What is a metal building home, and who is it for?
The frame is the fast part. The ground under it and the county line take longer, because each of the six counties permits a new home its own way and part of the area sits over the Edwards Aquifer.
Barndominium, metal building home and shop house often name the same building: a house on a steel frame, finished inside the shell, with or without a working bay under the same roof line.
It fits a landowner buying or holding acreage outside a city who will spend on the lot before the building. It fits poorly on a small lot inside city limits, where the city code sets the terms and the shop half has nowhere to go.
Settle one thing at the start. Texas issues no state license for general contracting, though a city or county may still have its own requirement. The Texas Residential Construction Commission no longer exists: it was abolished, and its enabling Act lapsed on September 1, 2009. No state builder license exists for anyone to look up, which is why this page says independent builder throughout. The full route from raw land to a finished house is in the guide to building a barndominium in Central Texas.
Office of the Texas Governor, Business Permit Office, Texas Business Licenses and Permits Guide, as read September 13, 2026.
Texas Sunset Advisory Commission, as read September 13, 2026.
What does building a metal building home in Central Texas involve?
The frame goes up quickly. Everything around it does not. Before a bolt is set the tract needs a 911 address, a driveway the road authority will accept, whatever permit the county requires, a pad, power, water and an approved septic design. Those price against the site, not the building. The barndominium cost page covers what moves the number.
Where a county has adopted the optional state standards for residential construction in its unincorporated area, a new house on a vacant lot needs at least three inspections: the foundation before concrete is placed, framing and mechanical before drywall, and one at completion. The builder, not the county, contracts them, and the inspector must be one of six listed qualified persons. Those standards are opt-in, reaching only a county that adopted them by resolution or order and that meets the border or population condition in the statute. They give a county no power to require permission before any construction begins and no zoning power.
Two trades inside are licensed by the state whatever the frame is made of: plumbers by way of the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, electricians through TDLR, with non-exempt electrical work done through a licensed electrical contractor.
Texas Local Government Code Sec. 233.152, as read September 13, 2026.
Texas Local Government Code Sec. 233.154(a)(1), as read September 13, 2026.
Texas Local Government Code Sec. 233.154(a)(3), as read September 13, 2026.
Texas Local Government Code Sec. 233.153(d), as read September 13, 2026.
Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, as read September 13, 2026.
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, Electricians program, as read September 13, 2026.
How does the ground change the build across the six counties?
Llano and Burnet counties sit on the Llano Uplift, a large granite batholith and the major structural feature of central Texas, where Precambrian granites and metamorphic rocks form the central dome. At Inks Lake State Park in Burnet County, on the east edge of the uplift, pink Valley Spring gneiss juts up through the limestone.
The Edwards Plateau is the central Texas region with shallow soils underlain by limestone, many springs, stony hills and steep canyons. Rock that close to the surface is a trenching question before it is a building question. Ask how the water line, the electrical run and the septic lines get through it, and who carries the cost if the rock is worse than the bid assumed. Faulting along the Balcones Fault Zone followed uplift of the plateau, and streams crossing the zone recharge the aquifer where dissolution has opened the limestone.
Other ground here is clay and sand rather than rock. The Blackland Prairies region is named for its deep, fertile black soils. Houston Black soil formed in clayey residuum weathered from calcareous mudstone, and it cracks 0.5 to 4 inches wide from the surface down 12 inches or more when it dries. That shrink-swell behavior makes the slab an engineering decision, not a thickness decision.
The Post Oak Savannah is oak woodland patches interspersed with grassland, with sands and sandy loams in the uplands, clay or clay loams in the bottomlands, and a dense clay pan almost impervious to water a few feet under all of it. Which of these your tract sits on decides the foundation design, and no county office answers it for you. Ask which engineer designs the foundation, what soil information the design is based on, and what happens to the price if the borings come back different. The frame follows the slab.
Texas Water Development Board, Report 360 Chapter 9, Paleozoic Aquifers of the Llano Uplift, as read September 13, 2026.
Texas Water Development Board, Report 360 Chapter 9, as read September 13, 2026.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, as read September 13, 2026.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Texas Ecoregions, as read September 13, 2026.
USGS, Karst Aquifers: Edwards Balcones Fault Zone Aquifer, as read September 13, 2026.
USDA NRCS, Official Series Description, Houston Black Series, as read September 13, 2026.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, as read September 13, 2026.
What do the six counties ask before a metal building home goes up?
The building material does not change the answer. The county line does. All six handle a new home in the unincorporated area their own way, and the words building permit do not mean the same thing in any two of them.
Inside a city the city's adopted code year governs: Georgetown, Leander, Liberty Hill and the cities of Llano and Burnet on the 2021 International Residential Code, Marble Falls on the 2024 edition, Bastrop and Lockhart on the 2018. The extraterritorial jurisdictions reach less far. Leander requires no city building permit in its ETJ, only sign and water or wastewater connection permits. Marble Falls issues no building, electrical or mechanical permits in its one mile ETJ. Liberty Hill requires none unless a development agreement is in place for the property. Georgetown's building permits do apply in its ETJ when the City is the water, wastewater or electric provider.
Travis County is the strictest: any development requires a permit, and its definition of development is broad, from structures and driveways to septic systems, dividing land and clearing a site. The application states the International Residential Code year the build follows, and where a professional builder does the work, three third-party inspections are required at foundation, framing and mechanical, and completion. The builder contracts them; the county performs none.
Williamson County issues neither building permits nor certificates of occupancy, and has adopted no residential building code for the unincorporated county. A new home needs a Certificate of Compliance issued by the County Engineer, the floodplain check, before a septic application is processed. A lot in a recorded subdivision may already carry one in its plat notes.
Burnet County does issue building permits outside city limits and will not issue the septic permit without one. Class A covers a site clear of any flood hazard area: application and payment, no inspection of the structure. Class B, within a designated flood hazard boundary, needs an elevation certificate from a surveyor or a letter from an engineer, a site plan that marks the flood zone, and two inspections, one before the pour and one at the finish. The order is fixed: 911 address, building permit, septic permit.
Llano County issues no building permits and runs no building department, no building code and no building inspector. A new house needs a county development permit, which is also the 911 address application, a septic permit, and a floodplain development permit where any of the lot is in a mapped special flood hazard area. The county asks for seven to 10 business days on a review outside the floodplain, longer for floodplain and septic work.
Bastrop County requires a development permit whenever anything is developed outside its cities, its class set by the parcel's relationship to the mapped 100-year floodplain. Without public sewer, the development and septic permits are applied for together. The county inspects nothing itself, but its Commissioners Court adopted residential building code standards by resolution on September 14, 2009, so the builder contracts three private inspections.
Caldwell County requires a Residential Construction Permit outside city limits. It is not a building code permit and the county does not inspect framing or electrical work. What gets reviewed is paperwork: the plat or a metes and bounds survey, the deed, tax certificates showing current taxes paid, a sketch of the structure, the approved 911 address and the approved septic permit. The parcel must be an original tract, a legally platted lot, or a tract exempt from platting.
City of Georgetown Development Services, Adopted Building Code, as read September 13, 2026.
City of Georgetown Development Services, When do I need a Permit?, as read September 13, 2026.
City of Leander, Building Codes, as read September 13, 2026.
City of Leander, Permits and Building Inspection, as read September 13, 2026.
City of Liberty Hill, Building Permits and Inspections, as read September 13, 2026.
City of Liberty Hill, Frequently Asked Questions (Planning and Development), as read September 13, 2026.
City of Llano Code Enforcement Department, as read September 13, 2026.
City of Burnet, Burnet Code Adoption 2021 (PDF, city-hosted), as read September 13, 2026.
City of Marble Falls Building Division, as read September 13, 2026.
City of Marble Falls FAQ, Do I need a permit outside the city limit?, as read September 13, 2026.
City of Bastrop Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
City of Lockhart Council Packet, Ordinance 2021-39 (PDF, city-hosted), as read September 13, 2026.
Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources, Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Williamson County frequently asked questions, County Engineer, as read September 13, 2026.
Burnet County On-Site Sewage Facilities and Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Llano County Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Bastrop County Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Caldwell County Development Ordinance, revised February 14, 2023, as read September 13, 2026.
Does a metal building home change the septic answer?
No. A septic system is permitted against the lot and the soil, not against what the house is framed with. An OSSF permit is needed before anyone builds, installs, alters, extends or repairs a system, and a local authorized agent may adopt standards stricter than state law or TCEQ rules, which then control where they give greater public health and safety protection.
The state rule carries an exemption that mostly does not reach here. Rule 30 TAC 285.3 exempts a system from planning materials, a permit and inspections when it serves a single-family house on a tract of at least 10 acres and every listed condition is met, including keeping all parts no closer than 100 feet to the property line. Travis, Burnet, Bastrop and Caldwell counties each permit every system whatever the size of the tract, which sets that exemption aside. Travis and Caldwell set a one acre minimum lot size for a home on septic; Bastrop sets half an acre with a public water supply and one acre without.
Near the lakes the permit comes from elsewhere. The Lower Colorado River Authority, a TCEQ authorized agent, regulates on-site sewage facilities within a 2,200-foot zone around the upper Highland Lakes and a 2,000-foot zone around Lake Travis, each built from a Restricted Zone plus a Water Quality Zone extending 2,000 feet horizontally beyond it. Five lakes are named in its rules: Buchanan, Inks, Lyndon B. Johnson, Marble Falls and Travis. Inside that jurisdiction a permit is required before any system is installed, no matter the lot size, and the authority asks for up to 30 days from the date the application is submitted. It is an agent in Travis, Burnet and Llano counties and does not appear in Williamson, Bastrop or Caldwell. One conflict is on the record: the authority's own pages say the Lake Travis zone is 2,000 feet, and Travis County is reported to say 1,000 feet. Check the address on the authority's searchable OSSF and watershed jurisdiction map before you plan a drainfield.
Anyone working in Texas as a septic installer, apprentice, maintenance provider or maintenance technician must be licensed or registered by TCEQ, and Caldwell County adds that only a licensed installer may build the system there. An aerobic unit needs a maintenance contract for the first two years; after that the owner may take it over, but only after taking the class and passing the test. The river authority requires an inspection on every transfer of ownership, which matters the day you sell. The permitting authority has to say yes or no to the application and its planning materials within 30 days of receiving them, in writing on a denial, with an appeal to its supervisory body.
TCEQ, Getting a Permit for an On-Site Sewage Facility, as read September 13, 2026.
Texas Health and Safety Code Sec. 366.032(b), as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ adopted rule text, 30 TAC Chapter 285, Rule Project No. 2021-030-285-CE, section 285.3, as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ OARS county search, identical entry returned for Travis, Burnet and Llano counties, as read September 13, 2026.
LCRA On-Site Sewage Facilities Program, as read September 13, 2026.
LCRA On-Site Sewage Facilities Rules, Section 6, Area of Jurisdiction, as read September 13, 2026.
LCRA On-Site Sewage Facilities Rules, Section 10.05(b), as read September 13, 2026.
LCRA On-site Sewage Rules Frequently Asked Questions, as read September 13, 2026.
LCRA Water Quality Jurisdictions map, as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ, Occupational Licenses: On-Site Sewage Facilities (Septic Systems), as read September 13, 2026.
Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources, Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Burnet County On-Site Sewage Facilities and Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Bastrop County Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Caldwell County Development Ordinance, revised February 14, 2023, as read September 13, 2026.
What do the Edwards Aquifer and the floodplain add on top?
The Edwards Aquifer Protection Program covers eight Texas counties, Travis and Williamson among them, handled in the Austin region by the TCEQ Austin Regional Office, phone (512) 339-2929. The recharge zone is where the aquifer rock layers surface, along with outcrops close by whose caves, sinkholes, faults or fractures could let surface water in. The contributing zone is the watershed upgradient of it.
Over the recharge zone, every regulated activity requires a Water Pollution Abatement Plan, with no acreage floor. On the contributing zone, the Contributing Zone Plan kicks in when activities disturb five or more acres or are part of a larger plan to develop or sell land under 30 TAC 213.21(b); below that, no aquifer plan is needed there. A site straddling the two is treated entirely as recharge zone. Administrative review can last as long as 30 days, a complete application then gets 90 days of technical review, and construction cannot begin until approval issues. A single-family residence may not need its own plan if it sits inside a master-planned community that already has an approved plan, or on more than five acres as the lot's single residence, or caps impervious cover at 20 percent of the legal property or less. Check the parcel on the TCEQ Edwards Aquifer Map Viewer, which prints a map you can submit with an application.
The floodplain is the other overlay. A permit is required before construction or development begins inside any Special Flood Hazard Area, and the floodplain administrator is responsible for ensuring development complies and that permits are applied for. The FEMA Flood Map Service Center is the official public source for flood hazard information, searchable by address. Land surveyors, architects and engineers authorized by law certify the Elevation Certificate, the NFIP tool that sets the flood insurance premium rate and documents elevation for compliance. Heights differ by county. Burnet requires one foot of freeboard above base flood elevation and recommends two in an A zone. Williamson requires a foot above base flood elevation, with a surveyor filing the FEMA certificate after the slab pour and again at completion. Bastrop requires two feet. Caldwell requires two feet above the adjoining base flood elevation for a home inside or within 300 feet of a floodplain. Travis wants a certificate before framing starts and a finished-construction certificate within 30 days. Llano requires a floodplain development permit in a mapped hazard area.
Impervious cover is the last trigger, and a shop house with a drive and a turnaround reaches it faster than a house alone. The Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance covers buildings, roads, paved storage areas and parking lots, plus clearing, excavating, grading, contouring and depositing fill, across the Lake Travis watershed in Travis County, the Colorado River watershed in Burnet County and a portion of Llano County above the Regulated Pool Elevation. A development permit is required if impervious cover will exceed 10,000 square feet and/or land disturbance will exceed one acre. A single-family residence under both files a written notification instead; over 10,000 square feet of impervious cover but still under one acre disturbed, that route holds only if the site meets the downstream buffer guidelines in the authority's technical manual. Eleven local governments administer part or all of the ordinance under interlocal agreements, so the permit that applies may not be the river authority's.
TCEQ GIS metadata, Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone - Chapter 213 Rules (TSMS), quoting 30 TAC 213.3(8), as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ Edwards Aquifer Protection Program home page, as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ GIS metadata, quoting 30 TAC 213.3(25), as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ GIS metadata, quoting 30 TAC 213.22(2), as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ, Water Pollution Abatement Plan page, as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ, What Plans You Might Need, recharge zone branch, as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ, Contributing Zone Plan page, as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ, Edwards Aquifer Protection Program: What Plans You Might Need, as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ, What Plans You Might Need, contributing zone branch, as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ, Edwards Aquifer Private Residences page, as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ, Edwards Aquifer Map Viewer page, as read September 13, 2026.
FEMA glossary, Permit for Floodplain Development, as read September 13, 2026.
FEMA, NFIP Floodplain Management Requirements study guide, Unit 7, as read September 13, 2026.
FEMA Flood Map Service Center, as read September 13, 2026.
FEMA 467-1, Floodplain Management Bulletin: Elevation Certificate, as read September 13, 2026.
FEMA, Elevation Certificate FAQ, October 2023, as read September 13, 2026.
LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance program page, as read September 13, 2026.
LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance, Section 1, Title and Scope, as read September 13, 2026.
LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance program page, Required notifications and permits, as read September 13, 2026.
LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance, Section 4.1(b), Written Notification, as read September 13, 2026.
LCRA Highland Lakes Watershed Ordinance program page, Interlocal agreements, as read September 13, 2026.
Burnet County On-Site Sewage Facilities and Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Williamson County frequently asked questions, County Engineer, as read September 13, 2026.
Bastrop County Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Caldwell County Development Ordinance, revised February 14, 2023, as read September 13, 2026.
Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources, Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Llano County Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Metal building home, post frame or stick frame: which one fits the tract?
Nothing in the county rules turns on the framing material: Travis County requires a permit for any development, and a Bastrop County development permit covers a house, a manufactured home, an RV and a tiny home alike. Permit, septic and driveway are the same obligations whichever system you frame with.
What decides it on a tract is how much clear span you need, what the soil does to the foundation design, who is available locally to erect each system, and what the appraiser can work with. An appraiser selects comparable sales that match the subject property's physical and legal characteristics, because sales in the same area are the best indicator of value. Where few truly comparable sales exist, whether the improvements are unusual or the neighborhood has few sales, the appraiser may use properties that are not truly comparable if the analysis is documented and explained.
The second decision is how much of the work you buy. A shell leaves frame, roof and skin standing with the interior unfinished; a turnkey contract runs through to a finished house. The permit and inspection obligations do not change between them, but who files them does, and the contract should say which party carries each one. The post-frame houses page covers that system on its own terms.
Fannie Mae Selling Guide, as read September 13, 2026.
Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources, Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Bastrop County Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Will a lender finance a metal building home in Texas?
Some lenders finance them and say so in writing. Texas Farm Credit states that it finances barndominiums, and offers Construction and Homesite Loans covering homes under construction and the homesite itself. Capital Farm Credit states it finances barndominiums and metal homes under its construction lending, and offers Homesite Loans for the lot alone.
Fannie Mae's Selling Guide recognizes single-closing construction-to-permanent financing, where the construction loan and the permanent mortgage close together and the construction loan converts automatically when building is finished. USDA Rural Development runs the Section 502 Direct Loan Program for lower-income applicants in eligible rural areas, plus a second Section 502 program that backs approved lenders making loans there. Check the address on the USDA property eligibility map first. The Veterans Land Board publishes exactly two loan programs for Veterans: Land Loans and Home Loans.
The appraisal is where these deals stall. An appraiser may not manufacture a comparable sale by adding a vacant land sale to the contract price of a home, a situation that comes up on construction-to-permanent deals. Ask the lender early which appraiser they use for steel framed homes in your county, and what happens to the loan if the appraisal lands under the contract.
Texas Farm Credit, as read September 13, 2026.
Texas Farm Credit, as read September 13, 2026.
Capital Farm Credit, as read September 13, 2026.
Capital Farm Credit, as read September 13, 2026.
Fannie Mae Selling Guide, as read September 13, 2026.
USDA Rural Development, as read September 13, 2026.
USDA Rural Development, as read September 13, 2026.
Texas Veterans Land Board, Texas General Land Office, as read September 13, 2026.
Fannie Mae Selling Guide, as read September 13, 2026.
What should you ask an independent builder before you sign?
Texas gives you no state builder license to check, so the questions and the contract do that work. Ask these before money moves, and get the answers in writing.
Which office issues the permit on this tract, and who files it? The answer changes by county, and again inside a city or its extraterritorial jurisdiction.
Which International Residential Code year does this build follow? A Travis County application states the year, adopting cities have each set their own, and Williamson County has adopted none for the unincorporated county.
Who contracts the inspections and who is the inspector? Where inspections are required the builder contracts them, not the county, and the inspector must be one of six listed qualified persons.
Which plumber and which electrician are on the job, and what are their license numbers? Look a plumber up in the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners search and an electrician through the TDLR license search.
Which licensed installer designs and builds the septic system? TCEQ's license lookup covers installers and maintenance providers, and its authorized agent county search returns every agent in your county and the area each one serves.
Is the tract on the aquifer recharge or contributing zone, and who prepares and files the plan? Construction cannot begin until approval issues, and technical review alone runs 90 days.
What happens to the contract price if the septic design moves the house, or if rock changes the trenching?
Office of the Texas Governor, Business Permit Office, Texas Business Licenses and Permits Guide, as read September 13, 2026.
Texas Local Government Code Sec. 233.154(a)(3), as read September 13, 2026.
Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, as read September 13, 2026.
Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ, On-site Sewage Facilities: Information for Regulators, as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ On-Site Activity Reporting System, search by county, as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ Edwards Aquifer Protection Program home page, as read September 13, 2026.
Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources, Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Williamson County frequently asked questions, County Engineer, as read September 13, 2026.
How do you get your lot looked at?
Start with the ground, not the building. The lot decides it: where the septic can go, what the slab must be designed for, whether any of it is in a mapped flood hazard area or an aquifer zone, and how the driveway meets the road. The land and lot evaluation page covers what to gather first.
Four public checks do most of the work before a phone call: the FEMA Flood Map Service Center for flood hazard, the TCEQ Edwards Aquifer Map Viewer for the zone question, the river authority's searchable jurisdiction map for lake septic jurisdiction, and TCEQ's authorized agent county search for who permits the septic in your county.
Then call the office by name: Llano County Development Services, Burnet County Development Services, the Williamson County Engineer's Office, Travis County TNR Development Services, Bastrop County Development Services, and for Caldwell County both Development Services and the Sanitation Department. Driveways are separate: your precinct commissioner in Llano and Burnet, Williamson County Road and Bridge, the Bastrop County engineering inspector, the Caldwell County Unit Road Department, Travis County TNR, and TxDOT for a driveway onto a state highway.
The locations page lists every county and town covered here. Have the permit, septic and floodplain answers in hand before you ask an independent builder for a bid.
FEMA Flood Map Service Center, as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ, Edwards Aquifer Map Viewer page, as read September 13, 2026.
LCRA Water Quality Jurisdictions map, as read September 13, 2026.
TCEQ On-Site Activity Reporting System, search by county, as read September 13, 2026.
Llano County Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Burnet County On-Site Sewage Facilities and Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Williamson County frequently asked questions, County Engineer, as read September 13, 2026.
Travis County Transportation and Natural Resources, Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Bastrop County Development Services, as read September 13, 2026.
Caldwell County Development Ordinance, revised February 14, 2023, as read September 13, 2026.
More for planning the house: turnkey barndominium construction.
Lot and permit questions
Does a metal building home need a building permit in Central Texas?
It depends on the county, not on the building material. Travis County requires a permit for any development. Bastrop and Llano counties require a development permit instead of a building permit. Burnet County issues a building permit in two classes set by the flood hazard area. Caldwell County requires a Residential Construction Permit. Williamson County issues none, but requires a Certificate of Compliance issued by the County Engineer first. Inside a city, city rules apply on top.
Can I skip the septic permit if my tract is big enough?
Usually not here. The state rule at 30 TAC 285.3 exempts a single-family house on a tract of at least 10 acres when a list of conditions is met, but Travis, Burnet, Bastrop and Caldwell counties permit every system whatever the size of the tract, and inside the Lower Colorado River Authority's jurisdiction a permit is required no matter the lot size.
Does a builder in Texas hold a state builder license?
No. Texas issues no state license for general contracting, and the Texas Residential Construction Commission no longer exists: it was abolished, and its enabling Act lapsed on September 1, 2009, though a city or county may still have requirements of its own. Plumbers, electricians and septic installers are licensed by the state and can be verified through TSBPE, TDLR and TCEQ.
Who inspects the house if the county does not?
Where inspections are required the builder contracts them, not the county, and the inspector must be one of six listed qualified persons. Travis County requires three third-party inspections at foundation, framing and mechanical, and completion. Bastrop County requires three private inspections at the same stages, under the standards its Commissioners Court adopted on September 14, 2009. Burnet County inspects only a Class B site inside a flood hazard boundary, one before the pour and one at the finish.
Will a lender finance a steel frame home?
Some will. Texas Farm Credit states it finances barndominiums and offers construction and homesite loans, and Capital Farm Credit states it finances barndominiums and metal homes under its construction lending. Fannie Mae's Selling Guide recognizes single-closing construction-to-permanent financing. The friction is usually the appraisal, because comparable sales for an unusual building type can be thin.
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