Tiny home living is not an easy reality

S

Son_of_Perdition

Senior Member
As I've pointed out on a few posts here & on Facebook the dynamics of 'tiny homes' is not what it's cracked up to be. First, the cost - the homes highlighted on TV reality have starting prices of $50,000. Second, unless you have EXCELLENT credit very few financial institutions will finance a tiny home (resale value), they will a mobile home or RV. Third, cities are creating laws & restrictions to block the parking of them in their locales. Fourth, if you have enough to buy one outright most people will opt for a permanent home.

The 'tiny home' industry says, see here. One seller said he has only sold 5 in the last 5 years, another has sold 12 in the same time frame. The units are not flying off the shelves. The shows are like the reality shows I've given up on because of the lame activities that are depicted. I watched 'Pawn Stars', 'American Pickers', 'Storage Wars' to name a few. My SIL watches IRT, golding hunting (name escapes me) & others. The luster has worn off when I researched & found out the reality is mostly fake.

I'm burning my baseball cap supposedly signed by the 'Ol Man' that I picked up on a trip to Vegas years ago. I couldn't wear it now even if I wanted, no one wants to look intentionally foolish. Fake, fake, fake even to the point that I wonder if 'Keeping up with the Kardashians' is real. We all admit that the evening news is biased towards whatever the owners want to support. Politics is slanted & unrealistic.

Is there NO honest 'men' anymore. It’s like when someone says that’s not normal, you tell me what is ‘Normal’?
 

When tiny homes were a brand new idea you could buy one for around $10K (starting/stock price) plus labor, and the labor had a cap...6 weeks to completion, I think, and no extra charges if the build took longer. Now that the price has inflated and affordable legitimate locations are scarce, people are opting to put the same money down on small older homes.
 
I have become very interested in this over the past few years. The hubby and I are still in our own home but if something should happen to him I really wouldn't be able to maintain it nor would I want such a large place. Best case scenario would be that my Son could take over the house and I could build a mini house in the back of this one. We have an acre of property. I know it may not be allowed here. I haven't looked into it.I really would like to live by myself for as long as possible. I found those mini homes very appealing just from photos.. My daughter would love to have me live with her but her husband is in the military and I'm sure they will be moving many times over. I'm to old for that. I find your thread very interesting,I'm glad you posted it.
 

They would be nice for a second home, for use as a studio or something along those lines. It's a novel idea--living simple and keeping only a few things that make you happy. It doesn't appear that many people are willing to take that drastic step and there have been a lot of problems preventing them from becoming saleable. They do show some rather cute ones online but sometimes even houses look a lot bigger given a skilled photographer. I'd be concerned about resale value--or are they meant to be disposable?
 
I had looked into possible tiny home retirement communities, but there's not much out there that's legitimate, in places I'd consider moving to or more than just mobile home parks. In Maine, and other places I imagine, small houses, 500 to 900 sf, have gained quite a following, and it looks like those are easier to get approved. Of course in Maine we have unorganized townships where you can pretty much build whatever you want. In colder climates like here, I'm not convinced a tiny house would be a good idea, but I love the concept and that some people were willing to try it.
 
bluebreezes said:
I had looked into possible tiny home retirement communities, but there's not much out there that's legitimate, in places I'd consider moving to or more than just mobile home parks. In Maine, and other places I imagine, small houses, 500 to 900 sf, have gained quite a following, and it looks like those are easier to get approved. Of course in Maine we have unorganized townships where you can pretty much build whatever you want. In colder climates like here, I'm not convinced a tiny house would be a good idea, but I love the concept and that some people were willing to try it.
Click to expand...

Tiny homes are easy to heat, though. I looked at one that had a little wood-burning fireplace and when the sales guy demonstrated how it works the tiny house felt like a big oven within 10 minutes. Then he showed how to reduce the heat by reducing the flow of air to the fire.
 
Yeah no doubt you get heat them easily, but I'd be concerned with no insulation under the house and no place to store dry wood. You sure don't want to be going out to a woodpile at 2 AM in a storm. I'm all for the concept though. I was really hoping to see lots of communities springing up around the country.
 
bluebreezes said:
Yeah no doubt you get heat them easily, but I'd be concerned with no insulation under the house and no place to store dry wood. You sure don't want to be going out to a woodpile at 2 AM in a storm. I'm all for the concept though. I was really hoping to see lots of communities springing up around the country.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I didn't like the wood-heat feature.
 
They are definitely cute as all get out, but I just can't see people of retiree age climbing up ladders and crawling on their hands and knees to go to bed.

I would like to see a study that showed the percentage of tiny home owners who go back to regular sized homes within a year.

On the shows, you'll frequently see people exclaiming that they now have a home that they can move all over the country. Well, technically yes, but practically no. Actual RV trailers are made to take the stress and torque of being moved frequently....these tiny homes aren't. Move them more than a couple of times and I would bet you'd see some stuff separating and falling off.
 
If you have the room to build a small house on your own property is it a good idea for a relative. Here we are allowed to build, the municipality checks the size of your property and then says how big you can go . However you have to be on main drainage, they will not give permission if on a septic tank.

We did it 5 years ago for my SIL mother but she died before it was finished. It has sat empty since apart from a couple of times we have had overseas visitors but I am moving into it in a couple of weeks as I find the stairs in the main house too much for me now..my daughter and her husband will stay in the main house.

However it is not cheap to build, the cottage was a lot more than the tiny houses ,and it is a full size house, it just doesn't have as many rooms as most houses built today ours was built exactly to match the main house which is 9 years old and to the same high standard. It has 2 bedrooms, kitchen, living room, small eating area, laundry room etc, the room are full size rooms of course. We used every inch the municipality would allow, but it was of course cheaper to build than if we had to go and find land to put it on.

I have watched the shows on the TV and it baffles me as to why someone doesn't but a mobile home ,some of them are lovely , much nicer that some of the tiny homes.

Building what they call here a carriage house which is what I have is a good move if someone is getting on and need to be close but private.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top