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Possible Blue Ocean? Affordable "tiny" housing park

Late Bloomer

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I wonder if a Tiny Home retirement village would be desirable

There are similar setups for what you've described, for people to bring their own RV's. The individual lots can have a little casita, with a regular kitchen and bathroom (the hardest rooms to get right in an RV), patio and picnic table, and storage shed. Community center has all the shuffleboard and bingo a retiree could want. Obviously the games will be different by the time Millennials are ready to retire.
 
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WJK

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Thanks, MJ for bringing this subject up. Affording housing is a huge issue. I'm not sure how the younger people are going to work this all out. Things have gotta change because things have gotta change. I know as a society that we have to find some new answers.
 

Pete799p

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Love it/think there's opportunity here. Worked on a project that ended up not penciling and have a friend who's building one in a resort town.

Regarding the Katrina cottage thing I think the issue might have been that real estate prices in those areas isn't expensive enough. If the cost of a traditional suburban home was out of reach new alternatives like this would probably have been better received.
 

MJ DeMarco

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Thanks, MJ for bringing this subject up. Affording housing is a huge issue.

You bet, just really think it's a great opportunity, not just for the affordable housing challenge, but getting people to reclaim some of their time. Younger people definitely would take a 3 day work week and 900 square feet over a 6 day work week and 3,000 square feet. If entrepreneurship wasn't my life, I know I would.
 
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CareCPA

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You bet, just really think it's a great opportunity, not just for the affordable housing challenge, but getting people to reclaim some of their time. Younger people definitely would take a 3 day work week and 900 square feet over a 6 day work week and 3,000 square feet. If entrepreneurship wasn't my life, I know I would.
This is true.
We just built a house - it's 1250 square feet.
Do you know how hard it is to find a floor plan for new construction under 3,000 square feet that has two full baths?
 

eliquid

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I've been thinking about this same thing for years.

Didn't have the funds to do it myself, so I sat on the idea. But I was going to do it for retirement age people and possible low income renters.

Good to see it brought up here though.
 

CareCPA

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I've been thinking about this same thing for years.

Didn't have the funds to do it myself, so I sat on the idea. But I was going to do it for retirement age people and possible low income renters.

Good to see it brought up here though.
If you go actual low-income housing, there are some pretty substantial tax credits available.
Normally how this would work is investors team up with a non-profit. The investors front all the money, the nonprofit manages it, and the investors get significant tax credits relative to their investment.
You can rehab after a certain number of years and get additional credits.

There are, of course, a bunch of requirements to be accepted into these programs.
 
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#nowhere

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You bet, just really think it's a great opportunity, not just for the affordable housing challenge, but getting people to reclaim some of their time. Younger people definitely would take a 3 day work week and 900 square feet over a 6 day work week and 3,000 square feet. If entrepreneurship wasn't my life, I know I would.


Exactly what I planned to do, because freedom > golden cage. Even if you are into entrepreneurship maintenance etc of 3000 sq feet is huge. Edit: and 900sq feet with quality furnishing > 3000sq feet with mediocre furnishing.I would chose Quality over quantity everytime regarding housing.

I dont know what about USA regarding numbers of single babyboomers getting to retirement age and their need for affordable housing w.o. the maintenance work. In Germany the trend is huge. Opportunity....
 
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Rob Tennant

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Nice idea MJ. I build luxury semi custom single family homes for a living and have been watching this tiny house trend grow over the past few years. I actually had my guys build one out of mostly scraps from the big houses-built it on a trailer and sold it for $6k. I got that idea after brainstorming one day while looking at dumpster after dumpster of lumber and materials being wasted. I thought about sheds, dog houses, bird houses, and landed on the tiny house idea after seeing them sell well on ebay and other channels. I have a ton of ideas in the home building industry. Lots of room for improvement.

I'm noticing a trend of young people waking up to the exorbitant costs of big houses, extravagant weddings, expensive wedding rings, huge expensive suv's, college, etc etc. Lots of opportunity here IMO.
 

Raoul Duke

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I keep bouncing this idea around my head, from time to time.

Build a tiny home community for the homeless or drug addicts.

I was thinking more along the lines of shipping containers though.
 
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Determined2012

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I keep bouncing this idea around my head, from time to time.

Build a tiny home community for the homeless or drug addicts.

I was thinking more along the lines of shipping containers though.

I always have housing ideas that surround homeless/displaced veterans.
Lots of predictable/consistent government support/assistance/resources.
 

Sauce

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According to Wikipedia a " tiny houses (less than 400 square feet (37 m2)), with some as small as 80 square feet (7.4 m2)."

I don't think the tiny house thing is a long term viable option, especially for older people.

Take a look at the picture of this loft. Imagine, when you are in your 70s, do you want to be crawling in and out of this loft to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night? Would you be ok having to climb over your partner have to duck down in order to climb down the stairs, not to mention there is a lack of a railing. Also, consider if you broke a bone (hip, arm, etc). How easy is it going to be to get in and out of the loft at that point?
loft.jpg
Now consider the bathroom. There is no storage, the tub is so tiny that it is almost unuseable, no counter space, and this is my personal favorite space saver the toilet sink combo. No thank you.

A lot of these are essentially home built, gypsy vans. You could get an amazing builder, and you could get one from a hack. Plus at the price for most of these you are better off buying an RV.

toilet.jpg

Here is what I can get behind. Well thought out stick built small homes. According to wikipedia a small house movement "is a return to houses of less than 1,000 square feet (93 m2). Frequently, the distinction is made between small (between 400 square feet (37 m2) and 1,000 square feet (93 m2)."

In this amount of space, you can easily have 1 bedroom, 1 full size bathroom, and a kitchen. When you reach 1,000 SF you can have 2 good size bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms with a nice kitchen.

I have a few thoughts on the 55+ community aspect as well. There is one in NM that was built in the 1970s. Amazing community (in 1970), indoor pool, walking trails, etc. As time has gone on, and the residents have started to pass on, it has fallen in to disrepair and looks old and dated. I think this is an inherent problem with these types of communities. I would be interested to hear from the folks in AZ about what a well managed 55+ community in AZ is like @Red @MJ DeMarco
 

MJ DeMarco

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I don't think the tiny house thing is a long term viable option, especially for older people.

I wasn't referring to a tiny house community as advertised today (basically SHEDS with lofts) but small houses, < 1000 square feet. I'm going for the feel/look of a house, not a tent! ;)
 
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Blackadder

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Yeah the whole 400 feet thing comes from how big a house can you move without needing a permit to take it on the road, in the US the biggest you can go is 400 feet or a "park" model (Canada ca go to 540 feet which ends up ever so much more room.)

My wife and I looked seriously and we decided we need at least 600 feet between us to not feel like we are tripping on each other. only a few mobile homes get that small and almost no "tiny houses" get that large.
 

MTF

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IGP

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It seems to me the biggest benefit of a tiny home, besides the significant reduction in costs, was the portability.

Isn't that the actual trend? Vagabond around in your tiny home and enjoy all the adventures of life on the road, especially with younger folks?
 

4x4ord

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It seems to me the biggest benefit of a tiny home, besides the significant reduction in costs, was the portability.

Isn't that the actual trend? Vagabond around in your tiny home and enjoy all the adventures of life on the road, especially with younger folks?

I think the original appeal to Tiny homes was the concept of portability, but I think the reality is that trailer built "tiny homes" are heavy to tow, awkward on the road and tough to find an appealing place that allows extended stay and hook up to sewer, power and water.

There appears to be two camps; people that want just to lose their house payment and live a low impact, low cost lifestyle. Then there is people that want mobility along with losing the house payment. I believe the people that want mobility are buying airstreams and RV's and the people in the low cost camp are buying/ building permanent houses with cash.

The other piece to this Tiny house movement is with investors. 400 - 1000sf houses are super appealing to renters. Here n the PNW they are renting like crazy for close to the same rates as much larger houses
 

MJ DeMarco

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There appears to be two camps; people that want just to lose their house payment and live a low impact, low cost lifestyle. Then there is people that want mobility along with losing the house payment.

Funny thing, losing the house payment and having a low cost lifestyle implicitly has mobility attached to it. You can afford to travel, leave, buy an RV, etc.

The concept has to be really appealing to folks, especially people who are starting to see the Scripted scam, yet, want nothing to do with owning a business.
 
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QDF

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I wasn't referring to a tiny house community as advertised today (basically SHEDS with lofts) but small houses, < 1000 square feet. I'm going for the feel/look of a house, not a tent! ;)
This sounds a lot like some retirement communities/senior living near me. They call them "cottages" and have both independent living and a nursing home that all their residents are guaranteed spots at when necessary.

Older people move here from all over to live there, and they bring in some serious money.

I have family that lives there. The cottages are less than 1000 sq ft, they start at around $100k, and you're required to pay a maintenance fee of at least $1,000 a month while you're living there too. Yet they still have a long waiting list.

I've always thought there were plenty of areas this can be done differently and improved upon though - applied to different, younger age groups, eliminated the maintenance fee with people doing maintenance themselves, etc. I've looked into this a lot the past several years, particularly building multiple smaller houses like this myself in different areas of the country I like and then traveling between them.

There's no doubt that there's a serious trend moving toward smaller, more affordable living.
 
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NaPal

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This is true.
We just built a house - it's 1250 square feet.
Do you know how hard it is to find a floor plan for new construction under 3,000 square feet that has two full baths?
In my area the smallest new home you'll find is around ~2000 sqft.
Since I've known this, I've always thought there has to be a huge market for smaller new construction homes. Something along the lines of 2BR, 1 BA, +loft, 1000 sqft.
 

mwimmersive

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I think this is definitely a possible blue ocean... The only thing you'd be competing with are other housing parks, but as tinyhousing park it's a big differentiator and kind of different business altogether. I think the next step would be figuring out how to test if this is something people are genuinely looking for... You could create some kind of smoke and mirrors test, create some targeted Facebook ads saying "Live in A Tiny Home Community Today" and see how many click-throughs you get. If a ton of people go through the link, that would be pretty good validation to me!
 
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mwimmersive

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I think this is definitely a possible blue ocean... The only thing you'd be competing with are other housing parks, but as tinyhousing park it's a big differentiator and kind of different business altogether. I think the next step would be figuring out how to test if this is something people are genuinely looking for... You could create some kind of smoke and mirrors test, create some targeted Facebook ads saying "Live in A Tiny Home Community Today" and see how many click-throughs you get. If a ton of people go through the link, that would be pretty good validation to me!
You can always see the work we try to pitch to clients (as an example of something that's definitely NOT a Blue Ocean, haha) here: Work - Midwest Immersive
 

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If you read Blue Ocean, (recommended read in the bookstore) I was thinking that this might be a "possible" Blue Ocean...

Cross a mobile home park with an gated HOA community and the TINY HOUSE trend...

So this would be a bit more upscale, featuring tiny homes (< 1000 square ft) and with an HOA to help assist managing "rift raft" and other things associated with mobile home parks.

There's a growing trend among young people who recognize that a big house and a big mortgage simply isn't worth it anymore. As a result, we've seen big growth in the Tiny House trend as more and more people seek travel and experiences, other than being house broke.

Could a "tiny house" park be a possible Blue Ocean? Obviously the dirt is in the details and the branding so it doesn't cross into the realm of a trailer park.

Thoughts?

Never read the Blue Ocean book but have also had the idea of a green housing gated community (off grid, growing own food etc). So I also like this spin esp tying it in with the tiny house trend.
Don't know if I would pitch to the low income/mobile home market...as someone pointed out..security risks and may end up not being a great vibe if some of the wrong people move in.
The 55+ mentioned here is a good angle. Mine would be to pitch it more as an alternative lifestyle community to young 'hipsters' (sorry for the horrible labels) who share common values of minimalism, high quality lifestyle over big house and mortgage. So, they may be ok with paying more than a trailer park rate to know that they would be among like minded people (educated and alternative). They may also be less fussy than the over 55 crowd in terms of demanding comforts and be less of a liability.
Could leasing/selling the units as cabins/holiday homes help to bypass construction codes?
 

JunkBoxJoey_JBJ

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Option A:

MOVE IN - FL Tiny Home Park Grand Opening!!!

HOA Rules:

*You've read TMF & UNSCRIPTED
*You are in "hybrid" transition to FL
*You downsized here to get grip on your overspending/scripted life
*You sold your big house
*You have to have a CENTS business or start one after moving in

Property and Grounds:

*There is a FL Club House with a shared workspace for creative ideas and woking together; must show up everyday until you create your level of FL and return to the property and help others after you have "moved" out.

*There is a HOA (gate - INSIDERS) cost, but the cost is minimal to the rewards you gather when you take action.

Option B:

...OR just create a FORUM and live where you want ; )

So, does the Tiny House Blue Ocean already exist?

If you read Blue Ocean, (recommended read in the bookstore) I was thinking that this might be a "possible" Blue Ocean...

Cross a mobile home park with an gated HOA community and the TINY HOUSE trend...

So this would be a bit more upscale, featuring tiny homes (< 1000 square ft) and with an HOA to help assist managing "rift raft" and other things associated with mobile home parks.

There's a growing trend among young people who recognize that a big house and a big mortgage simply isn't worth it anymore. As a result, we've seen big growth in the Tiny House trend as more and more people seek travel and experiences, other than being house broke.

Could a "tiny house" park be a possible Blue Ocean? Obviously the dirt is in the details and the branding so it doesn't cross into the realm of a trailer park.

Thoughts?
 
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Rabby

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I like it. I looked at the codes for my county, and I could build a 500sf tiny home and still meet the space requirements for 2 adults and a child (600 might be more reasonable considering kitchen space etc). To keep the adults sane, perhaps you build them on slightly large lots compared to the tiny houses, so the kids can be tossed out to play. Have a lodge / town hall type building and some shared executive suites that are part of the HOA/condo dues? I don't know if I would live in one year round, but I would at least stay in one.

One aesthetic concern... what does it look like when someone parks an F250 with a boat trailer next to the tiny house? Or a pickup plus a mini-van? Can you even see the tiny house? Parking or vehicle storage, and ingress and egress are worth some extra thought, considering that vehicles could take up comparatively more space in a "tiny house" neighborhood.

Also, I love Blue Ocean Strategy.
 
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Lex DeVille

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It might be worth looking into 3D printed housing at this point rather than building small houses because they're inexpensive. Even if you're set on tiny houses then 3D printing still might cut costs. Not sure if you can buy these yet. Maybe a Kickstarter project?

 

Rabby

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I'll pay admission to watch them 3D printing houses... that's a bit of funding right there :)
 
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LittleWolfie

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It might be worth looking into 3D printed housing at this point rather than building small houses because they're inexpensive. Even if you're set on tiny houses then 3D printing still might cut costs. Not sure if you can buy these yet. Maybe a Kickstarter project?

You can buy the 3d printers from Russia. One house every 24 hours

Here's one going up
View: https://youtu.be/GUdnrtnjT5Q
 

MJ DeMarco

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