has been a while since I pulled it up. Back then, the PDF was active and had graphics and visual shots for illustration. Today I was only able to open the textfile. But it is the same information.

Regards.

Evans

The dream is alive and well

It's a great way to pay "hangar rent" towards your own equity.
I love your idea but if you add up all the expenses it will be a long time before you recover the rent.
A better way might be an airpark as has been suggested. No one needs a runway all for himself and sharing it with like minded people is just more fun.
At our airpark the fees are less than $300.- per year and that takes care of
runway, road and association maintenance. The rest of the money you can spend on your own hangar and the one acre property it sits on.







ranchotehamaairpark.com

Hmmm

I like the yearly fee N42. All the parks I have looked at are really 'proud' of their land and it is priced accordingly. A park would be great! But aren't there many costs associated that make it more expensive and unobtainable to middle income people?

Evans.

Living the dream

You are correct in assuming that there are other costs.
Property tax is one of them utilities and so on.
What I was trying to point out to you is the fact that you would probably spend less money on an airpark than you would cutting your own runway.
The initial expense of developing a raw piece of land can be staggering and yes, you will have to pay property taxes too.
All this before you even have a place like a hangar to stay dry.
The money required to get into an airpark such as Rancho Tehama
is minimal compared to buying a piece of undeveloped land, and no one will lend you money on it.
Most airparks are upscale communities with upscale prices and lots of amenities. Rancho Tehama is... well a diamond in the rough but one of these
airparks is where your money is likely to grow.
Just food for thought not telling you what to do.

I had thought about doing this too.

Went out and eyballed my land and estimated XX$ to do the earth work. Called a pro and his estimate was 5XX$. That ended all thoughts of the project.

A friend decided to proceed and build his runway based on his estimate and it eneded up at 10XX$

Do your homework and think long and hard about it before starting.

Just doesn't work for me........

I wanted to do this. I have the land free & clear for a 2600 ft strip. Also have the equipment to develop & maintain the strip. I even registered it with the FAA to make sure I could have a strip there and it was approved.

As a CPA in my past life, I started doing the numbers, even with selling off the timber, it just doesn't make economic sense. If you build hangars to lease to your buddies, the payback is just too long. Maint. is constant, time consuming and expensive. Then there's the little problem of insurance, believe me if you let others fly in & out there will be a problem. To do it just for yourself really doesn't make sense. Then do you really want people on your ranch all hours of the day?

I dreamed this, really wanted it, but have just about let it go. Paying $300 per month at CXO, ten miles from the house just beats a private strip. If you have the money, don't care about the economics, then speed right on.

I think the best way to beat the cost is to build a hangar on a land lease on an airport. Build it big enough to accomodate three or four planes, lease out the additional space. This way you will have a marketable asset, tax deductible, which will defray your personal cost.

Just my opinion, after trying to justify it everyway I could.

Thanks CN....................

Appreciate your experience. There has been a lot of good input on this topic. I like your idea about leasing and building the large hanger. I don't know much (anything) about leasing airport property. I think I could stomach sharing the cost of my hanger with other pilots. I would probably still do an apartment in the back. This is all great info and much food for thought.

Keep it going everyone, this is valuable input.



Side bar CPA question....... Is it true that if I forward pay the premium for my mortgage principle monthly, that I essentially eliminate a month of interest? A friend of mine showed me this and said that he used this method (or some technique similar) to pay his off early at great savings.

Best

Evans

The only private strip I have seen that makes sense...

Side bar CPA question....... Is it true that if I forward pay the premium for my mortgage principle monthly, that I essentially eliminate a month of interest? A friend of mine showed me this and said that he used this method (or some technique similar) to pay his off early at great savings.

Yes, it is true, just simple math, the eariler you pay, the less you pay, time/value of money.

When my brother & I were avid deer hunters, we intiated a hunting club out Northwest of Del Rio, TX. It is a 50,000 acre ranch, about 8 hour drive from Houston. We entertained our insurance clients out there (all were dirt contractors), they paid their portion of the lease and it still goes on today, 25 years later.

We borrowed a motor grader and heavy highway roller, spent two weeks having fun?? on the grader & roller and put in a 5k ft strip on rolled natural base. Worked out great, cut our time to the lease to 2hrs.

Total cost: About 200 gallons of diesel & 20 cases of "Budlight".

Only drawback: DEA kept landing there.

It is amazing that if you roll that base with a really heavy roller how well it compacts, really not too much to worry about in the way of prop dings.

DEA?

What kind of problems did this create?

What kind of problems did this create?

Click to expand...

None. Just a little joke. The ranch strip is about 20 miles off the Mexican Border. Yes, DEA does keep it's eye on air traffic in this area as they should. At most they would land occasionally, ask about ownership of the parked aircraft. No problem.

I think this thought has crossed a few minds over time, I had this very same plan and being that I am a contractor all I think about is building the next project. Given that, I have ran the numbers and can tell you for me it doesn't work out. So next best thing look at airparks.... well as good as a solution as that sounds some of them seem to be a hodge podge of different ideals that want meet the "plan".
I joined www.livingwithyourplane.com site and just yesterday they launched a clip for me asking if there were others who wanted to create a think tank for building an airpark east of Alanta, it took less than a day for emails to start rolling in and see the interest was there now after the holidays we will begin getting this tank "thinking". Good luck either way you go but thought I would give you an ideal on another angle of getting your dream to come true!

Epsound said:

Hello all.

I've been pondering many ways to beat the aviation money game over the years. First step now is to build. I have owned a Cessna, rented, but never built. In Lawton Oklahoma I was able to rent a private hanger for $120 a month. We live in Colorado now and you won't find anything in my area (Colorado Springs) for less than $300 a month 'open bay'. This expense plus the maintenance fees added up. It didn?t take long for me to feel the pains of my money going into other people?s pockets. When I sold the Cessna, I got to tour a private airpark with a soft field. The owner had built a large hanger with an apartment in the back section. At the time, he spent $40K on the hanger, lived in the apartment while building his proper home near by. This got me very excited. I began to see this as the best way to beat the money pit. So I started thinking???

In other words, find some land that could be made into a soft field, build the hanger with an apartment and live there until my home is built. Certainly this wouldn't be the most comfortable situation but in the long run, I wouldn?t be paying disappearing hanger rent, commercial maintenance fees (because I would be the manufacturer), and so on. The money would be going instead to ownership of the land and building (equity). I really can?t see how this situation could not be beneficial. Consequently this should make GA a lot less expensive and in fact, quite affordable. I would only subject to my own maintenance costs, fuel prices, and insurance. Call me cheap but I don't see the point in paying every one else to keep a passion alive and affordable.

The trick would be to find the right land in a good location and take advantage. I found a right up from the Texas Agriculture Association that gave instruction on building your own soft field from start to finish. It wasn't that bad. In fact it was rather straight forward. there would be some expense grading the land and I don't know the cost of something like this.

So I thought I would offer my ideas up to everyone here to get your thoughts on this.

For me, I don't see a better way to make personal GA affordable in the long run. However, a private strip would not have the same fellowship access that public airport hanger communities provide but I would guess there would be ways around this.

This is a long ways off for me and still in the thoughtful stage. I would love to hear input on this idea. Anything that comes to mind good or bad, pros and cons, as to whether this would work both economically and feasibly would be great to hear..

Best.

Evans

Click to expand...

It isn't necessarily cheap, even if you stay with dirt and grass. If the runway is paved, it is major big bucks.

There's taxes, insurance, mowing the grass, and general maintenance - all after buying and developing the property.

If you can rent a hangar for $300 a month, that would be a better deal. If renting costs $1500 month, maybe THINK about developing some land.

Flying is costly, just like boating, golf and expensive girl friends.

CNEJR said:

I think the best way to beat the cost is to build a hangar on a land lease on an airport. Build it big enough to accomodate three or four planes, lease out the additional space. This way you will have a marketable asset, tax deductible, which will defray your personal cost.

Just my opinion, after trying to justify it everyway I could.

Click to expand...

This was the second thought I had after I gave up building my own airstrip. By the time I calculated the cost of the hangar and the cost to put it up, utilities, ground prep, drawing approval etc, I broke even in about 13 years. Keep in mind that at a lot of municipal airports, they will lease you the land dirt cheap but they get ownership of the asset in 20, 25, or 30 years. You get the depreciation if you run it as a business but you only end up "making" money the last half or so of the arrangement. Then you have to ask yourself whether you will still be in aviation 15 years from now?

In the end, it was cheaper to build a hangar as part of my house in an airport community. YMMV.

I own a farm in Southern Ontario, Canada. In the fall of 2001 I seeded down a runway behind my barn. It cost me about 20k to get the land levelled and seeded, to purchase a small used tractor and used gang mowers and to do a bit of basic work to get my airplane to fit in an old barn. (The barn is not pretty but it is reasonably dry and right beside the runway.)
Seven flying years later and I love my runway. Since then I have upgraded my tractor and mowers, I fertilize every year and I spend more hours mowing and rolling then I do flying. A lot more. I had to cut every five days last year, from the first of April until the last days of October. I have four acres of runway and ramp area and with a 15 foot gang mower it takes just over an hour each time. Gang mowers are great tools but there is a bit of maintenance involved as there is with the tractor as well. My wife and dog walk the runway every day, winter and summer, which helps in the justification, from a family perspective. I farm, and this land is not only out of production, but I have to spend valuable time working around the sod while I seed and harvest my crops. A runway is not something that you can drive equipment or even vehicles over if you want to keep it as smooth as is required for these small aircraft tires.
The bottom line is that I love my runway; I can walk out jump in my plane and fly on a whim, and I often do. It is not for everyone, and it will definitely not save you one penny over renting a hangar at an airport.

As Tom will attest, another benefit of having your own field is that you can host a giant cookout and feed all your flying buddies steak and beer!

BTW, it was a great time. Complete story with pictures here: http://www.pflanzer-aviation.com/Canada1.html

Tom.........

My heart sinks in your shadow. You are living my dream. I am not a farmer. Just a lowly civil service employee with aspirations of grandeur and having 400 acres is beyond my comprehensive dreams. However, I can see how this makes the runway very possible. 20K doesn't seem like much to me in the long run. Does this include the maintenance equipment that you use?

You say that you have 4 acres of runway. Is that literal acreage? We (my wife and I) were trying to figure out what acreage we would need to accommodate one but we never really felt comfy with our calculations. All this input says to me that an airpark would be more reasonable for me although the implied privacy of sole proprietership is appealing to me. but....who knows what will happen. Maybe I will hit the lottery and money won't be such an obstacle. (knock on wood)

I hope to fly in to during one of your events.

f1 Rocket..............

This is great info and numbers. The lease angle is not something I had ever thought about. Being a bit of a handy man myself, I wonder how much I could affect the overall initial cost. I am not intimidated by hard work. But....I am not sure about giving up the building to the land owner in the end. I think I would rather retain owership and start renting it out once I stopped flyng. Don't know how it all works really but I know that the needs of GA (i.e. hangers) will not end when I stop flying.

You can rent a hangar at Meadow Lake (00V) for under $200 sharing with another pilot. There are a few lots available for PURCHASE where you may be able to build a hangar you own and rent out to other RV pilots.

PM me if you want more info.

Epsound,
I have looked for quite some time now at some property at Westcliff, CO. There is an airport community at the airport south of town. I would love to be able to own property there but do not know if it will ever happen.

Well, anyway, I have gotten to know a gentleman by the name of Karl Goebel. He is a real estate agent in Colorado who specializes in airport properties. Check out his website and give him a call if you are truly interested in living with your airplane in Colorado. I know he can find you what you are looking for if anyone can.

Here is the link to his website
http://www.goebelhomes.com/

This 100 acre airport property, hangar and house was on the market for several years and recently sold for just under $700,000.
http://p6.hostingprod.com/@thunderfootranch.com/airportinfo
I thought long and hard about buying it but it was too much house and land for this single guy. I thought about buying it and developing it into a 4 -5 lot airport community but it's in a fairly remote part of Mississippi and I thought it would be too difficult to find partners.

It recently sold to someone that's not a pilot and has no interest in keeping the runway (Rats, cause I live less than 2 miles from there and thought it would be a great place to keep my RV-7 when I finish it.)

I dream of having something like this (on a smaller scale) one of these days.

The difference in Airport Lease vs. Airpark

The main differences I see between an Airport Ground Lease & Airpark are basically are a matter of what is as potential tax treatment.

An airpark is a great place to live provided everyone stays the course going in, i.e. square footage, building codes, maintenance fees. Of course everyone needs a place to live, so part of the cost is covered there, but other aviation costs will be for the most personal and not tax deductible.
An airport ground lease with a hangar big enough to house four airplanes immediately has credential as a "business". i.e. TAX DEDUCTIBLE.

Yes, there can be inconveniences having others in your hangar, you must choose carefully, have stringent ground rules to adhere to, but if you do choose carefully, you might even make a little money, while being able to deduct some of the expenses which would otherwise be non deductible.

I can't imagine the IRS splitting hairs just because your airplane resides there, unless you were to bring it up. Hey, if you provide tools on an ocassional basis, they would become deductible also. Insurance generally has to be written to cover all aircraft hangaring in the space, unless you have a written hold harmless. This insurance is generally packaged, usually this would include your aircraft. Of course this insurance expense would need to be built into your lease rate. The list goes on & on.

Keep in mind, that if you do an airport ground lease, you can always sell it at market value if you decide you want out. Most of these ground leases or written for 30-40 years with an option to renew. At our airport there are currently no available hangars for rent or sale. This generally makes hangars an appreciating asset.

As an accountant, the thing I have always been amazed at is that people have a philsophy "that if it's fun, it couldn't possibly be tax deductible."

Not so, in the late 70's I worked for a builder as their treasury manager. We had a 46' Hatteras. During fishing season it was my job to take our bankers & mortgage brokers out in the Gulf and fish all day with the Captain. A "dirty job" but someone had to do it. Every last nickel spent on that boat or for that boat was tax deductible, right down to the beer. Audited & allowed.

All I'm saying is that if you formulate your business plan & intention carefully, you might find there is a way to defray some of your cost even if it is fun.

Be aggressive, but always obey the sharp points of the tax law. From what I have seen of my past peers, most accountants are just to lazy & timid to make a case or argue for some things that should be tax deductible. Too quick to say no, that's why they are accountants.

Your results may vary.

Do it on the cheap

Hey Dave,

Come on up to Pocahontas & look around (MS71).

I lucked into an existing airport community early in its life. The group that started MS71 did it with minimal expense & minimal restrictions. I think that they did several things right. 1st they got enough potential residents together to make a purchase & development affordable for the group. When they found the property, they arranged to have the corp they formed purchase the actual runway land, and they each purchased their home/hangar sites which all had highway frontage. (No subdivision development expense.) They kept the restrictions extremely simple. Most of them (and me, after I bought in) lived in trailers for years until they could afford to build houses. They did just about all the runway work themselves, except the heavy earth moving. The members take turns mowing the grass; maintenance is largely a cooperative effort. The most significant restrictions are no livestock and no commercial operations on the runway. Oh, and no major capital outlays without consensus of the members.

I realize that many pilots don't have the time for this, and can afford to pay the freight for much higher end development. But this technique of 'sweat equity' allowed me to live on an airport with a mortgage payment that's less than 1/2 what most people in this area pay for just a house.

If you want it but can't see a way to get there alone, try talking up the idea to other local pilots that you trust. You need basic stuff in writing, but remember that every paragraph after basic stuff will add hassle & expense.

Just one more way to do it...

Charlie
Slobovia Outernational
RV-4 flying, -7 finish kit

private runway/home

Below you can see a couple photos of house and hanger that I built from scratch. I started the project in late 2002 with 20 acres bare land and a little bit of woods (central MN). I just wanted to share with you some of the pros and cons of my experience with this project. Like others have mentioned, everyone elses wants and needs are different. One of the big selling factors of going through with the pain of building from scratch is that you get to build exactly what you want.

-if you interest is to build an aircraft, it is within walking distance of the house
-per weather, within 10 minutes you can be flying (no lost time traveling to an airport)
-the enjoyment of others landing to visit throughout the day
-aircraft and personal belongings more secure

I'm sure there are more that I take for granted, but you get the picture. Some of the negatives include,

-financial burden
-lawn care and other maintenance (sod roller)
-mowing (I would have never thought I would have to spend 20K on a mower)
-liability burden (lawsuits, accidents, insurance)

So that all being said, if I were to do it again, I guess I would put more emphassy is finding property on a flying community that would allow sharing the costs but still have the freedom of your own airpark.

If anyone is up in the MN area, give me a call, you are welcome to stop in for an over night or just to visit if your passing through (50 miles west of Mpls/St Paul).

Butch (Jim Weckman)
F1 Rocket under construction
Supercub

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Luck...........

I'll say now that luck may have a great deal to do with owning a strip w/o being financially gauged. And that said, only a person that can't afford what in needed would look at this as a gauging. (just a tax bracket reality perspective ) It is enlightening to hear all these points of view coupled with unique experiences and stories form all sides. At present, it seems that airparks are highly recomended by even the private owners. And in some cases sighted as the preference of private stip owners. This I found most interesting. But, I don't think this is as much a preference verses an economical 'lessons learned' or hindsight if you will. Based on all these comments I'd say the the concensus is the if one has the money and time, that pilot would likely choose their own personal and private feild. But considering the cost and benefits of sharing a strip, it is obvious that the advantages of community take center stage. Great food for thought everyone.

Hope to here more..........

How about Hangers

Hello again everyone.

I have taken the input from this wonderful thread and done much research since. Jeannie and I have agreed that our goal now is to get onto an airpark for our retirement (several years down the road). There are many parks in/around Colorado Springs with lots for sale. I might add that some are reasonably priced and others are.....“HOW MUCH???” There is quite an assortment to choose from.
I am however in Kuwait as I write this helping with the war effort. My wonderful wife has been visiting airparks back home in our area to see and get a feel for things. We have found that the most important thing so far is the covenants that each holds. So we look at these carefully.
But during this journey we have come across a peripheral topic I would like to place on the discussion board for comment; hangers. We are thinking that we might purchase the land and put a hanger on it. Easy hugh?! Well I started looking around to learn the pros, cons, cost of doing the hanger and haven't found much information online.
So I now caveat this thread with another question. Are there prefab hangers out there or is it more practical and economical to build your own? Also, are there any 'lessons learned' from anyone out there having gone down this path already: i.e. if I were to do this again, I would........ or, this is what I did and I wouldn't change a thing.

Best to all and I hope to be back in the states shortly before christmas.

Cheers,

Evans.

Covenants are Key!

Epsound said:

We have found that the most important thing so far is the covenants that each holds. So we look at these carefully.

Click to expand...

Definitely! For instance, many popular air parks require you to build a house before you can build a hangar, or prohibit hangar apartments (I gues they are trying to keep out "Hangar Dwellers"). Or require you to build a hangar within (but not before) a year after the house is built....

All it takes is one line in the covenants to turn a perfect spot into a nightmare, so read carefully and make sure the place fits your philosophy!

Paul

Short Stop Airfield (8TA5) Texas

Established 1991.

Cost------ Prohibitive (but then, can you justify the cost of your airplane?)

Maintenance------ Prohibitive

Being able to walk out your back door and work on or fly your airplane literally on a moment's notice------ PRICELESS!

About Hangars

I built a hangar on my farm about 15 years ago. Bought the materials locally and did the labor myself and with the existing farm help. The cost was about a third of the estimates from Morton and a few other builders. I don't know how todays cost would work out. I basically copied a Morton pole building, but made it stronger. We had equipment on the farm to handle the trusses, but if you don't it can be a major expense to rent a crane. The door can also be a big part of the cost, we built our own electric powered overhead lift door for much less and it works very well. The only thing I would change is size, make it bigger than you ever think you will need. About 2X as big would be a good starting point.