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Show Notes: In this episode, you’ll get a detailed look into what “affordable housing” really means when it comes to designing and building a panelized prefab home. Steve Tuma breaks down how design simplicity, careful material choices, and smart structural planning directly impact a home’s affordability. Whether you’re building your personal dream home, a small duplex for rental income, or a senior co-living space, you’ll discover how planning, budgeting, and understanding your “why” can make the process more meaningful and cost effective. The conversation also dives into multi-family developments, designing for Airbnb and rental use, international building challenges, and the emotional motivations behind why people take on these projects. This episode balances practicality with heartwarming stories of real families — showing that building a home isn’t just about materials and money, but about creating something truly lasting.
Transcript:
Steve Tuma: Well the affordability thing is basically, you know, if you look at a design, the simpler it is, it’ll more likely have less of a cost.
Interviewer: Hello everyone and welcome to episode 66 of the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. On the podcast today, as usual, is the president and founder of Landmark Home and Land Company, a company which has been helping people build their new homes where they want, exactly as they want, nationwide and around the globe since 1993. The always illuminating Mr. Steve Tuma. Steve, how’s it going?
Steve Tuma: It’s a great day. I think I always say that because it is. It’s been kind of interesting lately with all the different projects we have and different, more complex designs or building departments that just want to be extra picky, you know, so it’s always something that keeps you on your toes. It’s really fun. We get through all of it.
Interviewer: Being on your toes is not such a bad place to be.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, so it’s pretty cool actually. It’s a lot of fun.
Interviewer: So I wanted to start off today with the complex and non-complex aspects of building and creating affordable housing and all that subject encompasses. It seems like it would be easy to define affordable housing, but maybe not so much. Can you give me your thoughts on that?
Steve Tuma: Well, affordable housing… it’s kind of an interesting situation. It’s different in different places because some parts of the country are just extremely..
Interviewer: I’m talking of course from a builder’s point of view, right?
Steve Tuma: Yah
Interviewer: Oh okay, you did get that.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, so yeah you’re right. I mean a lot of it’s the location, but the actual cost — the affordability thing is basically, if you look at a design, the simpler it is, it’ll more likely have less of a cost. So if you have a simple — like the typical American ranch — just a rectangular home, maybe 24, 26, 28 feet deep by 30, 40, 50 feet long, it’s kind of simple. Because there’s generally eight or nine foot ceilings, four corners, and a gable end roof. So that’s about as simple as you can get, because each corner adds a lot of money. People don’t think of it, but it’s like — hey — you’ve got to make the corner of the wood, you have to make a corner in the foundation, you have to make a corner in the siding, run wires through corners. Your drywall’s got to have corners. You might have corner cabinets. And then that corner may create a ridgeline and a couple of valleys in the roof system. So it can become very complex.
So the affordability is in the actual design, but it’s also — sometimes people don’t realize — it’s in what you put in that design. So it’s kind of funny. People call up and say, “Well, how much is a house per square foot?” And I’m like — man — it kind of depends. And they’ll say, “Well, we want to put just average stuff.” Well, that can still have a big situation. And I jokingly will tell them, “I’m like — well, we want to give you answers so you understand —but that question is kind of like calling a grocery store and saying, ‘How much is dinner?’”
I’m afraid, you know — so there has to be a situation where people can understand the affordability of something. And all of us have been in homes that are more simple. They’re very nice, but they’re simple. And then we’ve been in homes that are extravagant. So in general, if you want to keep something affordable — minimize corners, keep a simple roofline.
And then also look at the interior finishes. More expensive finishes are of course going to cost more. Carrera marble is going to cost a lot more than a laminated floor or carpet. Having a more intricate kitchen or more expensive materials are going to raise the cost considerably. So sometimes people think that, hey, a house is a cost per square foot no matter what the square foot is. Well, if you’re expanding your garage, a square foot of a garage is less expensive than a square foot of a really intricate kitchen.
So it really comes into the overall design, but in simplistic terms, something that people probably understand is just keep it a simpler design — more of a rectangular, boxy design with a gable end roof system.
Now we’re not saying that everyone should go build a simple home. Some people — the nature of the community, their own desires — want to go through and do it. So you can do things to dress up affordable homes and give them that extra pizzazz, to dress it up in ways that are more affordable. So sometimes people go to a nine-foot ceiling, they’ll add a three-car garage — just in the floor plan changes — putting little arches in hallways, adding a window, maybe taking a little extra time to design the master suite.
We can go through and give it some features that still keep it in the affordable range but give it that luxury feel. You know, sometimes something as simple as a nice deck on the back, a little barbecue spot, a breakfast nook — things like that — you can really, really spice a house up and do it.
We always work on the structural design — kind of the stuff that people don’t always think about is how do you make a house stand up? How do you make a cathedral ceiling? There’s always expensive ways to do it, and then there’s always more affordable ways to do it. But those are things that we can work on with a customer on a case-by-case basis to see what they want.
Because, like in the case of a chalet design, someone may want a big, really steep interior pitch for the dramatic effect. And other people might say, “Hey, I just want a steep pitch but I got to do it at a lower cost.” So sometimes we can use scissor trusses.
So I think the point that I’m getting at is we’ll take the time to review what it is the person wants and the end result of what they’re looking for. And then we could work with them in the budget to get it taken care of. And I think that’s one of the great features we offer — the time to really work together one-on-one to make sure that the details of the home are the way a person wants it.
And you know what? Sometimes people call up because they’ll be doing a home — $200,000, $300,000, $400,000 — and they’ll be like, “Steve, hey, I wish we had more money.” You know what — we’ve done houses that are millions of dollars. It’s the same problem. It’s just — how many? You know, so it’s like, “Hey, can I do this? How can I put my airplane underneath? I got to control the cost of the hangar in my home.” You know, so it’s kind of just different problems that we have to work through.
And we always get it taken care of. It’s just a matter of understanding. So, you know, people shouldn’t be worried about asking questions. We’re here to go through. If someone says, “Hey, I got to do the most basic, most affordable home, but I got to put something in there and make it special for me,” we’ll figure out a way to do it.
And then on the other side, if someone has their exotic car collection and they have to have a 17-car underground garage that’s all climate controlled and with certain access and security — we could work with those situations as well.
Interviewer: And you’re so good at this that you knew what I was talking about when — I apologize, I’m laughing because I hit you with, “Hey, what do you think about affordable housing,” and I was thinking — what does that mean? You know, I mean, what’s Steve’s opinion on the world of affordable apartments or something? And I did mean in the aspect of building, of course.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, well it’s interesting because you go to different places, and what’s high-end in some communities is affordable in others — but there’s still certain standards. So you get into some of these areas where the affordable home is $600,000. You know, there’s still certain concerns with homeowners’ associations or just what people want, so you kind of blend into the neighborhood.
And then there’s a lot of, you know, more and more typical “quote” affordable type things. And you know what? We run into the same situations. If someone’s doing a $5 million home, it’s the same thing — “Hey, how do we make this work? How do we control the costs? How do we get the design that a customer wants? How do we make it work within the land?”
So we always have the attitude of do it right. We don’t want to make something expensive just for the purpose of it. You know, so we always look at — how do we do this and get the end result in a financially reasonable way while also getting the architectural and structural results that a customer is looking for?
And sometimes you have to look at it in different angles, and it’s actually pretty cool because I’ve had people do homes that are in the multi-millions — that are watching every penny just as if they were doing a $300,000 home.
Interviewer: Sure, well I’m glad you picked up on in the correct way what I was asking. So now going back to that, let’s talk about the different aspects surrounding the building. And I say again, building up for rental communities for like, you know, short-term, long-term vacation uses there. What are the differences in how you approach building a low — sort of affordable — housing in different areas for different usages?
Steve Tuma: Well it’s kind of interesting because we’re having a lot of customers that come back, and they made some money and they appreciate what they did with their main home with us. And then they come back and say, “Hey I got four lots, I want to build on them,” or “Hey my cousin’s got four lots, what can we do?”
So we’ve had a lot of customers come back and say, “Hey, we’ve got an individual lot in the city or in a rural area — could we just put an affordable home?” But what’s happening is some of these are like, “Hey, I could put some duplexes up,” or “I could put a little eight-unit up,” sometimes one story, sometimes two stories.
And then we’ve also had some people go through and say they’re doing the senior co-habilitation. So it’ll be like a three-bedroom, three-and-a-half-bath home — but each bedroom is its own suite. So each senior citizen lives in their own suite, but then they’re in a shared community thing in a single-family home. So it controls the cost. They have their own individual space, their own little kitchenettes and everything.
So I think there’s the affordable home as far as “Hey, I need an affordable home for me to control the budget,” but there’s also affordable home in the case of if someone wants to spec build, do short-term rentals, long-term rentals, Airbnb — whatever it is — where we’re able to work with them on designs.
We’ve also worked with different groups like Habitat for Humanity, different private groups like that. And then sometimes church groups will come together and say, “Hey, we need to do something for our church members to give them affordable housing to get them on their feet or do whatever it is to help them.” So it’s been pretty interesting.
But the cool thing about it is it’s still a solid structure. It’s still energy efficient. And it’s still designed for the particular inhabitant to make sure it’s comfortable. So it’s not just boxy ugly places. It’s places with a little zing. So no matter what your budget is, you can have a house there that’s got that little extra something. So it goes from just being a house — a place to live — to more of a comfortable home.
Interviewer: You hit on something pretty interesting here. I’d like you to elaborate a little bit more on your thoughts on the senior combined living spaces and your experience. As the owner of Landmark Home and Land Company, you must have had — you’ve got to have — some solid opinions on this through your experience.
Steve Tuma: Well, I think it’s interesting because the whole affordable housing, senior living, even first-timers — it’s how do you do it? Interest rates are a little different than a few years ago. There’s all these different situations arising in costs — cost of permits, cost of stuff — and people’s incomes aren’t following the expenses. So people are trying to put it together.
So I think it’s very good. You look at the senior — it’s not just affordable. It’s — hey, you’re socializing, you’re around people, you’re in a community, you’re in an area where like-minded people with similar life experiences are around to live. So it’s not just the actual space. It’s the ecosystem you’re living in.
Are you happy? Are you talking to people? Are you getting together, making dinner together? Are you laughing? Are you going for walks? Are you exercising? And that’s what’s really cool about these places — they’re not just boxes to live in. They’re kind of set up to lead to a reasonable lifestyle.
Interviewer: There’s something I was going to ask you — slightly off subject but not really — people building homes to actually use as Airbnb. And I’ve noticed a lot of communities are starting to limit the amount of Airbnbs in a certain area. Have you run into any customers who have started out wanting to do that and then changed their mind or moved their location just because of the restrictions on Airbnb builds?
Steve Tuma: No, the people that have done those have kept on. But what we’re seeing more in the — I’ll call it the Airbnb — whether it’s like an ADU (more in California, parts of Colorado), those people continue on because there’s advantages to the value of the home and the help in the community.
So sometimes the Airbnb or short-term rentals are controlled, but sometimes they do it by three months, a month, a year — whatever — to help them. Whatever their attitude is — whether they want to do short or long-term — the people go through and get it taken care of.
Usually what I’ve found is that the people want to be an investor in that. Whether it’s short-term or long-term, sometimes they think, hey, the short-term is more profitable, but sometimes they do it and then after a while they’re like, “Hey, long-term’s easier.” You know, “I can just get one reliable person in there and do it.”
But what’s happening more is people getting together — you know, fathers, sons, uncles, friends, cousins — saying, “Hey, let’s put this house up, let’s make it, and keep it as rental units for the income.”
Because there’s definitely a market there with the changing economic situations, where for some people it’s harder for them to own a home or they need to wait a little while for whatever reasons to get going. And we’ve had some people — they do the rentals, and then they sell them to the people that rented from them.
Interviewer: Right. Yeah, I was kind of curious though about that — because I know there’s probably not a lot — most people who are wanting to start an Airbnb type of thing buy houses already built. But I just wondered if there were customers of Landmark that actually went into it going, “We’re going to build this and then we’re going to use it as an Airbnb.”
Steve Tuma: Yeah, yeah, they do that. And then sometimes they’ve had little suites — little in-law apartments. So there’s different stuff. I don’t always know if they’re actually going to use Airbnb, or there’s different services or different methods. But the intent is there.
What I do know is that the people — you know, I keep in touch with customers even later just to see how they’re doing — like, “Hey, do you want to do another one?” type of situation. And invariably they’re very happy with the way it works out, the cost control.
And by them being able to design and build their own place and control the costs, it makes their return better. And also by having a well-designed home, they’re able to get a better tenant, which of course makes it better. They generally want someone who will stay around a while — it just works better for them.
Interviewer: You know, I know that Landmark has done things like this in the past, so you have the experience in, you know, developing — people coming to Landmark who want to, I don’t know, just build like small duplexes or big apartment complexes. Give us a rundown on your experience developing, let’s say, apartment buildings in general.
Steve Tuma: Generally we’ll work with people that want to do like smaller complexes — you know, duplexes, a couple duplexes, a four-unit, an eight-unit. We don’t generally get involved in the 500-unit megaplex type things.
You know, it’s more someone saying, “Hey, I’ve got extra land,” or “I have these lots,” or “I’ve got a way to make it happen, and I want to gain the equity we gained in our home, but we want to do it in a duplex and then have income or a retirement plan or a flipping plan.”
So we’re able to work with them to do it. And sometimes when you get into multi-housing, there’s different code issues: different noise, fire situations, setbacks potentially, and likely different zoning situations. Also, how utilities are metered and things like that. And then also necessity for off-street parking and a lot of detail. So the site plan also becomes pretty important. That varies community by community, but that’s something we could always check out and figure out a way to move forward.
And the nice thing about it is we can kind of come up with a design that makes sense for the market. You know, if someone’s in a more ritzy area, you can have a ritzy-looking apartment or duplex. Or if someone needs to keep something simple to keep it affordable, because that’s what the neighborhood demands, we can do that as well.
But it’s something that we’ve gotten into more recently in the last few years when a lot of our customers came back and said, “Hey Steve, that was great with my house. I got some equity.” It’s like, “If I could do the same thing, I could build a rental unit cheaper, and my return goes up.”
Interviewer: Oh yeah, that makes sense.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, yeah. And you know, they’ve learned on the first one. They learned some of the ins and outs and were able to go through and get it taken care of. So it’s kind of a neat compliment to us that someone comes back and goes on to a bigger project.
Interviewer: Right.
Steve Tuma: It’s kind of cool. It shows that we provided a very good value for them, for them to take that step forward.
Interviewer: Yeah, I know you guys have done some international stuff too, and you’ve been involved in helping to develop stuff. But usually when people think, “Hey, I want to build in Europe,” let’s say — it usually, in my mind, I go, “Oh, they’re building some big gigantic resort in Tuscany or whatever.” I would imagine even in foreign countries, there are people who are developing things like apartment complexes and duplexes and stuff. Do you run into anything internationally that’s completely different in the, you know, the requirements for building, etc.?
Steve Tuma: Well, yeah. Europe — we’ve worked in Europe, and that’s a whole different level of bureaucracy and games, and energy codes and different situations. So yeah, we worked on some developments over there — some little commercial units, some residential projects, and also, you know, the “glamping” — where some people had a vineyard and they wanted to put real custom-made little units in there instead of people camping in a tent, where you’d have a, you know, kind of a modernistic-looking home.
Interviewer: Right.
Steve Tuma: You know, real sleek, minimalist type of design is what they happen to like. So yeah — when you get into foreign countries, it’s just kind of different rules. The general concerns are the same. It’s how they go about doing it that’s different.
So in Europe, there’s a lot more of a demand for solar, sustainability, different things like that. But — and a lot of the time the reason they work with us is they want the Americana out of it. You know, it’s an American product, American design, that type of thing. So it’s kind of cool.
And what’s really odd about it is we can ship to Europe and our final cost, landed, can be less than what they can get in Europe themselves.
Interviewer: Right.
Steve Tuma: It doesn’t make sense, but when you see the effectiveness of what we’re able to do, it makes a lot of sense.
Interviewer: I’d be real curious as to how much — I don’t know how to put this exactly — but it seems like Landmark and you, Steve Tuma, are almost having to be like a — I don’t know — a therapist. You know, when people call and say, “Hey, I’m thinking about doing this. What do you think?” Do you try to stay away from getting too much into the personal reasons for building?
Steve Tuma: No, it’s kind of interesting, because we enjoy working with our customers. Sometimes, if you know the why or the how — or what makes this drive — you get into it. So that’s a really interesting perspective as to why people do it.
Some people do it because it’s just a way to afford it, to get some equity and avoid a long-term loan — whether to avoid the loan completely or reduce your loan significantly. And if you multiply the savings out over the course of a 30-year loan, it could be hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. So for someone to design a home and work like crazy for a year to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest over the course of a 30-year loan — it’s exceptionally smart.
So we have people that do it for financial reasons, sometimes because they’re kind of stuck in the position, sometimes because they just really understand money and go, “Hey, I could do this and save hundreds of thousands of dollars over 20 or 30 years.” And then they can use that money to invest in other ways. It makes a lot of sense.
We also have a lot of people that just understand construction and say, “Hey, I want to know what my house is being built of.” Because a lot of times, if they work with contractors, they can’t see the house. Or there’s just hassles, or the amount of change orders — or whatever it is — it’s not something they really want to go through.
So they’d rather go through, know how it’s designed, know exactly what’s there. And working with us, our customer has control of the project. We don’t just say, “Hey, here’s a set of plans. Go build your house.” We work with them to understand how the house is designed, what it’s designed for, what the features are, and all these things. So our customer has control. We’re just kind of the gears doing the work to get them to that point.
So, a lot of people just want to do it because they value the quality, and they want to know where their money’s going.
Interviewer: Well of course…
Steve Tuma: You know what — that’s true whether you’re doing a $120,000 little house or you’re doing a $5 or $10 million one. It’s the same concern. And I’ve also had people that are like, “Steve, I’ve dreamed about this since I was 12. I’m 60, I’m retiring, I’m going to do this.” And you know what’s weird? A lot of people might say, “Hey, that’s always guys doing it.” There’s a lot of women building their own house — or if they have a conventional household where they are spearheading the project.
So it’s an amazing situation to see how and why. And by understanding our customer and having a conversation with them, it kind of helps us fill in the blanks of where they need help or just kind of understand the thrust of what they’re trying to achieve.
Some of the coolest ones — they’re all cool projects, every one is interesting to us — sometimes families will have younger kids and they’ll let the younger kids kind of manage it. Of course the parents are hovering over them, but so that the kids understand — hey, a door costs this, hey you gotta get an electrician, hey energy calculations do this, that make it. So it can really, really be an interesting situation as to how people just do it because it’s cool.
The funniest — I had a customer in Prescott, Arizona, he said, “Steve, I’m 78 years old. I’ve been married for 60 years. I told my wife when we got married that I’m going to build her a house.” And he said jokingly, “I’m 78 years old. I better do it before she kills me.”
So we’ve had customers from, you know, 20, 21 on into the low 80s build their homes.
And one person — an exceptional person in Florida — he was retired, he thought he had an exceptional life. He was adopting two kids in his senior years, and he wanted to make sure they had a beautiful home to live in — where they had a pool, different situations, each had a bedroom, a place in a community where they could live. And to him, that was the place of giving back.
We had another person in Colorado, Scott — he went through a variety of life situations, and he wanted a place where him and his military buddies could get together. So he has a crew of friends — they all have passes to get into the house, the keys or the codes — and it’s just there for “Hey, you need to get away,” or “Hey, you want to get away with the guys.”
We’re always here. Thirty-five acres just in a valley surrounded by mountain range where he put this house up. So it’s kind of interesting to see what the motivations are.
Sometimes it’s the equity, sometimes it’s quality control, sometimes it’s an heirloom home that you want to build and pass on to your family. Sometimes it’s like, “Hey, the world’s getting weirder every day, I need a spot for my friends and family to come by and go fishing or play cards or barbecue and laugh.”
So it’s kind of interesting when you see the different motivations. It’s not all money like people may think. It’s kind of more a fulfilling part of life. And it’s just really, really interesting to get a call or an email or text or something from a customer that we’re currently helping — or a customer we helped five, ten years ago — where you just get a picture saying, “Steve, remember me?”
Like, “Yeah, I remember you.” And then, “Hey, we finished all the landscaping. Look at this beautiful view,” or “Hey, look at this — a bear walked through our yard last night. Here’s the security cam picture.”
And it’s just really, really heartwarming to see that you’ve done something like that.
One of them, we’re working with him now — Chad — he’s in the military reserve, National Guard, and there’s a military coin that they pass out to people that they respect in their life. He sent me one and it’s just kind of — oh man, that’s — you sit here and go, “This person protects us so we have an ability to do what we want,” and then in kind of today’s world not really even think about it.
You know, we can go, “Hey, we can go to the park. We can shovel snow. We can take vacation.” You know, we can do stuff. And to see that there’s people out there helping us.
So we always like to return the favor in that — to military customers, first responders, or people that just do really interesting things in the world that none of us think about.
So I guess that’s the long answer to “Why do people do this?”
Interviewer: That was a great story. That was a perfect way to end the podcast today, actually. That’s really cool. But before we let you go, Steve, please let our listeners know how to find out more about Landmark Home and Land Company and all that you guys do over there.
Steve Tuma: I think the best thing to do is take a look at our website, because we have a whole variety of plans on there, reviews of what we supply, some videos. These podcasts are posted there. And the best thing to do is take a look at it at LHLC.com — that’s like kind of the initials: Landmark Home Land Company — but LHLC.com.
You can look at plans, you can send emails into us and check everything out and go from there. The best thing to do is take a look at it, submit an inquiry, you know, we can answer the questions and get you taken care of.
Interviewer: Well, all right. That wraps up another great and informative talk with Landmark Home and Land Company President Steve Tuma. And we want to thank all of you for taking the time to listen to the Panelized Prefab Kit Home Building Show. We hope we’ve been able to help you feel more confident on your path to becoming a kit home owner-builder.
So for Steve Tuma and myself, have a great week ahead and we will see you next time.
Steve Tuma: Yeah, thank you. This was interesting. It’s fun. Thank you.
