Living in a tiny house.

Robert59

Robert59

Well-known Member
Location
Now I live in Tennesee. Did live in Michigan.
Thinking about selling my 1300 square house and buying a tiny house. Wondering if this is a good idea? I could get a lot more money for my house right now and just buy this tiny house and live in it for 4 years till everything gets back to normal and then go out and and buy a normal house.

https://tinyhouselistings.com/listings/new-micro-tiny-house-with-everything-needed-to-live-tiny

https://tinyhouselistings.com/listings/28-aspen-by-homestead-tiny-house
 

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Questions to ask yourself:

  • How much space do I need?
  • Can I live cramped?
  • What to do with my belongings?
  • How much more ahead will I be after downsizing?
  • Will I be guaranteed to find a similar affordable home for myself when the time comes to buy again?
  • How much energy and time am I prepared to commit to redoing another home for myself in the future?

You sound so sure that in four years all will return to normal, Robert. What if it doesn't?
 
The lodge my late husband built in Colorado was 2000 sq ft. Of course, at the time,I was working 50 -60 hrs a week and couldn't enjoy it. It was hard to keep on top of keeping everything clean.
Now, I live in a small home (NOT A TINY HOUSE) and all I have to do is remember everything has it's own place. It's easy and fun to live in a small place. Of course Ihave a huge studio and gallery in another building. Guess that makes a difference.
It's clean,open and cheerful.
I'd hate to live in a large place if I were all alone. I think I would feel "empty". The extra money you save can buy window treatments, porches and overhangs,landscaping, floor coverings, etc.
You may not want to leave after four years! This place was supposed to be "temporary" and I'm still here.
You may want to think about something "in-between" in size.
 

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If a person lives alone, and just needs a place to eat, sleep, and shower, then a small house would probably suffice. However, these "tiny" houses, such as shown in the first image....112 sq. ft. and No bathroom....would be about as useless as a small camper that weekenders might use to visit a campground. Even the one in the 2nd image...224 sq. ft. for $62K is a rip-off....costs about $275/sq.ft. for little more than a small camper. AND, you still have to find a place to put it which has water, power, sewage disposal, etc., etc.

For the price of these "toys", a person could rent a small apartment, and be better off.
 
If you bought a tiny house, you’d need to buy land, set up the septic, electric, etc. Probably would need a shed and a garage and ….

It would be much less expensive to buy a decent small RV. Then try to find a place to park it. It won’t be easy.
 
Where do you plan to put the tiny home?

Space in an RV park will run you somewhere between $400-$700, plus you probably will have to pay your electricity. You can "boondock" in a COA park for anywhere from free (no utilities) to maybe $5 a night (still no utilities). You might find a state or county park for $200-$400 a month, but you might have to move every 14 days.

A lot of people plan to put their tiny home on someone's property, but very few municipalities allow that. You might get away with it for a while, but the neighbors will eventually rat you out...LOL. You might be able to buy some cheap land waaay out in the boonies where there's not many restrictions, but do you really want to be 40 miles from a grocery store?

If you have a flush toilet, you'll need to be able to hook up to utilities (RV park). If you have a composting toilet, you're going to have to clean it out regularly. If you have a camping toilet, you're going to have to dump it quite often.

What are you going to do about electricity? Hook-ups mean staying somewhere with utilities. Solar panels aren't cheap and unless you have enough of them, you aren't going to be able to power much.

If you're going to have to move it around, you need the right kind of vehicle to pull it.

How about storage? That first tiny home looks like it has absolutely NO storage. No drawers for your clothes, no closet. It also doesn't have a real bed.

The second tiny house has more space, but do you really want to go up and down those steps to the "bedroom" and crawl into bed? That gets really old really fast.

Tiny homes are cute and trendy and very, very hip, but not very practical.
 
A tiny home does sound appealing. But, those shown are way too small for my liking.

Do you really want to climb down a ladder in the middle of the night to use the bathroom?

Maybe something 400-500 sq ft, sounds reasonable.
 
Currently it’s a ‘sellers market’ in most of North America. Due to Covid people are moving out of their homes to find more space and to give them some ‘peace of mind,’ and in this ever changing world we live in NOW is a great time to sell.

Like jujube states, there’s a LOT to think about but having said that, with some well thought out research, which you are clearly good at, you could work this out.

Since this pandemic, many people are realizing they can work from home which is changing how people think about work. People now are able to shift about a lot more since so many more options are open. You’re retired so have more options.

A sellers market automatically puts a home up by 10 to 20% but with this pandemic house prices have sky rocketed. In correspondence banks have dropped interest rates causing many to sell their over priced city dwelling in favour of a rural setting thats far cheaper. Instead of ‘move West young man’ it’s now move east old man’ or any person for that matter.

With a bit of tweaking, it’s an awesome idea.
You don’t necessarily need a tiny home though. Your samples leave much to be desired.
Maybe just a different area.
 
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There are tons of YouTube videos about tiny houses that I used to watch. You would be surprised on how some people have designed them to suit their needs. Some people buy land, some put it on a relative or friend's land, some put it in one of those tiny home communities that have popped up all over the place and are quite nice. They are usually more than an rv. This is one I really liked.

 
One thing I know from Rv'ing this country, if you pulled into a campground, LTVA BLM site, or state forest, with one of those rigs pictured, you would be sent packing. None of the above will allow a rig that is not self contained (holding tanks mainly).
Another problem that keeps cropping up is local zoning regulations. People have purchased tiny homes, set them up somewhere and then found they don't fit the currant zoning laws. :(
Now, my own opinion, having drove my big RV box in the wind, I wouldn't want to be hauling that thing behind my pickup truck in windy conditions, or trucking down the interstate when a big rig blows by. :eek:



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Robert59 said:
Thinking about selling my 1300 square house and buying a tiny house. Wondering if this is a good idea? I could get a lot more money for my house right now and just buy this tiny house and live in it for 4 years till everything gets back to normal and then go out and and buy a normal house.
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I think it is a cool idea, and if you have a place to park it I'd say go for it!

That said you have gotten a lot of good sobering advice here, so lots to think about. As to the real estate market, I would bet you are right; you can likely sell your house today and buy it back in a few years for less. But then I have lost most real estate bets I have made, so take that one with as few grains of salt as possible!

Let us know what you end up doing, and post pictures if you pull the trigger.
 
There is tiny and tiny. 150 SF with a ladder and loft. No way. But you get 350-400+ SF and you are getting livable. I'd have to have sleeping area downstairs. A loft with stairs would be fine. Storage and the cats would love it.

For all the talk I hear about affordable housing in California, nothing is being done. Just larger homes and apartment complexes. Nothing for single people really. Nothing to buy unless you have plenty of money.

Some of these tiny houses I agree are ridiculously priced. I see tile back splashes, fancy counters. Give me plain and usable. I can live with that.
 
Remy said:
There is tiny and tiny. 150 SF with a ladder and loft. No way. But you get 350-400+ SF and you are getting livable. I'd have to have sleeping area downstairs. A loft with stairs would be fine. Storage and the cats would love it.

For all the talk I hear about affordable housing in California, nothing is being done. Just larger homes and apartment complexes. Nothing for single people really. Nothing to buy unless you have plenty of money.

Some of these tiny houses I agree are ridiculously priced. I see tile back splashes, fancy counters. Give me plain and usable. I can live with that.
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I agree, Remy, about nothing being done about affordable housing here in Calif. There is a great big, fancy new apt. complex going in here in my town, not only a swimming pool & clubhouse but also what looks (from the artist's rendering) to be tennis courts and maybe a mini golf putting green. And they're going to have huge apartments, even some 3 bedr. & 2 bath units. The problem with places like that is, even if you can afford it, places like that are really attractive to great big old property development corporations to buy and turn into condominiums. So then you'd either be having to move to another place or come up with the money to buy in. So not really a solution to the affordable housing problem for most people.
 
officerripley said:
I agree, Remy, about nothing being done about affordable housing here in Calif. There is a great big, fancy new apt. complex going in here in my town, not only a swimming pool & clubhouse but also what looks (from the artist's rendering) to be tennis courts and maybe a mini golf putting green. And they're going to have huge apartments, even some 3 bedr. & 2 bath units. The problem with places like that is, even if you can afford it, places like that are really attractive to great big old property development corporations to buy and turn into condominiums. So then you'd either be having to move to another place or come up with the money to buy in. So not really a solution to the affordable housing problem for most people.
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No it sure isn't. I mentioned before here that there was a triangle of property for sale for years in my town. But after the fires it sold and I can't believe how many apartment units they crammed on that piece of land and what they renting them for.

I'm getting scared I'll never find anything that suits me. They could start a new mobile park but I see nothing. And due to my stepfather, I'm trapped in this town. And I don't want to end up in low income senior housing. I may some day but for now it's now what I'm wanting.
 
You might think a tiny house will be easier to keep clean but you'd be wrong. Vacuuming a small space and negotiating around furniture is very frustrating, and it's impossible to keep things tidy.
 
Remy said:
No it sure isn't. I mentioned before here that there was a triangle of property for sale for years in my town. But after the fires it sold and I can't believe how many apartment units they crammed on that piece of land and what they renting them for.

I'm getting scared I'll never find anything that suits me. They could start a new mobile park but I see nothing. And due to my stepfather, I'm trapped in this town. And I don't want to end up in low income senior housing. I may some day but for now it's now what I'm wanting.
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My heart goes out to you. There are actually a couple of low-income senior housing places here that are okay but they've usually got a 2-year waiting list. Something really, really needs to be done about affordable housing; it's a disgrace.
 
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) are known by many names: granny flats, in-law units, backyard cottages, secondary units, et. al. Many cities in the San Francisco Bay Area are starting (or already have) loosened up permitting requirements for them. The San Jose and Peninsula counties are hot areas for these. The East Bay county I live in has just changed its policies and now encourages them.

They are not cheap to put up here, because of the cost of labor (even manufactured ones) and land costs. As pointed out, you need to run sewer and utilities, even for an ADU. Still, it can be done for $100K-250K, which is a lot less than buying a house or condo.

My niece is considering putting one on her property for her dad. His home is not elderly-friendly but with a 180-degree view of the San Francisco Bay, Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge, and beautiful Spanish Colonial architecture, the RE profit would easily pay for it - even in a down market.

I think that "betting on RE bubbles collapsing" is akin to timing the stock market. You might be lucky, but again......you might not be. Only you (or a good RE agent) can judge what the past history of your particular area is like.

No matter what the economy, as the saying goes, "they aren't making any more land." 80% of the world's population lives on 20% of the land mass. There is always demand for the coastal areas, for example. It doesn't matter if you're building horizontally (SFHs) or vertically (hi-rises); demand may ebb for a while but simple inflation will rule, sooner or later.
 
Don M. said it, Those "tiny" houses will get tinier and tinier every day! You MIGHT be able to camp out there for a while, even with a mate, if you're REALLY FRIENDLY, but I'd look for something a little bit larger. If you can, get something on your own piece of property,private, get a septic tank, natural gas, city water or a well, you'll have your own "little diggins"!
 
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