I’m going to North, hope to get few log home pictures. I’ll be back after Eastern.

Luoman launched new TV advertising campaign that is featuring their new mobile log home. In the ad, farmer is driving around with tractor-trailer and mobilehome is on the trailer. Very goofy and off the point, but will probably grab some attention.

On other note, Luoman Log Homes Oy has launched a new website, but that only covers the Finnish version. I suppose it was needed, because of their investment on advertising, there is no sense in driving traffic to appalling website after all. Go and compare the website versions Finnish/English. Quite a difference, right?

To me this marketing push is bit counter intuitive because they say that primary market for mobile log homes are outside Finland. Maybe they know what they are doing…

I have been paying some attention on Timber Heart log homes brand. Scandic Hotel Simonkenttä has a lounge where I have sipped espresso and planned my glorious future. It is a truly nice setting in Helsinki city center.

But wait, in this serene setting (well just next door) resides a sales office of Timber Heart. What an excellent choice to reach for international customers.

Honkarakenne Oyj bought 38% share of Timber Heart, which is why they are able to reach for global market share in a more aggressive manner. From Honka’s point of view, this is an excellent match, they get more usage for their log home factories, because Timber Heart timber framed homes are now going to be manufactured there. Also Honka will get wider product slate to promote for their distribution chain. Naturally Timber Heart will also benefit from this arrangement. Here are some pictures of Timber Heart log homes. Oh, before you start correcting me about Timber Heart homes of not being log homes… I know they go for Timber Framed path.

FOREWORD
In this article I deal with different financing possibilities that are available for log home builders and buyers. It is a modest start, but I will keep on adding information just as I am doing with every page in every category on this blog.

It might come as bit of a surprise for you, but I rank financial planning as the first step in designing that dream log home. Location comes as a close second, but that location article will have its turn later.

Biggest challenge here is to keep track of different financing possibilities on various markets. For example, in Finland it is possible to get normal housing loan if you are going to build your own house. In the U.S. it is more difficult and banks usually divide housing loans into builders’ loans and mortgages, therefore access for money depends whether there already is a building as a collateral or whether it exists only in the form of blueprints.

This article is going to be tediously long (some might say that it already has been…), I am planning to chop it into smaller pieces, but first I try to get the framework up. If you have anything to comment or you would like to share a resource, use comments.

INTRODUCTION
You have many ways to secure financing for your log house project. Most common choice is to acquire a bank loan. In a matter of fact, if a consumer wants to go through normal housing purchasing process, bank loans are basically the only choice. In this article I clarify especially the working principals of bank loans. Furthermore, I introduce few somewhat unorthodox methods of acquiring a log home. These methods have more to do with cutting the expenses or getting more income than financing itself. As a short summary to different financing methods: loans, cutting expenses and increasing income.

BUDGET
Why it is important to know the budget limitations for buying a log home?
Knowing our personal budget means that you know how much money you make, have and use. Knowing where you stand financially, gives you better control of the entire process of getting that dream log home. As a side product of good budget calculations, you will know where that extra 100 bucks goes every month. Personally I tried to find it behind the couch, but after snooping around for too long, I finally realized that my 100 bucks had magically morphed into those CDs and log home magazines that keep on popping up all around the house.

CALCULATING BUDGET
Budget is the magic word for any financial action. From budget you can see how much money you have at your disposal for buying the dream log home of your choice. Making budget is extremely time consuming work. One must know how much everyday living costs eat up and where the money comes from. Simplest way to have a budget is to pull out account balance statements and sum up income and expenditures from the previous year. This however doesn’t give the right picture yet, since from this calculation one cannot see, where the money went. Good budget also gives clear picture of different usages of money, not only the used amount, this way you can figure out, how much money goes to food, clothing, housing, car, utilities, hobbies, entertainment etc. As you know, how you spend money, you know whether there is any slack, from which you could benefit with a slight change in your living habits. Therefore, budget is the cornerstone for your decision making process on buying a log house.

BUILDERS BEST FRIEND - BANK
Now you have your rough budget ready and it is time to let the bank manager to know your financial situation. In theory, there are several financing methods that one could use to buy a log house. However, most of us just don’t have the high income or wealth that justifies us to use more creative ways of financing major acquisitions. This is why I will focus on mortgages as a way to finance log houses.

MORTGAGE
Mortgage is practically money in your pocket. Normally we don’t have… let’s say, 200 000 dollars lying around, but we can possibly earn that much during a long time period. Bank agrees to lend you that much money right now, in exchange to ownership of your house and interest for the loan. After you pay back the loan and interest, log home will be yours. In a sense, mortgage is a tool that is used to transfer the ownership of a log home over a long time period. When bank agrees to give you mortgage, you can go for shopping the log home you always wanted. After the final mortgage payment, log home will be completely yours.

Mortgage follows you for a long time, so you better understand what it means.
Getting pre-qualified for mortgage means that you have given your income, debt and credit information for the lender, so she can make rough estimations of what kind of log home you can afford. Pre-approved status takes you one step closer to realizing the log home project. At this stage lender has gotten your credit report and done some deeper debt-to-income analysis. When your lender pre-approves you, your coming log house is standing on more solid ground. Why is that? Because you know that you are very likely to get certain sum of money for your log home, when you apply for it. Bank tells you how much you can afford and how much they will lend you, you can go shopping different banks to see, if they offer better rates. Getting pre-approval makes things much easier whether you want to build a log home or buy one. You won’t waste time on looking for too expensive log houses or hesitating on borderlines and you can close the deal quickly when your dream log home is available.

While I was still actively publishing my previous log home blog, I had an idea to write an article series on how to build a log home. I will approach the topic from the project point of view. This means that I am going to cover the whole log home building process from picking the location and financing to accessorizing and finishing.

Loghomescabin.com opened the gateway for Finnish log home cluster products in order to help them gain international publicity. Gateway offers information on companies and products, and therefore helps buyers to reach right sources in Finland.

Log homes and log cabins are the biggest products on this industry, which is why loghomescabin.com emphasizes related information. Other products are also included but they are also tightly involved with log homes and log cabins.

Interested parties are encouraged to contact loghomescabin.com with matters dealing with product and company information as well as Finnish log home industry details. Loghomescabin.com will do its best to help garner market information.

If you would like to have more information about this release, or to have an interview with Jarkko Aho, please write an email to: press loghomescabin.com.

This is a follow-up to an earlier article called log mobile homes. That article tried to find out if there are any log-made mobile homes out there. Results were dim, just random search results, most of which were pure spam sites. This time I decided to use “mobile log homes” search string instead of previous “log mobile homes”. Do you guess what sort of results sprung up?

Well surprise, surprise, the good old http://www.mobile-parkhomes.co.uk/ was on the list, not on top of it, but there was so much pure trash on the top that you could say it was most relevant result. Google obviously can’t produce quality on these slightly obscure search terms. However, there was another discovery that I had missed previously. http://www.allianceloghomes.com/ provides mobile log homes that are made of Russian logs. Interesting development and also important to notice is that both of the two companies are working in U.K. Are mobile log homes growing British trend?

Now what are these companies, you might ask. Tulikivi is the world’s biggest industrial soapstone fireplace manufacturer. Kermansavi is a big domestic (Finland) maker of tile fireplaces. For log home enthusiasts, fireplace is often the heart of the whole log home. Therefore this acquisition is of interest.

From business point of view, this move from Tulikivi is brilliant. They bolster their home market standings and quite possibly improve profitability. Moreover they get new interesting fireplace and stove models into their product slate. Tulikivi will also strengthen its global presence with this deal, but I’m afraid that it will take a while to seamlessly integrate the two businesses, so wait for a while, before rushing to your local Tulikivi dealer.

Only loser in this deal is the glassware side of Kermansavi, Tulikivi will not have any use for them, so it is likely to be sold off, although Tulikivi management didn’t disclose any such remarks. However, we all know that nowadays companies like to stay focused on their main business.

Luoman Oy has launched a mobile cabin that is built on steel frame and under that frame there are wheels so cabin can come along on trips. Besides wheels, mobile log cabin can also be placed on pontoons, then it functions as a floating cabin.

Delivery time for MobileHome will be a month in the beginning of the mass production. Finland and other Scandinavia will have complete kits with heating systems and all, but to other parts of the world, MobileHomes travel in tight packages and are assembled at destination. MobileHomes come with all the latest conveniences, including sauna on Finnish markets. Some usages include: accommodation for traveling project workers (e.g. remote construction sites), tourism accommodation and traveling home.

During 2006, company expects to sell 100 to 300 mobile log homes but already year 2007 they hope to manufacture over 1000 mobile log homes. Export markets could include Europe, USA, Russia and China.

MobileHome has variety of accessories and removable porch can be attached on the side of cabin. Sewage is either collected on separate tank or connected to sewage network at mobile park.

Managing director Luoma says that competition on log home business is tough and to succeed, one has to create new products and solutions constantly. They plan to be successful in the future too and are investing heavily on various projects. Wood pellets are gaining popularity and company is investing on this production as well as on window and door lines.

Luoman Puutuote just introduced a new log hit – log cabin on wheels. Marketing manager Pekka Saarinen proudly tells that company is the only mobile log cabin industrial manufacturer in Europe and in the world.

Cabin has plenty of space and can be fitted with most modern amenities like fire place, sauna and so on. Price of this cabin hovers between 20 and 40 thousand euro, depending on the package. MobileHome weights around 7 000 kilos, therefore requiring some sort of support under it. Deliveries can be made in about month after the mass production has started.

They have already delivered dozen mobile cabins to England and have set a production goal of 300 mobile cabins for year 2006. They also offer a model that is half the size of the standard MobileHome. Cabin doesn’t necessarily need building permits, because it is movable. You can park it to a mobile park for a year and then move on to another location.

Luoman is trying to find log construction experts to bolster company’s resources, especially in the field of design and architecture. Log construction is demanding, especially when log is used together with other materials and requires special know-how.

In the future, company is going straight ahead and is trying to reach for market leadership. Manager Pekka Luoma states that they fared well in tough competition and made a turnover of 45,2 million euros on year 2005. This result had 17% growth from previous year so company is going strong. 85% of the production is exported. Some key figures include:

Employees: 135
Turnover: 45,2 million euros
Profit margin: 9,3%
Assets: 20,7 million euros